Fast 20GB ATA/100 drives?

[IntelConvert]

I was wondering if any ATA/100 drives in the 20GB range are anywhere near as fast as the more current larger IDE drives? Or are they all dogs by today's standards?

 

[Jhhnn]

The smaller drives with 2meg cache are just about as fast as their larger brethren, except for the large drives with 8meg cache buffers. Rotational speed is the more important factor. Check out the archives at storagereview.com.

Drives smaller than 40gig are getting hard to find, and expensive in terms of gigs/$.

 

[SUOrangeman]

The GB/$ ratio will always go down. Why? Because the cost of hard drives *NEVER* go down. The drives only increase in overall capacity. Manufacturers eventually phase out older/smaller models when they can effectively produce larger models with no change to their production costs.

www.storagereview.com => database for comparisons of drives old and new.

-SUO

 

[senior guy]

Originally posted by: Jhhnn
The smaller drives with 2meg cache are just about as fast as their larger brethren, except for the large drives with 8meg cache buffers. Rotational speed is the more important factor....

I've got to disagree with that. Sure rotatational speed dictates latency and that is important, However, platter density is equally important and the fact is that the larger drives of today have much denser platters than earlier 20gig - 30gig drives!

 

[Ilmater]

Originally posted by: senior guy

Originally posted by: Jhhnn
The smaller drives with 2meg cache are just about as fast as their larger brethren, except for the large drives with 8meg cache buffers. Rotational speed is the more important factor....

I've got to disagree with that. Sure rotatational speed dictates latency and that is important, However, platter density is equally important and the fact is that the larger drives of today have much denser platters than earlier 20gig - 30gig drives!

That's what I was going to say, so.... ditto!

 

[Maezr]

Originally posted by: senior guy

Originally posted by: Jhhnn
The smaller drives with 2meg cache are just about as fast as their larger brethren, except for the large drives with 8meg cache buffers. Rotational speed is the more important factor....

I've got to disagree with that. Sure rotatational speed dictates latency and that is important, However, platter density is equally important and the fact is that the larger drives of today have much denser platters than earlier 20gig - 30gig drives!

Could someone explain what exactly that means? I'm a bit lost

 

[dzt]

higher density means more bits read per area, at the same rpm means more bits per minute covered.
so why spending money for older hd, if the newer cost you just a very little more.

 

[Jhhnn]

I wasn't referring to older drives, I was referring to the lower capacity drives of the same family. The d740 maxtors, for example, have 20 gig capacity per side per disk, iirc. The drive only reads or writes with one head on one surface at a time, so the performance of a 20 gig is basically the same as an 80... the aureal density being the same...

The newer drives are definitely faster, for the reasons given, guess I should have been more comprehensive with the initial answer....

SCSI is a different realm, they're still faster with lower density....