HD question?

[RainMaQer]

Anyone know why my hd performs so well... or am I missing something. My HD is a 10 gig 5400 RPM and to my knowledge my board doesn't support UDMA 33...(In sig below) This was run at defaults...

[Breadfan]

Well, that Abit board does have UDMA 33 for both IDE channels...

As for the good test results, it depends on how the test is performed. For instance, looking at how the ata100 drive is so much higher than the same spindle speed ata66 drive, one would expect that things such as burst speed are checked...burst rates are the only times most 7200rpm drives come close to ata100 limits anyway...

So, perhaps your Maxtor drive has a 1 or 2mb buffer, whereas the 10gb refernce drive has only a 512k buffer...that might earn you some extra points...

Also, depending on wehre the test files are taken can help your speed too...files closer to the spindle access faster than the files on the outside of the spindle...atleast I believe that is correct...(correct me if I'm wrong!)

Mike

[The Pingmaster]

Also, depending on wehre the test files are taken can help your speed too...files closer to the spindle access faster than the files on the outside of the spindle

You are correct. It's the same thing with CD drives.

Say you have a 5 inch wheel (circumference [sp?]) and a 1 inch wheel both spinning at 1000 rpms. Which is going to go faster? The 5 inch because it can cover 4 more inches per revolution.

[Shadow ÒÓ]

umm no....RPM is Rev's per min...wouldn't matter if the disk was 1 inch or one mile across...it's still spinning at the same speed. The only thing that would be different is the movement of the outside edge of the disk, however the fastest section of the hard drive is the inner edge.

[Breadfan]

Actually, watch a record album...the inside always spins slower than the ousdie...thats easy to see on those. Ofcourse, the only thing is, the inside tracks aren't as long as the outside tracks...does that mean the longer outside tracks have more data on them? (presumably so...) if thats the case then one might expect that the oustisde tracks actually will be going across data cluster more quickly than inside tracks...

Hope that is somewhat clear...its tough to visualize...

Mike

[Shadow ÒÓ]

depends on perspective. The inside doesn't spin faster than the outside, however it covers "more ground". It's impossible for the outside to move at a higher rpm than the inside. Draw a line from the center out, and put it on a record player....the line will pass the same spot every time at the exact same time, no matter if it's on the inside edge or outside.

and the amount of data around the inside of the edge holds as much info as the outside edge. It's just more spread out on the outside.

[wild_andy_c]

CD's and DVD's do spin at variable rates dependant upon track location - hard disks however don't - they burst on and burst off.

[The Pingmaster]

The inside doesn't spin faster than the outside, however it covers "more ground".

That's what I was trying to say.

[Breadfan]

Cool, its making more sense now!

Mike