which is better.....8mb buffer or ATA133 transfer?

LordEclipse36

Junior Member
Jun 15, 2002
10
0
0
I am looking at buying a maxtor harddrive (D740X) sporting ATA 133 transfer rate. Or the Western Digital special edition 80 gig hardrive (WD800JB) sporting ATA 100 and 8mb buffer. My question is which one will do you all think will be the better performer?
 

AndyHui

Administrator Emeritus<br>Elite Member<br>AT FAQ M
Oct 9, 1999
13,141
17
81
Take the Western Digital SE 8MB buffer.

The ATA133 interface offers a higher possible maximum transfer rate. Since only the most recent drives use anything beyond what ATA33 offers, ATA100 will bring minimal performance increase over ATA66, let alone ATA133.
 

RU482

Lifer
Apr 9, 2000
12,689
3
81
I'll add to this question....

Is the data transfer rate of the WD 8mb buffer driver faster than the maxtor1? Basically, which drive is faster overall?

Have their been any side by side comparisons crowning one or the other (or something else) the "king of speed"?
 

Ionizer86

Diamond Member
Jun 20, 2001
5,292
0
76
The WD800JB's transfer is much faster than that of the Maxtor D740X. The Maxtors are actually really slow, except the support the artificial ATA133 standard. They transfer closer to 45mb/s or something. I don't think any IDE drive does more than 60mb/s, so ATA66 is all we really need (I don't think bursts even get close to 100mb/s).
 

RU482

Lifer
Apr 9, 2000
12,689
3
81
Originally posted by: Ionizer86
The WD800JB's transfer is much faster than that of the Maxtor D740X. The Maxtors are actually really slow, except the support the artificial ATA133 standard. They transfer closer to 45mb/s or something. I don't think any IDE drive does more than 60mb/s, so ATA66 is all we really need (I don't think bursts even get close to 100mb/s).

Umm, when you say really slow, I hope you mean relative to the ATA133 spec. 45MB/s is a pretty damn good sustained rate these days