Performance question

9dna · 26 Feb 2008 at 21:17

Hi, I am going to replace my 2 samsung 160gig HD. Should I get 1 500gig or 2 250gig HD (at the moment one has my OS on it and the other has the swap file on it) they will be repalced with Hitachi drives. Also is there much of a boost with 16mb cache over 8mb cache?

Thanks.

semi-pro waster · 26 Feb 2008 at 21:25

What does your backup strategy consist of and how important is your data to you?

Are you are thinking about a Raid0 array? If so then you should really be considering a good backup strategy if the data is important, it could be as simple as using one of your old drives for the most vital files and removing it to a safe location when not in use.

Not a huge difference between 8mb and 16mb that I found, while there is some I think that advances in drive technology in newer drives make more of a difference to speed than the additional cache.

9dna · 26 Feb 2008 at 21:34

No raid, just for the last few years I always had 2 hard disks in my computer. I never thought about it as a performance issue until now?

Thanks

semi-pro waster · 26 Feb 2008 at 21:56

It depends on your uses then whether Raid0 will help you, if you use/manipulate large files regularly then it can help but it doesn't sound like it matters hugely to you (or indeed most people ordinarily). I think here I'd just stick to two separate drives, it should be fine for your uses. You might find that the Seagate 7200.11 or Western Digital AAKS drives are a bit quicker than the Hitachi drives but if you have had good experiences with Hitachi there is no pressing reason to change from them.