Harddrives...

B

bbundy96

New member
Hey everyone,
I am building a new computer using Western Digital's new IDE 1000BB Special Edition (100 Gig) harddrive for my audio storage. It will be partitioned into 50 Gig parts. It's a fast drive, running almost equal (and faster in some areas) with Seagate's SCSI 15000 RPM Cheetah and also has an 8mb cache. You can find it for about $225 US on the web. (Maximum PC did the benchmarking).

I have been thinking... will using a slower harddrive for my applications software (I am using Sonar 1.0) make a difference in the performance and latency issue? Should I use evenly matched harddrives for both my audio storage and applications? Am I thinking too much? I'd rather spend under $100 for a 30-40 Gig harddrive for my apps if I wouldnt notice a difference then over $200 for the 1000BB SE. Any input would be appreciated.

BTW, the specs on the new computer are:
Pentium IV 1.8Mhz Northwood (512k cache),
Asus P4T-E w/ on-board sound,
(2) 512Mb ECC RDRAM RIMMs,
MOTU 24i w/ PCI-324 card,
ATI Radeon 7500.

Jim
Hazlet, NJ
 
Jim,

> will using a slower harddrive for my applications software (I am using Sonar 1.0) make a difference in the performance and latency issue? <

No, all that is affected is how quickly the program starts. Latency is mostly a function of CPU and memory speed, and how well the sound card drivers are written. So put your money into a fast drive for storing audio, and don't worry about the drive for Windows and your programs.

--Ethan
 
Ethan is right.

FYI: I just bought a Western Digital 40 gig 7200 ATA-100 drive, $95. That would be more than adequte for a system or data drive.
 
I was gonna say something about virtual memory and hard disk speed, but then I noticed how much RAM you have....never mind.

You could be a guinea pig and see if you can use a RAM drive for audio work, and then see how it improves performance.
 
I recently got a 40GB liquid bearing (quiet) Maxtor 7200RPM drive for $85 + $10 shipping from NewEgg.com. Good deal...I'm a big maxtor fan. You guys probably like western digital because your minds have been infected by radioactive waves from aliens who plan to take over the world after causing massive data failures. Think about it. What's WD spelled backwards? Latigid Nretsew. If that's not an alien name, I don't know what is....and not just the illegal kind of aliens, I'm talking about the spaceship kind.

Slackmaster 2000
 
WD 1000BB SE is just a the model name. The 1000 stands for 100Gig and the SE is for "special edition". Special edition versions have an 8mb cache rather than a 2 or 4mb.
 
Slack, you are so close to the truth its scary...if i were you id delete the post and forget you ever thunk it......
 
I've been lokking for some good "STUFF" for awhile now. Can you pass the connection my way and maybe I can grow some myself.
 
Actually I like both Maxtor and Western Digital, they have both been pretty good to me over the years. Whichever of those two is on sale would be fine. It was a 12 gig Maxtor that just got fried by my would-be Athlon motherboard (see my post on Athlon Mobo's) and prompted my latest urgent purchase. If I had known about the "quiet" Maxtor, and had time to wait for one by mail, that would have been a good choice.

Right now I would tend to walk away from Fujitu, Samsung, and IBM drives. They would probably be fine, I just don't think they are as good Max or Wes.

Oh, and Slackmaster IS a space alien, haven't you noticed?
 
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