HD going bad

**Bunni** · 08-04-08, 01:20 PM

Currently im getting tons of bad block logs on my main os hd, its 10000rpm. Is the performence boost worth it to buy a new 10,000rpm hd or just replace it with a 72000rpm?

**Mojo** · 08-04-08, 02:26 PM

If it's speed you're looking for: it still depends on $$ and cache size of the drives.
Are you doing any video editing, or just gaming? Maybe only load maps faster, in game, prolly little or no difference.

What HD are you using? Raptor? IDE? SATA? RAID? or a single drive?
Do a hardware analysis to view cache size.

example:

Brand: Western Digital
Series: Raptor
Capacity 36GB
RPM 10,000 RPM
Cache 16MB
Average Seek Time 4.6ms
Average Write Time 5.2ms
Average Latency 2.99ms

Could go RAID0, but run risk of losing array, if a single drive fails, and only (maybe) a 1/16th sec. faster (2x 7,200rpm) than a single 10,000 with same cache sizes.

SiSoft Sandra, or Everest can give these figures, if you don't have the box it came in.
Sandra Lite:
http://www.sisoftware.net/index.html...ll&langx=en&a=
Everest free ed.
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4181.html

I tried the 2x 7,200 rpm RAID0, and couldn't tell any difference from single HD, but number crunching, was a higher score in tests. Went back to single 7,200 and I'm happy, just got an extra DATA HD to store stuff in. Never had a 10k HD though.

**SapiensErus** · 08-04-08, 03:51 PM

I am running RAID0 with 2 7200rpm HDDs and load times for BF2 maps are noticeably faster. Otherwise it is not much different than a single drive. And toms hardware discussion led me to believe that my RAID0 is faster than a 10000rpm HDD single.

So, the performance increase is not so much. But if you got dough to burn... try RAID0 Raptors?

**Bunni** · 08-04-08, 04:03 PM

i have a raid 5 setup with several disks for ~2tb of hd. But the disk that is failing i use for xp and vista os's. All my work is on the raid (and a backup) so really i only use the failing hd for 2 os's and a game or two.

What exactly does the cache do?

**SapiensErus** · 08-04-08, 04:14 PM

Stores information to be written and some information that might be read.

Mostly stores information to write (significantly decreasing write times). But I have not sen that the cache beyond 4mb or whatever does much.

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=71367

**Mojo** · 08-04-08, 08:32 PM

Here's some data on different drives, and their performance. (higher #, = better/faster)
Maybe this will help to make your decision.

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/h...mance,658.html

**Cybs** · 08-06-08, 04:49 PM

Originally Posted by Mojo

Here's some data on different drives, and their performance. (higher #, = better/faster)
Maybe this will help to make your decision.

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/h...mance,658.html

Hmm, time to upgrade my drives. I have 2 36Gb Raptors in a striped raid. Yes, they are stupid fast. Time for 2 Velociraptors...