Gaming HDD's...Cache or RPM speed?

[BstOnTheBrain]

Searching for HDD's that would be best for gaming..iv heard 2, 10,000 RPM in RAID would be best and iv also heard 16mb Cache is what i should get. Now, i know i cant get a HDD with 16mb Cache and 10,000 spin so what should i be looking for? Should i look for higher Cache or faster spin?

 

[BigJk-47]

1 word comes to mind...raptor.

 

[Rattle]

best bang for the buck is any hard drive with 200 or more gigs 16mb cache and 7200rpm, raptors are way overrated IMO

 

[Xoligy]

i love my raptor best 120quid i spent on my computer imo

 

[Sir. BOBSONATOR]

120 QUID!

now you can find the 74 gig for 120 american!

 

[Yuriman]

I got 2x 80GB SATA II Hitachi's for RAID, and I'm quite happy with the upgrade. Hard drives really don't have any effect on your gaming experience, other than load times (as long as you have plenty of ram), get one with a lot of space or spend the cash on something else that needs upgrading. Such as ram.

 

[ckj]

15,000 rpm scsi if you want the best. Expensive though.

 

[mdcomp]

Hard Drive question, Hard Drive section...moved.
Please remember to post in the appropriate section. Thank you.


Matt

 

[Snugglebear]

You want the lowest seek time combined with the highest transfer rate you can afford. Spindle speed has an inverse relationship with seek times and a positive relationship with transfer rates. Just understand that transfer rates do not grow linearly with spindle speeds, as once you've reached 10k RPM or higher, manufacturers use smaller disk platters, resulting in lower areal densities and lower transfer rates at a given spindle speed (i.e. if you spin a 15k RPM drive at 7.2k RPM, it will likely transfer contiguous data less fast than a same-generation native 7.2k RPM drive). If they used the larger platters they'd have too many drives fail due to heat and vibration, not to mention have to pay a penalty in longer seek times.

So as someone who games with 15k RPM SCSI drives, yes, it is much better than 7.2k RPM ATA units. Even the 10k RPM ATA units are much nicer than 7.2k RPM units.