HDD - Cache 8Mb vs 16Mb vs SATA2

[imported_Scavenger]

I'm looking into picking up a new HD but I'm just not sure which is better for what.

Here are a few in question:
250GB Maxtor Diamond Max® 10 SATA-150 7200RPM 16Mb 9ms
250GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 Plus SATA-150 7200RPM 8Mb 8ms w/ NCQ Technology
250GB Western Digital® Cavier? SE SATAII-300 7200RPM 8Mb

Which one would be better for design stuff (photoshop - large files, multitasking) and which for gaming (load times, performance). Also do the Maxtor and WD drives have simular NCQ technology?

 

[imported_Tick]

Get the Maxtor for photoshop, seagate for games.

 

[imported_Scavenger]

Does the Maxtor drive offer NCQ and is that (NCQ) compatible with an Asus® A8N SLI Premium, Socket 939, NVIDIA® nForce?4 Chipset motherboard?

 

[imported_Scavenger]

bump, anyone?

 

[MulLa]

I'm sure the Maxtor DM10 support NCQ but have no idea on the nForce 4 front

 

[tophman]

hehehe.....Glad I'm not the only one overreviewing a HD purchase.
I'm debating what to get but am also thinking of a 74gb Raptor and the Maxtor Maxline III.
I wish I could find a roundup with the latest and the greatest....Right now I'm leaning toward just getting a 74 GB Raptor from Outpost...150 after rebates. Then I can wait till something bigger and faster comes out with 16MB ram. Some of the newer drives are faster then the raptors in certain benchmarks, but overall the Raptor still leads.

 

[BigCoolJesus]

Originally posted by: tophman
hehehe.....Glad I'm not the only one overreviewing a HD purchase.
I'm debating what to get but am also thinking of a 74gb Raptor and the Maxtor Maxline III.
I wish I could find a roundup with the latest and the greatest....Right now I'm leaning toward just getting a 74 GB Raptor from Outpost...150 after rebates. Then I can wait till something bigger and faster comes out with 16MB ram. Some of the newer drives are faster then the raptors in certain benchmarks, but overall the Raptor still leads.

but its performance is quickly cut down my its small size...... 74GB is easily used up when someone games and does lots of photoshop work

the performance "gains" arent worth it at all (the biggest gain youll see is windows will load maybe 5 seconds faster, other then that regular use will be barley noticable over a 7200rpm drive)

 

[ShadowBlade]

B=bytes b=bits

16MB cache, I read somewhere performs so that it is only about 2% less than a 10k RPM drive.
8MB cache is standard.
SATAII is only the interface. I think standard hard drives dont even max out PATA speeds, so SATAII is plenty unless youve got a 15k RPM HD.

200GB 7.2k RPM 8MB Cache hard drives, I have found to be the cheapest per GB. So unless you have a limited ammount of drive bay or are overly concerned with a couple ms faster response time, then go for one of those. Western Digital, Samsung or Seagate.

 

[imported_Scavenger]

Originally posted by: tophman
hehehe.....Glad I'm not the only one overreviewing a HD purchase.
I'm debating what to get but am also thinking of a 74gb Raptor and the Maxtor Maxline III.
I wish I could find a roundup with the latest and the greatest....Right now I'm leaning toward just getting a 74 GB Raptor from Outpost...150 after rebates. Then I can wait till something bigger and faster comes out with 16MB ram. Some of the newer drives are faster then the raptors in certain benchmarks, but overall the Raptor still leads.

I was considering a Raptor also, but the 74 gbs and from what I read loud noise dont make it too appealing.

I found out that the maxtor 10 line offers NCQ for 250 and 300 GB version, only thing to make sure now is if the mobo supports it.

 

[xtknight]

Normally there'd be no reason your mobo wouldn't support it. But I have to say, if you have an A8N-SLI, steer clear of the Maxtor. I and several others have a problem where it's not detected at boot up half of the time, very sporadic.

 

[JBDan]

Originally posted by: Scavenger

Originally posted by: tophman
hehehe.....Glad I'm not the only one overreviewing a HD purchase.
I'm debating what to get but am also thinking of a 74gb Raptor and the Maxtor Maxline III.
I wish I could find a roundup with the latest and the greatest....Right now I'm leaning toward just getting a 74 GB Raptor from Outpost...150 after rebates. Then I can wait till something bigger and faster comes out with 16MB ram. Some of the newer drives are faster then the raptors in certain benchmarks, but overall the Raptor still leads.

I was considering a Raptor also, but the 74 gbs and from what I read loud noise dont make it too appealing.

I found out that the maxtor 10 line offers NCQ for 250 and 300 GB version, only thing to make sure now is if the mobo supports it.

Its "loudness" is dependent upon the case and manner you install it in. They are actually VERY quiet in my p180. It is a very fast drive and its quite noticeable when jumping from 1 pc with it and one pc without it. All depends on your budget really.

 

[almach1]

If you are looking for a single drive then go with a large capacity, and not the raptor. I have a large capacity hardrive, but when i saw the 34 gig raptor drives on sale for 70 bucks i picked one up and use that as my windows and programs drive and use my old one for storage and other programs that don't need fast speed.

 

[Farmer]

NVIDIA® nForce?4 ? I'm not sure you can use that! That's a registered trademark of NVIDIA®!

I am pro everything except Maxtor. Really, it won't make a difference. If you want quiet, try Samsung or Seagate; Samsung is quiet as hell, also.

 

[daniel1113]

The SATAII DM 10's are some of the fastest 7200 RPM drives, especially when paired with an NCQ enabled motherboard. I'm running four at the moment and wouldn't trade them for anything.

Not to mention, I was one of the many anti-Maxtor people before I got them.

 

[imported_Scavenger]

Thanks for the replies everyone, really appreciate it!

But I think I'm more undecided than ever The maxtor is getting mixed reviews here and I'd be installing these into a P180 case.. so if the raptor's noise is dampened some it would definitely be a consideration for boot/program drive with my old HD for storage. Choices, choices.. I'd probably go the raptor route if I wasn't so stuck up about NCQ and worried that a new raptor is coming out soon (any eta rummored?). How much would I actually benefit from NCQ? taking into consideration I'll be using a dual core processor (AMD 64 X2 4400+) for multitasking.