[dba-Tech] What's Better?

I've found that for Access work in particular rotation speed makes a
big difference. As you say there are other factors such as buffering
that factor into it too, but in most cases the faster rotation will
translate to faster transfer rate and faster seek times. As files get
fragmented the faster seek time will really make a difference. In my
opinion. I had a 10,000 rpm SCSI drive in one of my older systems -
until it croaked - and that baby screamed when doing Access work. I
really miss that.

GK

On 11/13/08, John Bartow <john at winhaven.net> wrote:
> 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?
>
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-- 
Gary Kjos
garykjos at gmail.com