Where to install OS?

geon106 · 28 Jun 2011 at 16:17

Okay i'm going to restore my system and i'm not sure which hard drive would be best to install my OS for best performance.

My motherboard supports SATAII 3.0Gbps

I have the following 2 hard drives:

Western Digital Caviar Black 64MB Cache, SATAIII 6.0Gbps 1.0TB drive(obviously bottlenecked due to mobo)

Western Digital Caviar Black 32MB Cache SATAII 3.0Gbps 500GB

I was thinking of putting the OS on the 500GB along with Steam, then the 1TB for music/videos and other games? But, would the 1TB give better performance with higher cache? i'm confused

rpstewart · 28 Jun 2011 at 17:03

The 1Tb drive would be better, not because of the larger cache or the interface but simply because it is likely to have denser platters than the older 500Gb drive. As a result the sustained transfer rate will be higher. It won't be bottlenecked either, the drive isn't capable of saturating a SATA1 link, let alone SATA2.

SparkyG · 28 Jun 2011 at 19:21

I agree with youir initial thought, OS on the 500GB but of course partition it up

Morg · 28 Jun 2011 at 20:09

Try HD Tune and see which is the faster drive, I'd guess the 1gb

Moothead2 · 28 Jun 2011 at 22:45

rpstewart said:
The 1Tb drive would be better, not because of the larger cache or the interface but simply because it is likely to have denser platters than the older 500Gb drive. As a result the sustained transfer rate will be higher. It won't be bottlenecked either, the drive isn't capable of saturating a SATA1 link, let alone SATA2.

SATA3 6GB/s Hard drives are just a marketing tool in my opinion, a look at me and my large doodar kind of thing when he doesn't even get any

.