Hard drive cache?

[wctyler]

So.... I'm looking for a hard drive with 100gig or more space to use in an external USB enclosure. Does the cache matter? For the price, I might go with the 8mb cache in case I want to put it in my PC some day.... but I'm wondering if it matters.

[John Prophet]

yes, 8m cache is better...especially since the hard drive is the current "bottleneck" of most systems...so a little improvement in the hard drive goes farther than improvements elsewhere

[wctyler]

Yes, but if it's used on a USB2.0 interface, is it still the bottleneck or is the USB the bottleneck?

[sechs]

The USB is the bottleneck. In an external USB enclosure, it's largely irrelevant whether the drive has a cache or not.

[John Prophet]

hmm, not sure about that sechs. A usb 2 setup is still pretty fast...though firewire has proved to be a little faster. Either way the 8m cache is better.

[Shawn711]

IMO, it's worth the extra cash for the 8 mb cache just for the simple fact that most 2 mb cache hard drives come with only a 1 yr manufacturer's warranty as 8 mb cache models come with a 3 yr warranty. To me, that warrants most of the extra cost in itself.

Shawn