8MB Cache IDE drives - worth it?

[dajo]

Maxtor's 8MB 80GB ATA133 drive has some rebates now. Can get it for about $125 shipped.

Do you think the performance boost would even be noticeable over the 2MB ATA133 version of the drive?

 

[Dogsbody]

I noticed a substantial speed difference when I went to a Western Digital drive with the 8MB cache.

 

[dajo]

Interesting... Some users have said it only matters if you are loading large files.

Was that speed difference pretty much across the board in general performance of your rig?

 

[Tab]

If move around and use large files you will for sure notice a big difference. I highly recommend any of WD's Special Edition HDs...

 

[Mrdzone]

i would say i the 'upgrade' is under around $30 between the two drives go up you'll be happy in the end and you can be rest assured the 8mb's will hold their value longer

 

[dajo]

Thanks for the advice. Sounds good to me, but I'm curious. Does anyone here know anything about the comparison between the WDC Special Editions and the Maxtor 8MB drives? Seems like the Maxtor version is new, at least to me, and I was wondering which way to go. Maxtor is ATA133, but I've heard that doesn't really matter as that speed is never really achieved anyway. Seek time on the WDC is a little slow according to reviews, although the drive makes up for it with the 8MB buffer, but I thought possibly the Maxtor would even beat the WDC as it now has the 8MB buffer also.

I cannot find any reviews of the Maxtor 8MB Ultra drives anywhere.

Anyone know of any reviews comparing these WDCs and Maxtors?

Also, would the size matter as far as performance goes? By that I mean, would there be any difference between a WDC Special Edition 40GB vs 60GB vs 80GB drive?

Thank you for sharing your knowledge with me. I appreciate it as I plan to purchase very soon.

 

[Jeomite]

From my own personal experience, I favor Western Digital over Maxtor.

I have had Maxtor drives dying on me (one died on me a few months ago).

Western Digital hasn't failed me once yet, and I currently running three WDs and one (RMA'd) Maxtor...

 

[Kingofcomputer]

For 80GB, it's just $10 difference, it's worth to get 8MB cache version.
Unless you're building 100s PC, that could save you $1000s = make $1000s more profit if your client doesn't know about computer.

 

[dajo]

Thanks. I've had good luck with Maxtors although sometimes they are a bit noisey. On the other hand it seems that the WDCs I've used seemed to go on forever.

The only review I can find is this one, and it's not really a review at all. It does state that it beats out the WDC Special Edition but that's about it. Difference is probably minimal and the WDC is pretty much tried and true with a lot of user reviews which are, for the most part, extremely positive.

Have ordered 80GB WDC SE from Newegg. Will sell my 40GB Maxtor DX-740 which is under a three year warranty!

Should be a noticeable improvement in speed - at least it won't hurt any.

 

[kendogg]

Originally posted by: Jeomite
From my own personal experience, I favor Western Digital over Maxtor.

I have had Maxtor drives dying on me (one died on me a few months ago).

Western Digital hasn't failed me once yet, and I currently running three WDs and one (RMA'd) Maxtor...

Wow thats the total opposite from me. I had a 27.7 WD expert drive die on me (Back from the value america deal) and just recently I had a 40GB WD die on me. Had crucial data on their but was never able to recover. On the other hand never had my maxtors die on me.

 

[DoubleL]

I put a Western Digital SE in a couple weeks ago cause I move a lot of pictures and wave files, I saw no diff. at all over the 2 mag cache drives so I run some test and even lost some HD speed both cached and non cached

 

[BurnItDwn]

Ive had WD, Maxtor, IBM, and Quantum drives die on me at one time or another ... Heck i even had a Seagate die (it was over 10 years old and i didnt need it by any means) ... pretty much every drive has its faults ... if your primary concern is that the drive will last a long time than you have to go with scsi ... If you want bang for the buck ... avoid IBM75GXP and 60GXP ... go with any other 7200RPM IDE Drive ... for added speed I have hat great luck with the WD SE drives ... but i havent had any of the 8mb Maxtors ... I assume that if i had a pair of those instead of my WDs ... I'd like them just the same.

 

[Darein]

I use the WD Special Ed and I don't really notice an increase in day to day use. It helps encoding files a little bits, and its nice to know its there.

 

[JSang]

definatly worth it for such a small difference in price...if u go western digtal...the SE versions also carry a longer warranty

 

[link26]

different brand drives die for different people. You will find people complaining about dead drives no matter what brand you look at.

However, NOTE that maxtor 8mb drives have only a ONE year warranty.

WD special edition drives come with 3 year standard warranty.

If you want a little extra assurance, you might wanna go with WD.

Maxtor does offer the option of purchasing an extended warranty though. and the Maxtors do have liquid bearings.

So you do the math.......

 

[TheCorm]

I got WD Caviar SE 40gb recently.....I don't notice much difference in day to day use....it's a bit noisier than my 60gb Maxtor too.

Corm

edit: changed nosier to noisier.....damn those nosey hard drives!

 

[sbw]

Heat is the biggest enemy of ALL components. Once HD's get past the first couple of months of spinning, most drive failures are a result of heat. This happens regardless of brand. I have always mounted 3.5" drives onto rail adapters so that they can be mounted in 5.25" bays. Mounted in this fashion, the drives have far greater air curculation when compared to being mounted in the confined space of a 3.5" drive "enclosures".

 

[dajo]

Just to follow up...

Ordered the WDC 80GB SE from newegg, then started looking at SCSI drives and ordered the Cheetah 18.6GB 15k.3 and controller from hypermicro. The SCSI has not arrived yet but I set up the WDC SE yesterday.

First of all, the Data Lifeguard Tools installation software is very nice. It partitioned, formatted and copied an existing hard drive image (~26GB) in about 8 minutes, or so. Booted right into Windows on new drive and have used it since without problem.

This drive is very fast; much faster than the Maxtor 80GB 5400 and noticeably faster than the Maxtor 40GB ATA133 drive. It scores 37914 in SoftSandra, as compared to about 26k for the Maxtor DX-740. More important than synthetic scoring, its speed advantage over the Maxtor ATA133 drive is obvious in everything I do on my rig. Apps load faster - everything is significantly quicker now. Even my browser pages load more quickly. I'll replace my 80GB Maxtor 5400 with this one and boot of the soon-to-be here SCSI drive. I use this drive for storage and for large video digital files.

It makes a slight whinning noise which I fixed by placing it on some foam at the base of my case. Might increase heat a slight amount but I can no longer hear it above the ps fans.

I highly recommend this drive for those who are considering it.

 

[dejacky]

If WD has 2 year longer warranty than Maxtor, I would buy the WD drive although my I've had crappy response time problems with western digital drives in the past and my maxtor d740x is fast I love it. I might just buy another one!

 

[Dogsbody]

Sorry I didn't get back to you sooner, Dajo. This darn working for a living sure gets in the way sometimes! I'm glad that you got the drive and are happy with it. I noticed the same speed improvements that you mentioned. Now for some faster RAM......

 

[everman]

It should improve on the speed of loading any programs or any other large files. The only way it would improve overall system performance is if you were using a lot of virtual memory, in which case you need more ram.