noob question

[stinka]

ive got one of these as my only hdd in my rig :Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 200GB ST3200820AS SATA-II 8MB Cache

whats does the 8mb cache do and is 16mb much better

could i buy another and run them in raid 0, if so would i have to format and reinstall windows?

thanks

stinka

 

[rpstewart]

whats does the 8mb cache do and is 16mb much better

Basically the drive controller tries to take a guess at what data you're going to request next and sticks it into the cache so that it can be returned to the PC more quickly than reading it off the disk. Having 16Mb means that more can be stored to cover a wider range of "guesses" but there's a law of diminishing returns, the performance difference from 8Mb to 16Mb isn't that great to the point of not really being noticeable.

could i buy another and run them in raid 0, if so would i have to format and reinstall windows?

Yes, yes and yes. Creating the RAID array will wipe the drives so a reinstall is necessary.