Speed question...

[BWL]

I've been shopping around (on the web, mostly) for a 2nd hard drive, and
want to get the fastest 160GB I can, along with fluid bearings. My question
is, which spec has a greater effect on overall HD speed: average seek time
or data transfer rate?

Does "8.5ms seek time/100MBps transfer rate" out-perform "9.4ms/133MBps"?
Or would the difference be negligible?

Also, is it worth the $$ buying a SATA drive (plus a controller) vs. staying
with UltraATA?

TIA

BL

 

[Rod Speed]

I've been shopping around (on the web, mostly) for a 2nd hard
drive, and want to get the fastest 160GB I can, along with fluid
bearings. My question is, which spec has a greater effect on
overall HD speed: average seek time or data transfer rate?

Basically depends on how you use it, but with a modern
OS, its often the seek times that you notice most.

Tho again, the way most use a personal desktop system,
the hard drive speed mostly affects stuff like the boot time
and you can argue thats a pretty irrelevant number.

Does "8.5ms seek time/100MBps transfer rate" out-perform
"9.4ms/133MBps"? Or would the difference be negligible?

The 100 and 133 Mbps are purely theoretical
maximums so can be ignored completely.

I doubt you'd be able to pick the difference between
two otherwise identical systems in a proper double
blind trial without being able to use a benchmark
with normal personal desktop PC use.

Also, is it worth the $$ buying a SATA drive
(plus a controller) vs. staying with UltraATA?

Impossible to say how much you value the
speed and whether you would even be able
to pick one as faster than the other anyway.

And the sata controller is limited by the PCI bus anyway.

 

[BWL]

Thanks for the quick reply.

Looks like the best bet would be to pick a well-regarded, quiet, reliable
model from the Maxtor-Seagate-Western Digital group, or even Hitachi or
Quantum.

 

[Bob Willard]

I've been shopping around (on the web, mostly) for a 2nd hard drive, and
want to get the fastest 160GB I can, along with fluid bearings. My question
is, which spec has a greater effect on overall HD speed: average seek time
or data transfer rate?

Does "8.5ms seek time/100MBps transfer rate" out-perform "9.4ms/133MBps"?
Or would the difference be negligible?

Also, is it worth the $$ buying a SATA drive (plus a controller) vs. staying
with UltraATA?

TIA

BL

The primary advantage of SATA over PATA is better cabling. SATA allows
longer cables, which helps with HD placement in large towers. SATA has
thinner cables, which helps get better air flow and better cooling.

There are 10K RPM HDs for SATA, but only 7200 RPM (or less) for PATA.
That means SATA HDs are faster, although not due to SATA's attributes.

 

[Rod Speed]

Thanks for the quick reply.

Pity this one was so much slower |-)

Looks like the best bet would be to pick a well-regarded, quiet,
reliable model from the Maxtor-Seagate-Western Digital group,
or even Hitachi or Quantum.

I'd personally get a Samsung. In fact I have done that.