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View Full Version : A simple question im totally stressed over!


Jim82
31st October 2005, 07:42
Im simply trying to find out the best way to layout my 2 hard drives, cant get
a straight answer with regards to them being differant speeds

My Main Drive - 160GB Maxtor 7200rpm
My Slave Drive - 60gb 5200rpm

Now, I understand that when encoding from one drive to another, greater speeds can be achieved, but what about in my case, the issue being one of the drive's speeds - 5200rpm as opposed to 7200rpm

My question is, Would I get best performance, encoding FROM the slower drive TO the main drive (or vice-versa) - this is the one Im thinking would give me best performance as encoding speed isnt faster than a 5200rpm drive
right? OR would I get best encode speeds creating a second partition on my main drive therefore encoding from on partition to another and using the slave as storage OR , to me the most unlikely option, use the main drive with 1 main partitiong and do all encoding, source to destination on the 1 faster drive??

One very important question I need to know is, with any of the setups, would It be more efficient having a small partition on the fast main drive for OS and APPS (25gb will cover it) so thy are uneffected by encoding?

Help would be amazing, this is the last thing thats really bugging me, got my new system running fine, Ive been trying really hard to get solid info on the best way to set up these disks. Once ive got this clued up, I'll be truly optimized!! :)


I will be so relieved when I finally find this one out! :cool:

CWR03
31st October 2005, 09:20
After I point out you've broken two forum rules (a non-descriptive thread title and asking a "what's best" question), the only truly helpful thing I can advise is that partitioning out your hard drive does nothing for encoding speed. It's still one drive, and it's still seeking between application and data. Since all device types and systems are different, the only way to find the fastest method will be to try combinations until you find one that works best for you.

On a side note, a 7200 RPM drive is not by default "faster" than a 5400 RPM drive. There are several other factors involved. For example, I have a five year old 120GB 5200 RPM Maxtor UltraATA 133 with a 2MB cache, and it totally smokes my brand-new 160GB Seagate Barracuda 7200 RPM IDE with an 8MB cache.

Jim82
31st October 2005, 15:01
Cool cheers for the advice, I shall do some experamenting. Ive not read the pm yet but im at a miss on how ive broken any rules - gonna look now

Jim82
31st October 2005, 15:05
fair do's Ill take more care in future folks :rolleyes: