| laborlitigator |
Looking into getting an external HD.
2 questions:
1. Will I notice the difference between a 5400 and a 7200 rpm speeds?
2. What is the purpose of the cache buffer? 8 mb, 16 mb?
Purpose of the drive is to back up my word processing and client files.
Thanks in advance. |
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| komondor |
| the difference in speeds between the drives depends upon other factors. Basic rule of thumb is bigger cache faster drive is better cache bigger is always better. Rotation speed is a bit more iffy. For an external HD heat can be an issue so the slower drive could be better. For backups you might notice a difference but it might not matter if a backup takes 40 or 42 minutes. I would just get the drive with the largest capacity and do some research on the brand online. Some drives have had more problems than others. Buying an external case and a drive separate can save some $$ if you are handy |
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| dj-mdx2 |
| The speed difference is probably negligible for word processing purposes. What may make a difference is how you're gonna hook it up to your PC. The most common interfaces are USB and FireWire or 1394. The latter has a slight advantage in terms of speed. A lot of external HD enclosures include both. As for cache memory, the bigger the better. It is a type of easily accessible RAM used to dump recent data. The PC looks there first, thereby saving processing time. |
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| Warzau |
| actuall usb 2.0 is a little faster but of course it all depends on your computer. But if you need if just for storage you can go for the slowest and least cache ( less cost). But if you are going to use if for external storage for video editing get the fastest and most cache. The advantage of USB is virtually all recent computers have usb be it 1 or 2.0. And it is backward compatible. but in the end it would be best to get one with both interface. |
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