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Smoke97Z24 · Mon Mar 24, 2003 8:37 am

Can anyone explain to me what the difference between a 2mb cache and a 8 mb cache hard drive?

Mon Mar 24, 2003 9:42 am

Basically the biggest difference is performance. To see how much, you can check out the database on Storage Review:

http://www.storagereview.com/comparison.html

Compare the Western Digital WD1200BB (2 MB) to the WD1200JB (8 MB), you'll see the extra cache makes quite a bit of difference.

TheEmrys · Mon Mar 24, 2003 3:48 pm

Just to be flippant, I'd have to say the difference between a 2mb cache and an 8mb cache is 6mb.

sativa · Mon Mar 24, 2003 3:59 pm

Just to be flippant, I'd have to say the difference between a 2mb cache and an 8mb cache is about $15

Bizzaro · Wed Mar 26, 2003 12:10 pm

to add to the original question, what effect would a raid 0 be on two 80 gigs, one with a 2mb/one with a 8mb?

i know in raid setups, 2 diff sized drives will default to the smaller drive size.
bcz the info is spread across the 2 drives, will the speed difference of the drives make the data unusable?

muyuubyou · Wed Mar 26, 2003 12:28 pm

A lot. Raid 0 loves cache. You multiply the cache of the system and probably the reliability too (less accesses to plates), but that depends on implementation.

Freon · Wed Mar 26, 2003 12:29 pm

The fact that your MTBF (mean time between failure) drops down to a few months in RAID 0 is what makes your data unusable. Backup often!

You can mix and match drives, but the 8MB drive will be waiting on the 2MB drive, almost defeating the purpose of having the 8MB drive. The 8MB drive will be sitting idle at times because the 2MB drive won't be able to keep up.

If I had the choice (second drive had not yet been purchases), I would try to get the exact same model as my first drive for any RAID array.

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2mb cache VS 8mb cache

2mb cache VS 8mb cache

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