Which disk drive to use as system drive ?

Johnny Storm

Hi,

I recently got a second disk drive for additional storage. I do not intend to use RAID. I had planned to use the newer drive as the system drive but surprisingly the old one has a faster access time. Other measurements are better for the new one

Any advice on which I should use as the system drive?

Both are Seagate Barracudas. I got the following measurements from a program called HD Tune:



Capacity: 160MB - 250MB
Av Transfer: 44.1 - 54.4
Access time: 13.0 - 15.7
Burst Rate :: 68.7 - 103.2
CPU use ::: 9.2 - 10.9

Any advice appreciated. Thanks.
(PS - I searched this forum using the words "system drive "and only got a blank screen)

DemonOfTheFall

If youre not pushed about startup times, stick with what you have to save hassle. Otherwise use the 250GB one and take a 60 gig partition off it for windows and all that

Matthewthebig

Slightly OT here. But how does one know if their motherboard is capable of handling SATA2?

Johnny Storm

Matthewthebig wrote:

Slightly OT here. But how does one know if their motherboard is capable of handling SATA2?

I hate to suggest reading the manual - but if all else fails....

CuLT

Hehe, 160MB-250MB
I certainly hope that's not the capacity

I'd use the faster one for the system drive, pure storage devices don't need to be fast, just big (in almost every case for home computers).
The faster drive will just allow programs to load faster, better use of the page file etc. and just give an all around better system performance.

Johnny Storm

Oops. Thanks. I mean GB of course (my age showing there )

When you say use the faster one - this is what's confusing me - is the faster one the one with lowest access time or the one with highest average transfer rate or burst time (whatever that is?)?

CuLT

Lowest access time is what would be most important for OS, programs, etc, I should think.

Johnny Storm

Thanks everyone for the help