Fastest 8mb Western Digital Drive? Which one is it?

[MichaelD]

Notice I didn't say "LARGEST?" I know they have a 200GB one. I'm not interested in the capacity.

I want to get one of the 8mb buffer models. I know that they recently changed platter size, so some of the older 8mb drives might not be as fast as the newer 8mb drives.

Which one to get? 80GB? 120GB? XXXGB?

Thank you.

 

[microAmp]

Storage Review w/ 200 GB & 120 GB
Storage Review with 120 GB and 80 GB

All WD JB's

 

[MichaelD]

Originally posted by: motoamd
Storage Review w/ 200 GB & 120 GB
Storage Review with 120 GB and 80 GB

All WD JB's

And you get the "I am The Man!" award for today!! Thanks.

 

[ShowdOWN]

I still dont see what all the fuss is about the 8MB cache hard drives about. i upgraded from an IBM 20GB 7200rpm drive to the WD 80GB 8MB cache drive i dont notice that much of a difference. even when i load large files and games. go figure.

 

[sniperruff]

i believe the larger the size, the faster the drive (hey that rhymes!) so i guess the 200gig monster drive would be the fastest

and ShowdOWN: i DO notice a significant increase of windows loading speed (win2k) when i switched from a 80gig maxtor 7200rpm to a WD special ed 120gig.

and significant means maybe 3 seconds faster. DO NOT expect a 8mb cache drive to load windows in 2 seconds. it's not THAT much of a mystical, magical device that you have seem to think of the special ed HD

think of a 2mb cache as a CIVIC DX and a 8mb cache CIVIC SI. 8mb cache drives do not make your system flies!

 

[CraigRT]

I would guess the 800JB should be the fastest.. it does depend on the platter size I think, and I think the 100GB (or something like that) may have smaller ones than the 80GB
I am not sure there is something weird with those drives.. but I did read that one or 2 of them is definitely faster than the others.

 

[Viper96720]

I always thought it was the smallest model of a range of drives that was the fastest. Less platters to search the faster data is found.

 

[CraigRT]

Originally posted by: Viper96720
I always thought it was the smallest model of a range of drives that was the fastest. Less platters to search the faster data is found.

thats what i was basing on too.
but the density is different in the drives, and a couple are faster than some of the others.
it's strange.
and i don't remember where i read it.

 

[chizow]

My understanding was that it is a combination of platter size (density) and the total number of platters/read heads.

Look at it this way, the outer cylinders can read more data in one rotation than the inner cylinders, so data stored in the inner cylinders will require more rotations to access, causing performance to decrease. However, switching between platters also gives a hit to performance.

So for a 120 GB disk with 2 80GB platters, overrall performance would probably be better if the disk used the outermost 60GB on 2 80GB platters rather than using the full 80GB on the first platter and only 40GB on the second platter.

Chiz

 

[Goi]

The 200GB version is the fastest, having the largest capacity platters(66GB/platter), followed by the 120GB with 60GB/platters. Note that the 120GB also comes in versions with 40GB platters, which is what I unfortunately own. Still, its plenty fast.

 

[mrman3k]

WD2000JB is the fastest WD hard drive since it has the new 60GB/platter density. I would wait on getting a new drive until the new next gen 80GB/platter SATA drives hit the market.

 

[MichaelD]

Thanks everyone for all the great info and replies. I will be getting the 80GB drive.

 

[Davegod]

Originally posted by: mrman3k
WD2000JB is the fastest WD hard drive since it has the new 60GB/platter density. I would wait on getting a new drive until the new next gen 80GB/platter SATA drives hit the market.

how long is that?
and they going to have both connectors or only SATA? my guess is both, but not into waiting and then being wrong

 

[AmdInside]

I read on Ars a while back that they did a test of Windows 2K I think with a ram drive and Windos still took like 30 seconds to load so the fastest hard drives will not really decrease your boot time by much.