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hard drive guru wanted !

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  • Nov 23rd, 2004 3:19 pm
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Deal Addict
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Aug 11, 2003
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hard drive guru wanted !

got 2 questions guys..

1) should i get an 8MB cache hdd..? will i c any performance increase if i get it ?

2) should i get SATA--> ATA133 adapters since my mobo is ATA and i wanted to use SATA drive.. will i notice a performance hit or something?

see the thing is i dont know nuff to ask the questions i should be asking get it??
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7 replies
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Apr 26, 2003
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1) yes you'll notice the difference
2) don't, just get the ATA version unless you want talking about the WD raptor
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Sep 19, 2004
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AnimeEd wrote:1) yes you'll notice the difference
2) don't, just get the ATA version unless you want talking about the WD raptor
I agree
Besides, 8MB isn't much more $$ nowadays
So is SATA over ATA, but I don't think difference is worth the difference in $$
(but if your mb supports it and you want new HD, why not... none of my MB supports it so no problem for me)
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Deal Expert
Aug 2, 2004
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doomhammer wrote:got 2 questions guys..

1) should i get an 8MB cache hdd..? will i c any performance increase if i get it ?

2) should i get SATA--> ATA133 adapters since my mobo is ATA and i wanted to use SATA drive.. will i notice a performance hit or something?

see the thing is i dont know nuff to ask the questions i should be asking get it??
Don't bother with the SATA to ATA-133 Adapter? You are not going to get SATA performance if your motherboard does not support it.

I would waste the money on the drive either. Most drives are just PATA with a SATA bridge. The only true SATA drives out as far as I know are the Seagate SATA2 drives. But I suggest you buy it, when you get a new board that supports SATA2 natively. By then prices would have dropped too.
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Aug 11, 2003
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thanks guys.. once again RFD to the rescue!

1) i should get the 8MB cache hdd over the 2MB cache hdd right ??

2) since my mobo has no SATA support natively i should not get the SATA-- ATA133 adapter as i will not see performance increase right ??

u guys are the best.
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Sr. Member
Aug 18, 2003
519 posts
Chances are, most users are not going to notice the performance difference between an 2MB and 8MB buffer drive (unless if you do a LOT of, say, heavy database or videoediting work). However, you ARE going to notice that your warranty has gone from one year to three years, which is why I'd recommend ANYBODY to go for the 8MB buffer drive. (Seagate being the exception here, since they already have 5 years)

Same with serial-ATA and ATA/133. Most consumer 7200rpm drives can only do 60-70mb/s sustained ANYWAY, so even ATA/100 isn't fazing it. The only data that will transfer faster than that would be the stuff in the drive's buffer - all 8MB of it. Wow, I can transfer 8MB of data at 133mb/s instead of 150mb/s! Woohoo!

The bottom line: don't buy into the hype. serial-ATA drives are not faster than ATA/133 drives. 8MB buffer drives are not significantly faster than 2MB buffer drives. Buy serial ATA if you want nice neat thin cables and a reason to keep your floppy drive. Buy 8MB buffer for the 3-year warranty.
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Aug 18, 2003
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RedLightning wrote: serial-ATA drives are not faster than ATA/133 drives.
95% of the drives that is true for.

However a WD Raptor will out perform any IDE drive. However it's probably more to do with it being 10K RPM then SATA.
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Nov 30, 2003
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Get 8 MB, don't use S-ATA on a motherboard that doesn't natively support it.

BTW, far as I know, all S-ATA HD's have 8 MB by default.
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