23 Dec
2010
23 Dec
'10
4:23 p.m.
On Wed, Dec 22, 2010 at 08:42:57PM -1000, david wrote:
I don't think drive size has any impact on speed.
Newer drives tend to
be faster than the previous models, I think. Also, the larger drives may
come with larger on-board caches.
In a given drive family, I think most size options come with the same
cache sizes. Meaning, you can get a 500gig drive with 32MB cache, or a
1TB drive with the same cache.
As to size effecting performance, don't some file systems get slower
when they are running low on space? That could be an argument for a
larger drive.
Smaller can sometimes mean faster, for instance if choosing a Seagate
Momentus XT, which is 320 gigs, instead of a 1TB drive. The Momentus XT
has a few gigs of flash cache onboard, and reviewers across all
operating systems seem to be pretty favorable.
Brands? I like Hitachi and Western Digital. Toshiba
for notebook drives.
I've also had good results from IBM and Seagate. I've only had 2 drives
fail on me. Both very old Seagates. The oldest failed after being used
for about 10 years. The newer one died during its first year, was
replaced under warranty, then died again about 18 months later.
I've had drives of many brands fail, but usually old ones long past
warranty.
Currently, I favor Seagate and Western Digital. I don't know that I
have a great reason for that. I certainly have had good Hitachi and
Fujitsu drives.