Cache Size vs RPM - Which is Faster?

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shane01101

Registered

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Joined

Apr 18, 2010

• Apr 24, 2010

• #1

Im looking into buying a new HD I found these two...
1)seagate 1.5tb 7200rpm 32mb cache
or
2)Western Digital 1TB 5400RPM 64MB Cache

I know one has more size but I am more concerned with speed, and they both cost 69.99

Which one is faster? One has Higher RPM and one has higher cache size. links below.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicat...1&csid=ITD&recordsPerPage=5&body=#ReviewStart - Seagate

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136490 - Western Digital

Sry if this is a n00b question

 

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Psykoikonov

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Joined

Dec 16, 2003

Location

ON, CA

• Apr 24, 2010

• #2

RPM will win overall, the cache size is different by 32MB so if the file to be written is more than 32MB but less than 64MB the 5400RPM drive might be faster, however that is a rare case, all other cases will favor the 7200RPM drive.

 

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Old Thrashbarg

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Joined

Sep 26, 2007

• Apr 24, 2010

• #3

Realistically, cache size hasn't mattered at all since it reached about 8MB. After that it pretty much just became a marketing tool... bigger numbers look better on the box.

 

dejo

Senior Moment Senior Member

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Joined

Nov 11, 2001

• Apr 24, 2010

• #4

if you are worried about performance, I would totally disregaurd the WD green drives. I have one that is just laying here as a music backup. it is literally half as fast as my seagate 7200.11.

 

deathman20

High Speed Premium Senior

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Joined

Aug 5, 2002

• Apr 24, 2010

• #5

The cache size is another buffer space is all. If writing a bunch of small files it stores more in the cache til it can write to the drive. Large files it probably doesn't use it or if it is, its there and gone in a flash.

RPM always wins, cache size is nice, but its an after thought these days.

 

Neuromancer

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Joined

Oct 11, 2005

Location

Tau'ri

• Apr 24, 2010

• #6

IF it is for staorgae the Greenpowers are excellent. I pull about 70+MB/s transfer speed off of my HTPC (running 2 1TB Green power storage drives)

Only problem with them is there is a short lag while they spin up.

I would never consider them as an OS drive though.