1MB vs 2MB L2 Cache?

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

In article <43128083$0$13557$8f2e0ebb@news.shared-secrets.com>, Joe
says...
>
> How does a system with a 1MB vs 2MB L2 Cache affect the normal user?
> Normal in the sense of no gaming, hardly any picture editing and
> mainly just burning a lot of images from the DVD/Video groups.
>
Not alot.

> Are there any webpages which explain the difference for this question
> and the one below?
>
Simple analogy:

Which is faster? Recalling something from memory or looking it up in a
book? In this case, the memory refers to the cache and the book refers
to the HDD or System RAM depending on whether you're looking at HDDs or
CPUs.


> While I'm at it, newer hard drives are coming out with 16MB caches
> replacing the 8MB standard - What are the benefits of 8 more megs?
>
More prefetch and repeatedly accessed data held in faster storage.


--
Conor

"You're not married, you haven't got a girlfriend and you've never seen
Star Trek? Good Lord!" - Patrick Stewart, Extras.

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

This really has more to do with the processor making the right
predictions then anything else. Predicitons? Yes, the cache is
filled with what the system thinks you'll need. If it's wrong, it
has to flush the buffer and start over again. Since this is the
case, I really can't tell you if one is better then the other. But
the rule of thumb is; more cache/ memory is always better.

The hard drive is a different matter however. Where the hard drive
cache comes into play is mainly on boot up. It will take the command
files of your normal startup programs, cache them, and dump them to
the processor bus. This will give you performance you really don't
have. I'd like to see about a gig of cache on the drives.

New products are coming out however, and one is a 4 gig card that will
cache the hard drive for you and keep it in memory. They claim a 8
second boot with that setup.

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

"Joe" <Joe@.> wrote in message
news:43128083$0$13557$8f2e0ebb@news.shared-secrets.com...
>
> How does a system with a 1MB vs 2MB L2 Cache affect the normal user?
> Normal in the sense of no gaming, hardly any picture editing and
> mainly just burning a lot of images from the DVD/Video groups.

As a user, you don't need to worry about size of L2 cache - or any other
aspect of the CPU. It all comes down to actual performance. You can use
the CPU charts at Tom's Hardware to compare performance among CPU's.

http://www23.tomshardware.com/index.html
>
> Are there any webpages which explain the difference for this question
> and the one below?
>
> While I'm at it, newer hard drives are coming out with 16MB caches
> replacing the 8MB standard - What are the benefits of 8 more megs?