Harddrive Cache

[YoMoma]

How does harddrive cache affect a hard drives perfomance?
Would buying one with 16mb cache be that much better than one with an 8mb cache?

 

[TheJackal]

i think it helps in mobile hard drives.

 

[DougLite]

Depends. Larger buffer always helps application level performance (loading Windows, programs, games, etc). However, it won't increase the transfer rate of the drive (moving MP3s/movies back and forth, etc).

Clicky shows the advantages of moving to a 16MB buffer (admittedly a modest increase in density/transfer rates is also a factor here) on flaghsip Hitachi drives. In the buffer sensitive Office DriveMark, the 16MB buffer boosts performance over 25%. The High-End (workstation) DriveMark is a little more sensitive to linear transfer performance and doesn't emphasize buffer strategy as much as the Office Test. Still, going to 16MB boosts throughput 23%. Gains in the gaming tests, which are very sensitive to seek performance (which the 500GB/16MB drive is actually a little slower in seek time than the 400GB/8MB drive) are smaller, tightly clustered in the 13-14% range in FarCry, Sims2, and WoW.

All other things being equal, expect the 16MB drive to be at least 15% faster in application level performance, as much as 30% faster depending on the application. Of course, gains in application level performance are hard to quantify, but going to a 16MB drive will increase the responsiveness of your system - even better when you consider it's basically free on many drives.