16MB vs 32MB Cache. Worth the extra money?

[shebalord]

Hi ppl,

I'm getting 2 new hd's but I'm just wondering is the 32mb much better than the 16mb to justify the cost difference? I will be getting a smaller hd for installing Vista and software only, the other big one for storage of media files.

I do some gaming, but only playing World of Warcraft now. But I plan on playing Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2 when they come out. Will my main drive be good enough?

I'm looking at these:

For Vista:
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250410AS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

For media files:
WD Caviar SE16 WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

Get this instead of 16mb cache?
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3500320AS 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

Thanks in advance!

 

[madhatter256]

32mb is better for large capacity HDDs, ESPECIALLY, if that HDD is used for swap files, main OS HDD, lot's of reading/writing to.

If you are just going to use a large capacity HDD for simple storage/backup and/or watching movies from it, then a 16mb cache will be just fine.

I have a 400gig w/ 8mb cache and I just use it for backing up and watching lots of videos from it, nothing too intensive.

I also have a 160gig seagate as my C: drive (XP) and have all my PC games installed on it (40 PC games total) and they take up no more than 40% of the drive.

That 250gig is just fine as a main HDD and all of your games, and the 640gig for storing your videos, music, etc.

 

[CGR]

In all honesty the performance difference, if any, will be small. I would get the cheaper of the two.

 

[meionm]

Wd is better drive and for $5 more you get extra 140gb

 

[Gabkicks]

I had the same question, and i was told to just go w/ the WD 640gb drive. and as you can see from my sig, I did

 

[CGR]

The only WD drives I will use are Raptor/Vraptor.

 

[shebalord]

Thanks for the replies guys!

I went ahead and got the 250gig and the 640gig!

 

[VinnyTAMU]

I have three hard drives that I have used for my VISTA OS partition over the last year:

1. ST3250410AS (Seagate, 250 GB, 1 platter, 16 MB cache)
2. ST3500320AS (Seagate, 500 GB, 2 platter, 32 MB cache)
3. WD6400AAKS ( Western Digital, 640 GB, 2 platter, 16 MB cache)

Honestly I cannot tell any difference between the three.

 

[Slmhofy]

yeah, I think you made a good choice. I just picked up one of those 6400aaks' too