The drive looks the same as the standard WD1000 model with 2 MB buffer that we already reviewed some months ago. While IDE drives formerly only had buffer sizes between 64 and 512 kB, most drives are equipped with 2 MB today. Thanks to low DRAM prices, hard drives with 4, 8, or even more MBs of buffer memory should be inexpensive and easy to acquire. As the buffer size should increase with the capacity, it was time to release a drive with an 8 MB cache.

Currently, only some SCSI drives have an 8 or 16 MB cache memory. This is mainly due to the most important applications for SCSI drive arrays: file and database servers. If frequent access to data is the goal, the process can be accelerated considerably with larger caches.

Jumper Setup: It's Easy

Removing the jumper would make the drive run in single mode, as in neutral position (see image).". The positions for master or slave mode are printed on the PCB in order to make the setup as easy as possible.