Re: Faster hard drive

[Andrew Kershaw]

Keep in mind that the 5300 can only work with hard drives in PIO 
Mode-4.  That should give a grand total of some 16 or so MB/s under 
ideal conditions.  Combined with the fact that the 5300 can't do any 
DMA (direct memory access) of any sort, has a very slow system bus 
(33 MHz) and a pokey CPU (100 - 117 MHz), you won't get much more 
benefit from anything modern over anything even 6 years old at 5400 
RPM.

So, really, anything over 5400 RPM won't ever really be noticed. 
Newer drives that use DMA, UATA, ATA-6, whatever-fancy-feature aren't 
any better than your bog standard 5400 RPM IBM, Toshiba, Hitachi, 
whatever drive from 6 years ago.

So don't go crazy and buy a spec'ed out new hard drive when another 
drive on the used market can save you $100.

One thing that's nice about new drives is the _huge_ buffer.  8 MB of 
buffer can be nice when you are constantly accessing the same info. 
It can also help to keep power expenditure down.  Combined with 
setting the Mac OS's disk cache to some ridiculous value, you can 
really (being a relative term, of course) save battery life while on 
the road.

Peace,
Drew
--
Author of ClassicStumbler
email: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
web: <http://www.alksoft.com/>
Visit the PowerBook 5300 FAQ!
<http://www.alksoft.com/5300_FAQ/>
--
PowerBooks is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and...
 Small Dog Electronics    http://www.smalldog.com   | Enter To Win A |
 -- Canon PowerShot Digital Cameras start at $299   |  Free iBook!   |
     Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html>
PowerBooks list info:   <http://lowendmac.com/lists/powerbooks.shtml>
 --> AOL users, remove "mailto:";
Send list messages to:  <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To unsubscribe, email:  <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/powerbooks%40mail.maclaunch.com/>
Using a Mac? Free email & more at Applelinks! http://www.applelinks.com