Hard Drive for OS

Charlie

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Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware (More info?)

Which hard drive would be best for my Windows XP operating system?
1. 120 Gig 100 ATA 8 meg buffer
2. 120 Gig 133 ATA 2 meg buffer

Would there be a significant difference in performance between the two?
 
Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware (More info?)

I'd use number one for the bigger buffer but it is an
absolute certainty that someone will disagree. I wouldn't
exxpect to see ANY discernable difference in performace
between the two. Good Luck !

>-----Original Message-----
>Which hard drive would be best for my Windows XP
operating system?
>1. 120 Gig 100 ATA 8 meg buffer
>2. 120 Gig 133 ATA 2 meg buffer
>
>Would there be a significant difference in performance
between the two?
>
>
>.
>
 
Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware (More info?)

In my opinion you would be better advised to buy a SATA device and get the extra performance.

As you can see from the comparison of various Maxtor drives, the faster a drive spins the better the seek time performance. the Interface [133 in all cases] means that they have the same data trafsfer rate: but of course, once the buffer is full and the smaller buffer is uploaded, then it has to wait and get more data to fill the buffer and send it up the line.

So higher spin rate, higher buffer size and SATA gives a faster system

Product Capacity RPM Interface Average Seek Time Average Latency
DiamondMax 16 Up to 160 GB 5400 PATA 133 ≤12.6 5.6
DiamondMax Plus 9 Up to 200 GB 7200 PATA/133 & SATA ≤9.4 4.17
DiamondMax Plus 8 40 GB 7200 PATA/133 <10 4.17
Fireball 3 40 GB 5400 PATA/133 <12 <5.5