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From: klm@munsell.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Cheap disk drives
Message-ID: <1367@squeaker.munsell.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 12-Nov-87 17:04:28 EST
Article-I.D.: squeaker.1367
Posted: Thu Nov 12 17:04:28 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 14-Nov-87 16:49:15 EST
References: <73@mithras> <303@uscacsc.UUCP> <186@dalcsug.UUCP>
Reply-To: klm@squeaker.UUCP (Kevin [Being Weird Isn't Enough] McBride)
Organization: Eikonix Corp., Bedford, MA
Lines: 31
Keywords: IBM Cheap

In article <186@dalcsug.UUCP> peter@dalcsug.UUCP (Peter Philip) writes:
>Now, I do know that when you buy a hard disk, you look for a low seek
>and access time, but in reality, what is the difference between a 
>drive with 65ns access time and 35ns access time?  Would this make
            ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>a visible difference in normal operation?  How can I tell what are
>reasonable speeds for the various specifications given in the magazines?

Whoo!  Gosh!  Where do I sign up for one of these?!! :-) :-)

In reality, you wouldn't notice the difference between two drives
that went that fast.

Access time (like 65 milliseconds (ms) and 35 ms) is the time it takes to
move the head from track to track.  Another spec. that is important is
the transfer rate (i.e. how fast data goes to and comes from the drive.)

If your file system (AmigaDOG) does a lot of thrashing, then you will
probably notice a difference between a 65ms seek time and a 35ms seek time
drive.  The 35ms drive will be faster.

In real reality, it might not make that much difference, because the
Amiga can't advantage of really fast disks anyway.

Most of the famous name drives you see advertised are of reasonable speed.
That doesn't mean I'd want to use one on a VME bus, though.
-- 
Kevin McBride, the guy in the brace //       | Your mind is totally controlled
Eikonix - A Kodak Co.              //        | It has been stuffed into my mold
Billerica, MA                  \\ //  Amiga  | And you will do as you are told
{encore,adelie}!munsell!klm     \X/   Rules! | until the rights to you are sold