Western Digital 80 GB special VS. Maxtor ATA 133

[Jyoung24]

ATA/133 is a propriotary specification marketed by Maxtor, It is also a theoretical data transfer speed. You will not obtain ata133 speeds ,infact you are unlikely to sustain ata100 speeds. Truth is the WD digital drive is by far a better preformer becuase an 8mb buffer versus a smaller buffer allows the drive to cache more data and keep the cpu fed more efficiently versus a smaller buffer like 2mb. Anyway when it really comes down to it the performance of IDE drives between the top companies like Seagate,Maxtor,WD and IBM are so slim it really doesn't matter. I base my purchasing on reliablity and sadly most of these companies are about the same in that field as well with the exception of IBM's bad batch of Deathstars. If you have the money buy a WD Special Edition drive , if price is an issue pick up a fluid bearings Maxtor ATA133 drive.

 

[Onezentide]

I like that theory. The question is: If 8Mb buffer works so much better than 2, whatis the then the optimum buffer size? Is it 8Mb, 12Mb, 16? I can see how 128 would be useless, but what is the optimum performance point? Food for thoughts...

Going away from the thread a little bit... Can anyone explain how the serial ata standard is going to increase speed?

🙂

 

[FishTankX]

"random stray thought for the day..........If caching really is that effective, why don't drive manufacturers drop 128meg stick on there. I doesn't have to be fast memory or anything (~100meg bandwidth right?). I always thought the limiting factor was simply the mechanical nature of the drive and that the processor usually is twiddling its thumbs waiting for data to stream from the drive. "


One would be obscene cost (you're talking about a single 128MB cell. That's what gigabyte SDRAMs are made out of.)

2 would be you would loose 128 megs of data everytime there was a power outage (IMPORTANT!!!)

3 would be they would have to totally rewrite their caching algorithms to get any performance benefit

4 most applications wouldn't benefit as much as you would think

Imagine having a power outage when streaming DivX files around, and suddenly you loose half your Pr0n collection! BWAHAHAHAAH!!

 

[BD231]

Originally posted by: azkiwi

Be sure to order a pair of ear plugs too.

Maybe you guys live in eerie silent worlds - I have 2 WDs in my box, right here next to my leg, and I can't hear them over the cpu fan (which is no turbine, its a std AMD fan). I don't hear them spin up and I don't hear them access.

I did read somewhere that noise improvements were made on the latest models - perhaps on this forum?

The fan on that AMD HSF is a half hight delta, of course you cant here your HD over it!

 

[azkiwi]

We're all sorry you got an older noisy version of an excellent drive bdog, but recent reviewers atest that currently shipping WD SEs are very quiet, so there is no need to mislead Onezentide as to the nature of what he might purchase. Do you have blinders to go with your earplugs?

 

[rimshaker]

Why is this thread so long? The answer is just simple observation and common sense.

If today's drives can't even come close to ata100 limits, then what the hell good does an ata133 interface do??

If you want to see an immediate improvement in performance, especially xfer rates and burst speeds, then an 8mb cache will do it!

 

[StattlichPassat]

Another vote for the Western Digital 8MB drive- I just installed an 80GB'r today and this thing is ROCKING. I didn't know IDE could move this fast. I will never buy a 2MB cache drive again. :Q

 

[WarCon]

FishTankX convinced me (and Newegg's blowout price of $107 and free shipping) to buy a WD 80gig with 8meg cache. I will know in a few days for myself.......🙂

 

[Jhhnn]

To answer rimshakers' Q about why ATA133 when the drives can't max out ATA100- marketing, pure and simple, it drives a lot of the computer hardware industry. Doesn't have to do any good, just has to seem that way....

Storage Review rates the WD as the fastest, I believe them. As to whether there's much noticeable difference in normal apps., it's hard to say. Buy one of each, do a comparison for us......

I've used some of the modern Maxtors recently, their one advantage is the low profile design allows for better cooling of stacked drive arrays in adjacent slots. Nifty, if you're in a situation where that would make a difference....