32mb vs. 64mb cache on wd green drive

bbzidane · Post by **bbzidane** » Thu Jan 14, 2010 1:05 pm

just wondering if anyone knows if having a bigger cache makes a noticeable difference or not.

im building upgrading my current machine to a i3 530 processor, new mb, ram. after reading the review on wd green drive here, im looking to use the wd 1.5tb drives as it was reviewed to be better than the 1tb and 2tb.

looking at newegg, they have both the 32mb and 64mb cache 1.5tb. the 64mb cost a bit more but not by too much that would put me off of buying it. but if i can save a few bucks because it doesnt make a difference, i rather save a few bucks.

the system will look something like this:

cpu: i3 530
mb: gigabye ga-h55-usb3 (if it comes out soon, mwave has it listed for jan 18)
ram: 2 x (2x2gb) corsair memory (i just like knowing that i have more than enough memory)
hdd: 2x1.5tb wd drive, 1x80gb intel ssd
cooling: thermalright venomous w/ noctua fan, 1x noctua fan for the case
p/s: picopsu 90 or 120.

hopefully the picopsu is enough to drive this setup.

lm · Post by lm » Thu Jan 14, 2010 3:12 pm

Spinning up those hard drives might put you over the limit of the pico. Why not 150?

whiic · Post by **whiic** » Thu Jan 14, 2010 5:00 pm

New Greenpower generations are better than the old ones. 1st generation GP used to pull a ridiculous power spike from 12V line on power-up. Totally ridiculous, that is. 28.1 watts for WD10EACS (1st gen) as measured by Storagereview. WD20EADS need only 11.5 watts. Both are mechanically similar, 4-platter drives. WD20EADS's measurement is lowest for all measured desktop HDDs in SR database, and that includes 1-platter drives as well. Ironically, the second best is Hitachi 7K400 (5-platter, 7200rpm) with 15.0 watts.

Biggest difference between EADS and EARS is not 32MB vs. 64MB cache size but 512 byte vs 4096 byte physical sector size. EARS is the currently the only mass-produced HDD that uses 4096 byte sectors. It's the only one mainly because it's the first... there'll be others.

There is some performance issues with WinXP and older OSes running EARS as partitions will usually get misaligned.

bbzidane · Post by **bbzidane** » Thu Jan 14, 2010 5:23 pm

thanks for the info on the power difference for the 1st vs 2nd gen.
sounds like i will be getting new hdds.

whiic · Post by **whiic** » Fri Jan 15, 2010 8:11 am

1st vs 2nd gen? Nope. More like 1st vs 3rd gen (when it comes to peak current measurements) and 3rd gen vs 4th gen (when it comes to comparison of EADS vs EARS and their sector size).

1st gen = 250GB/pl
2nd gen = 334GB/pl
3rd gen = 500GB/pl
4rg gen = 500GB/pl with 4K sectors

Do note that while 3rd/4th gen 2TB draws less than half peak current during start-up, it consumes more electricity while it's powered on. This of course might not be a problem for the PSU...