Did I make a mistake? ( Cache size )

WillSpengler · 27 Apr 2008 at 18:35

Just finished putting in an order for my new system (horay!)

It is going to have four HDDs.

Two Seagate 7200.11, 320Gb drives in Raid0 (OS and software)
&
Two Samsung SpinPoint F1, 500Gb drives in Raid1 (media etc)

The 7200.11's I've ordered are the 16Mb cache version (£50.51). Would there have been a big/noticable improvement if i'd gotten the 32Mb cache versions (£58.74). Or is a good thing that I saved £16 odd ?

The Samsungs are also 16Mb cache.

Would I have been better getting drives with 32Mb caches? I must admit that I didn't look at the cache size with these drives. Had originall been looking at the Hitachi Deskstar 160Gb and a Maxtor DM22 500Gb (32Mb cache).

Not that it makes a difference now tho!

Cheers

helmutcheese · 27 Apr 2008 at 18:41

I know WD claimed 32MB over 16MB make little to no difference when talking about there new (last released) 7.2k HDD.

I would guess it would be better on a 10k HDD but the new VelociRaptor is also 16MB (probably keeps cost down), the Memory used for HDD's Cache is expensive (or at least used to be).

Reality|Bites · 27 Apr 2008 at 19:10

Someone on here reported that the F1 seemed faster in Vista and a bit sluggish in XP.

So maybe the 32MB helps out when you are dealing with bigger files?

rpstewart · 27 Apr 2008 at 20:12

There's a law of diminishing returns when it comes to cache size, probably the biggest jump was from 2Mb to 8Mb. All the larger cache does is allow more potential cache hits to be stored but in the vast majority of cases the actual cache hit will be in the first 8Mb or so.

WillSpengler · 27 Apr 2008 at 20:47

Reality|Bites said:
Someone on here reported that the F1 seemed faster in Vista and a bit sluggish in XP.

So maybe the 32MB helps out when you are dealing with bigger files?

Thats not too good, it's XP im going to be running

Oh well, im sure it wont be much either way.

Just aslong as it isnt a horrendously bad choice on my part!

Reality|Bites · 27 Apr 2008 at 20:59

I have two F1's on my XP system and they seem fast enough

WillSpengler · 27 Apr 2008 at 21:03

Excellent

Again, was just one of those wee niggling things. I think the out and out speed of the new PC should be pretty massive in comparison to my current one, so its all good