Hard Drive Speed??

Right now I have a 5400 rpm 30 gig hard drive and I'm thinking of upgrading to
a 7200 rpm. I saw a Maxtor Ultra ATA/133 with 8 mg cache and also one with a 2
mg cache. Western Digital also makes one with an 8 mg cache.

So my question is will there be a noticeable difference between the 5400 rpm
and a 7200 rmp? Is there a noticeable difference between the 8 mg cache buffer
and the 2 mg cache buffer? Also, as far as performance, does it matter if the
drive is 60 gb or 120 gb?

Thanks for any input.

On 13 Nov 2003 15:06:56 GMT, olitter (PawsForThought)
wrote:

Right now I have a 5400 rpm 30 gig hard drive and I'm thinking of upgrading to
a 7200 rpm. I saw a Maxtor Ultra ATA/133 with 8 mg cache and also one with a 2
mg cache. Western Digital also makes one with an 8 mg cache.

So my question is will there be a noticeable difference between the 5400 rpm
and a 7200 rmp? Is there a noticeable difference between the 8 mg cache buffer
and the 2 mg cache buffer? Also, as far as performance, does it matter if the
drive is 60 gb or 120 gb?

all tohether big difference!

-- Regards, SPAJKY
& visit site - http://www.spajky.vze.com
Celly-III OC-ed,"Tualatin on BX-Slot1-MoBo!"
E-mail AntiSpam: remove ##

PawsForThought wrote:

Right now I have a 5400 rpm 30 gig hard drive and I'm thinking of upgrading to
a 7200 rpm. I saw a Maxtor Ultra ATA/133 with 8 mg cache and also one with a 2
mg cache. Western Digital also makes one with an 8 mg cache.

So my question is will there be a noticeable difference between the 5400 rpm
and a 7200 rmp? Is there a noticeable difference between the 8 mg cache buffer
and the 2 mg cache buffer? Also, as far as performance, does it matter if the
drive is 60 gb or 120 gb?

Thanks for any input.

There will be a large difference in anything that needs to read from the drive.
7200/5400 = 33% faster. Most present drive speed is limited by how fast the
heads can read the data on the platter(s). No present IDE drives can saturate
the ATA66 interface, but it is an improvement over the now obsolete ATA33.
ATA100 and ATA133 are mostly marketing hype.

The speed of the drive is affected by the way the data is physically written
on the platters. This varies between drive manufacturers, but is about
the same for all. Check the specs for the 60GB and 120GB to see which
has the faster specs. Generally larger drive = more heads = more mass=
slower track-to-track seek time, but this is not always true.

The advantage of the larger buffer depends greatly on how the drive access
is used. I see an increase in defrag speeds on my 8MB buffer drive, but it
is hard to know if this is due to the larger buffer.

Some makers still give a 3 year warranty on certain drives, usually the
8MB buffered ones.

Virg Wall
--
A foolish consistency is the
hobgoblin of little minds,........
Ralph Waldo Emerson
(Microsoft programmer's manual.)

The 7200 rpm with 8 MB of cache will be Noticeably faster. Go for it.

--
DaveW



"PawsForThought" wrote in message
...
Right now I have a 5400 rpm 30 gig hard drive and I'm thinking of
upgrading to
a 7200 rpm. I saw a Maxtor Ultra ATA/133 with 8 mg cache and also one
with a 2
mg cache. Western Digital also makes one with an 8 mg cache.

So my question is will there be a noticeable difference between the 5400
rpm
and a 7200 rmp? Is there a noticeable difference between the 8 mg cache
buffer
and the 2 mg cache buffer? Also, as far as performance, does it matter if
the
drive is 60 gb or 120 gb?

Thanks for any input.

You'll pee in your pants once you see what a difference it makes.

"PawsForThought" wrote in message
...
Right now I have a 5400 rpm 30 gig hard drive and I'm thinking of
upgrading to
a 7200 rpm. I saw a Maxtor Ultra ATA/133 with 8 mg cache and also one
with a 2
mg cache. Western Digital also makes one with an 8 mg cache.

So my question is will there be a noticeable difference between the 5400
rpm
and a 7200 rmp? Is there a noticeable difference between the 8 mg cache
buffer
and the 2 mg cache buffer? Also, as far as performance, does it matter if
the
drive is 60 gb or 120 gb?

Thanks for any input.

I think the single best improvement in speed I have experienced is when I
went from a 5400 rpm to a 7200 rpm hard drive. VERY noticeable.

"PawsForThought" wrote in message
...
Right now I have a 5400 rpm 30 gig hard drive and I'm thinking of
upgrading to
a 7200 rpm. I saw a Maxtor Ultra ATA/133 with 8 mg cache and also one
with a 2
mg cache. Western Digital also makes one with an 8 mg cache.

So my question is will there be a noticeable difference between the 5400
rpm
and a 7200 rmp? Is there a noticeable difference between the 8 mg cache
buffer
and the 2 mg cache buffer? Also, as far as performance, does it matter if
the
drive is 60 gb or 120 gb?

Thanks for any input.

A bigger e.g. 120 GB will have better performance than a smaller e.g. 60 GB drive if they have the same number of platters because of the higher data density on the bigger drive. If they each have the same density e.g. if the 60 GB drive has 2 platters and the 120 GB drive has 4 platters then you won't notice any difference in performance.


PawsForThought wrote:

Right now I have a 5400 rpm 30 gig hard drive and I'm thinking of upgrading to
a 7200 rpm. I saw a Maxtor Ultra ATA/133 with 8 mg cache and also one with a 2
mg cache. Western Digital also makes one with an 8 mg cache.

So my question is will there be a noticeable difference between the 5400 rpm
and a 7200 rmp? Is there a noticeable difference between the 8 mg cache buffer
and the 2 mg cache buffer? Also, as far as performance, does it matter if the
drive is 60 gb or 120 gb?

Thanks for any input.

--
Mike Walsh
West Palm Beach, Florida, U.S.A.

From: V W Wall

There will be a large difference in anything that needs to read from the
drive.
7200/5400 = 33% faster. Most present drive speed is limited by how fast the
heads can read the data on the platter(s). No present IDE drives can
saturate
the ATA66 interface, but it is an improvement over the now obsolete ATA33.
ATA100 and ATA133 are mostly marketing hype.

The speed of the drive is affected by the way the data is physically written
on the platters. This varies between drive manufacturers, but is about
the same for all. Check the specs for the 60GB and 120GB to see which
has the faster specs. Generally larger drive = more heads = more mass=
slower track-to-track seek time, but this is not always true.

The advantage of the larger buffer depends greatly on how the drive access
is used. I see an increase in defrag speeds on my 8MB buffer drive, but it
is hard to know if this is due to the larger buffer.

Some makers still give a 3 year warranty on certain drives, usually the
8MB buffered ones.

Virg Wall

Thank you very much for the explanation. I really appreciate it. I ended up
getting the Western Digital 80 gig with 8 mg cache. Haven't installed it yet
though.

From: "DaveW"


The 7200 rpm with 8 MB of cache will be Noticeably faster. Go for it.

Thanks, Dave. I did get it. I was debating between the Western Digital and
Maxtor, but the WD seemed to get better reviews, so that's what I went with,
plus it had a $50 rebate.

From: "FuzionMan" PAM

You'll pee in your pants once you see what a difference it makes.

LOL!! Glad to hear it, I think.