[dba-Tech] What's Better?

Hi Rocky,
Depends, generally the higher rotation speed would be faster but it depends
on the age of the drives (which you probably aren't going to find out until
you have them in hand). Higher burst speeds, disk buffers and wider
bandwidth can make some difference in the overall performance. Hard drives
are somewhat difficult to test because the test situation doesn't reflect
typical usage (which of course is dependent on you). The tests are kind of
"brute force" for the most part and hard drives have some intelligence built
into their subsystems which adapt to various scenarios.

Long story short - I'd buy the faster RPM because its more than likely the
newer technology of the two. If it's just for backup storage I wouldn't get
either one. I'd get the biggest external USB drive possible (within my
budget) and schedule backups for off hours so the speed wouldn't matter :o)
 
John B.

-----Original Message-----
From: dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Rocky Smolin at
Beach Access Software
Sent: Thursday, November 13, 2008 9:22 AM
To: List; 'Off Topic'
Subject: [dba-Tech] What's Better?

A 320GB HD @ 5200RPM or
a 250GB HD @ 7200RPM?
 
Do the rpms make a huge difference in data transfer?