Re: [PLUG] EIDE Drive Specs and Performance

[gyoza@comcast.net]

Jason Costomiris wrote:

> On Fri, 04 Mar 2005 14:09:16 -0500, gyoza@comcast.net <gyoza@comcast.net> wrote:
>  
>
> > ATA100 vs ATA133
> >    
>
> More speed on the ATA bus.
>
>  
>
> > 2MB cache vs 8MB cache
> >    
>
> More cache == better performance for certain things - repeated reads
> of the same file, writing a lot of small files to disk (fill up cache,
> return control to user, write to physical media)
>  
I got a response from a DFI support person on a related question.  He 
wrote, "Keep in mind that IDE hdd's never fully utilize the ATA 
bus...you will almost never get 100MB/s out of an ATA100 hdd (not even 
the SATA drives run this fast, and they are superior and run on an 
ATA150-type serial bus)."

For me, I'm guessing that an ATA100 drive with an 8MB cache is better 
than an ATA133 drive with only 2MB of cache.

I have to admit that the geek factor of having a RAID 0 array is kicking 
in.  I just RMA'ed my 40GB drive.  If it is replaced with another 40GB 
drive, needing more space might be a good excuse to try RAID 0, which 
would increase the capacity to 80GB.  It would be too simple to just buy 
a larger drive.

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