Hard drive Cache?

guitarbth · 3rd April 2005

What exactly is the Cache of a drive? Ive seen 8MB and 2MB... what will the difference be in these two caches? Thanks so much for your input.

Brandon

StefanM · 5th April 2005

you can think of the drives cache as a buffer (of RAM) which decouples the drive from the bus (ide or scsi) to which it is connected.
If an application reads the same sectors from the drive over and over again the drive delivers data from the cache rather then from the disc surface. In this way the bigger cache (8MB) is obviously more desireable then the smaller one...
BUT a drive has many more performance parameters to be taken into account!

Cheers,

Stefan

Durv · 5th April 2005

i've seen new ones with 16MB!
Durv

cl516 · 5th April 2005

do Firewire 800 drives have 16mb cache yet?
(for Mac compatible)

3rd April 2005	#1
guitarbth Gear maniac Joined: Apr 2004 Location: Nashville, TN Posts: 181 Thread Starter	Hard drive Cache? What exactly is the Cache of a drive? Ive seen 8MB and 2MB... what will the difference be in these two caches? Thanks so much for your input. Brandon

5th April 2005	#2
StefanM Gear maniac Joined: Dec 2004 Location: Germany Posts: 272	you can think of the drives cache as a buffer (of RAM) which decouples the drive from the bus (ide or scsi) to which it is connected. If an application reads the same sectors from the drive over and over again the drive delivers data from the cache rather then from the disc surface. In this way the bigger cache (8MB) is obviously more desireable then the smaller one... BUT a drive has many more performance parameters to be taken into account! Cheers, Stefan __________________ http://www.proaudioart.com http://www.mixingonly.com http://www.masteringonly.com

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5th April 2005	#3
Durv Gear addict Joined: Nov 2004 Location: Baltimore MD Posts: 400	i've seen new ones with 16MB! Durv

5th April 2005	#4
cl516 Lives for gear Joined: Mar 2004 Location: Toronto Posts: 1,224	do Firewire 800 drives have 16mb cache yet? (for Mac compatible)