8 mB cache on disk drive

[ggtyh]

Just wondering if a hard disk drive with 8 mB of cache is a real improvement over an identical drive but that only has 2 mB of cache.

[Aaron]

bench your 2mb cache hard drive speed with a copy of HD_Speed.exe on normal and burst rate mode, and post the results. I'll compare my two western digital 8mb cache drive results with yours.

[R600]

I read somewhere that the 8mb buffer is a load of s***e when it comes to reading/writing over 40mb of data.

It was said that it makes a major difference when writing the first 40mb of data, then all is back to average write speed.

Come to think of it, im sure you'd agree to a certain extent that this is true since the write speed on an average HD is fast anyway. The buffer acts as a temporary guard against minor transfer slow-down.

[ggtyh]

Here are my scores at HD_speed.exe:

On my Maxtor 40 GB 7200 rpm (doing some stuff at the same time, so may be biaised): an average speed of 57.4 MB/s.

On my Maxtor 20 GB 5400 rpm (doing the same other stuff) I have an average of 37.3 MB/s.

Burst rate seems to be slower (?) at 22.5 MB/s on my 20 GB drive. So it is on my 40 GB drive at 29.8 MB/s.

I see that the rpm does have an influence, just have to ask AaronXP to post his mark so I can compare.

[Aaron]

Western Digital 120GB 7,200rpm 8mb cache ATA100 on Master cable

Normal: 47MB/sec | Burst: 71MB/sec

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Western Digital 200GB 7,200rpm 8mb cache ATA100 on Slave cable

Normal: 54MB/sec | Burst: 59MB/sec