ATA/133 w/ 2MB Buffer vs. ATA/100 w/8MB

[Mongox]

I've got a new partial system coming in this week (see http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/262452-30-ma785gm-us2h-ma785g-ud3h-suggestions if interested) and I'm looking thru my fairly large collections of IDE hard drives to decide which to use as my boot and program drive for Win XP. I'm holding off for a give-away price on a nice SATA drive.

So, of my 40GB and over drives, I've got a few that look promising. One is a Seagate 200GB (Barracuda 7200.7 ST3200822A) which has an 8MB buffer but only supports ATA/100. Another is a WestDig 120GB (WD Caviar WD1200JB) also with 8MB buffer and ATA/100. And I've got a Maxtor 80GB (DiamondMax Plus 9 OJ9027 or 6Y080L0) which only has a 2MB buffer but which supports ATA/133. All are 7200 RPM and working fine.

So... what comes out the fastest? And yes, I'll try some tests on them but tricky to hook up all 3 - I'll have to take CD off for the tests to avoid using my PCI RAID/ATA card to drive some which will skew results.

Anyone know what performs better?

And on my new system I'm getting a few ATA-to-SATA convertors to allow easy use of my IDE drives and get past the limit of only 2 ide devices. Any ideas on whether the convertors on the SATA will run at ATA/133 transfer rates? The board supports ATA/133 but I don't know if only thru the single IDE connector. (It's a Gigabyte ma785gm-us2h) I'm guessing that the system drive would do best on the built-in IDE connector at ATA/133 or even ATA/100 than converted to SATA using the Masscool devices.

Thanks for any replies! For once, I'm actually prepared for a new system, rather than going nuts cause I waited until my main one died! Got all my data moved and duped, "Master" folder with all its goodies and updates on an external 500GB and... well, I'm sure I've forgotten something! Even dug up the CD I call "proof of Win98" for my Win XP Upgrade CD.

 

[r_manic]

Personally, I'd always go for higher buffer. I'd recommend the WD Caviar Black, not the Blue one you were proposing (WD1200JB).

 

[amnotanoobie]

ATA133 really didn't have a massive difference compared to the 100, it'd be a toss-up between the Seagate and the WD. The Seagate might perform better since it could be a later model, but maybe not by much.

 

[Mongox]

One is a Seagate 200GB (Barracuda 7200.7 ST3200822A) which has an 8MB buffer but only supports ATA/100.
Another is a WestDig 120GB (WD Caviar WD1200JB) also with 8MB buffer and ATA/100.
And I've got a Maxtor 80GB (DiamondMax Plus 9 OJ9027 or 6Y080L0) which only has a 2MB buffer but which supports ATA/133.

Well, the ATA133 did seem to be the key factor in my testing.

The Maxtor ATA133 w/2MB came out on top, followed by Seagate ATA100 w/8MB and the WD ATA133 w/8MB. Oddly enough, a WD 100GB Caviar with ATA100 and only 2MB performed equal to the 120MB w/ ATA133 w/8MB. But an identical 100GB was slower. So that two identical drives only a few 100 serial numbers difference, one works better than the other. Of course, these are used drives and one may have been exposed to worse conditions. (All owned by me and used interchanged in same computer.)

Note that both the fastest drives were also the newest ones!

And on my new system I'm getting a few ATA-to-SATA convertors to allow easy use of my IDE drives and get past the limit of only 2 ide devices. Any ideas on whether the convertors on the SATA will run at ATA/133 transfer rates?

These little things work great! I've got 2 by Maascool and another with no brand. They give equal performance to IDE controller when hooked up to SATA ports.

 

[Mongox]

I'd recommend the WD Caviar Black, not the Blue one you were proposing (WD1200JB).

I took your advice and others and got the 1TB Caviar Black - only $99 from local BestBuy. Very happy with it so far even though I can't hear the darned thing even with bare/open case! Extremely fast and quiet.

Thanks!