8mb or 16mb Buffer?

[Robbob]

Hi,

I am configuring a new pc on line andI have the option of
1x 400gb hard drive with 16mb buffer, or 2 x 200gb with 8mb buffer.
I favour the idea of 2 x 200gb, as I won't then need to partition my C:drive.
Would I notice any difference in performance?
I don't do any high end gaming or video editing, just surfing, listening to music, doccuments, and a little photo editing.

Rob

[MadduckUK]

the 400GB definetly. i dont see why you would consder 2x200's instead if your not going to be doing any sort of RAID with them

[Robbob]

I have always liked to partiton my disc with Windows and apps on one partition, and files etc on the other.
I know that sometimes partitoning a disc can upset "restore to factory" settings.
I thought two hard drives would be the solution; one for windows & apps, one for files.

[MadduckUK]

that would work, of course. there would be the performance difference of course from using slower drives, but having all files in one place is rather handy.

i would still go with the 400 gigger, as it gives an easy path to adding a second at a later date,

[Robbob]

Would there be much of a performance difference with 8mb?

[d3fiant]

different tasks and types of read and write will use the additional cache with varying improvments to speed which can be seen in many reviews, however for a casual user the difference will not be noticable. Personally I would go for the larger single drive so I could add additional storage later without taking up 2 slots in ur case straight off the blocks fella

[MadduckUK]

8MB

16MB

[MSIC]

http://www.storagereview.com/ is the place that will give you more info than you need. They are very thorough.
They seem to indicate here that pure cache size alone isn't a very important factor, but is more to do with how the firmware is set up to use it. As a very rough and ready idea, i'd go with "more cache the better" but that's why they are the experts, not me.

I would point out however that, again in general terms, 2 smaller hard drives will make more noise and use more power (watts) than one larger hard drive.

[ionicle]

go for 16mb, it isnew, and was brought out for a reason, so there must be somthing to it....and as madduckuk posted, the difference is clear!

[xolotl]

The speed of the HD depends on much more than just the buffer size. While generally the bigger the better other factors like spin speed and command queuing also effect speed.

Get the 400gb drive, its senseless getting the two smaller ones unless you were going to set up some kind of RAID.

[Workaholic]

Get the larger one, and you can use Windows XP to partition your drive into separate drives, one for the OS and one for your files as needed....