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HDD Question for Gaming: Does Larger = SLOWER for gaming?

C

cpush

Senior member
Does bigger size have anything to do with slower access times? I am buying a hdd for a machine that will be used mostly for gaming and obviously casual internet surfing and music. Will a smaller drive be faster? Or does size not have that much to do with it?
 
Everything else being equal, the larger capacity drive will be faster, not slower. Both in access time and in STR for the same given capacity. Hwoever, the difference won't be significant enough to drop extra cash on the larger capacity if you don't actually need the extra space.
 
More than anything else, access times are influenced by the HD platters rotational speed,

such that on the average, 10000RPM drives have quicker access times compared to 7200RPM drives, which in turn have quicker access times compared to 5400RPM drives.

Other characteristics, such as platter densities plays a great role in determining transfer rates and I/O, so that on the average, the higher the platter densitiy, the higher the transfer rates.
 
Buffer size also has a major influence on access times. Look for a drive with an 8MB or larger buffer and you will notice better performance no matter what size drive you get.
 
It's all about GB\$ or plain old rotational speed, depending on what your budget is and what you're using the drive(s) for. For games, get the biggest drive you can afford.
 
Originally posted by: malak
Originally posted by: MDE
For games, get the fastest drive you can afford.
Click to expand...

Fixed. More storage doesn't help games, more speed does.
Click to expand...

How many games are you going to fit on a 36GB Raptor? Minimum (sizewise) go for a 74GB Raptor, but a bigger 7200RPM drive won't feel much slower while probably coming out cheaper in the end.
 
Originally posted by: MDE
Originally posted by: malak
Originally posted by: MDE
For games, get the fastest drive you can afford.
Click to expand...

Fixed. More storage doesn't help games, more speed does.
Click to expand...

How many games are you going to fit on a 36GB Raptor? Minimum (sizewise) go for a 74GB Raptor, but a bigger 7200RPM drive won't feel much slower while probably coming out cheaper in the end.
Click to expand...
250gb IDE 2mb 7200rpm performs like 36gb 504000 rpm, that's right in the thousands!
SCARY 😉

 
Originally posted by: wchou
Originally posted by: MDE
Originally posted by: malak
Originally posted by: MDE
For games, get the fastest drive you can afford.
Click to expand...

Fixed. More storage doesn't help games, more speed does.
Click to expand...

How many games are you going to fit on a 36GB Raptor? Minimum (sizewise) go for a 74GB Raptor, but a bigger 7200RPM drive won't feel much slower while probably coming out cheaper in the end.
Click to expand...
250gb IDE 2mb 7200rpm performs like 36gb 504000 rpm, that's right in the thousands!
SCARY 😉
Click to expand...

Obviously there's no point in getting a 36GB Raptor. Little storage, little performance, it's lose lose. However, you could fit 30 games easy on a 74GB Raptor and still have much better performance than any 7200RPM drive out there. Do you keep 30 games installed? I know I sure as hell don't. If I ever do run out of room on my Raptor, I'll probably have a dozen or so games to uninstall due to lack of use. I don't really play more than 4-5 games at a time anyway.
 
I have pretty much decided on the hitachi drives. Do you think it is safe enough at this point to get a SATAII drive? Or should I be safe and go with the original SATA150. I've heard some bad stories about NCQ. Can I run a SATAII drive without NCQ with no performance loss?
 
Originally posted by: cpush
I have pretty much decided on the hitachi drives. Do you think it is safe enough at this point to get a SATAII drive? Or should I be safe and go with the original SATA150. I've heard some bad stories about NCQ. Can I run a SATAII drive without NCQ with no performance loss?
Click to expand...

You can run SATAII without NCQ -- SATAII just refers to the newer more secure SATA connector at the back of the SATA drive.

NCQ will not bring any performance benefit for regular desktop use, and in fact it may degrade performance slightly.

You can enable/disable NCQ in WindowsXP through Device Manager -- I've have it both enabled and disabled without issue.

 
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