which of 2 drives would You pick for boot drive??

[muffinman]

I got a 20 gig ata 66 7200rpm drive, and a 40 gig ata 100 5400rpm. Which one will have the fastest performance for the boot drive. In essence, will the ata affect performance more so than the rpm?

Cheers,
Greg

 

[John]

Without knowing more about the drives, going by what you list then I say it doesn't matter. I have seen new era 5400 rpm HDD's run the same, if not faster, than an older 7200 rpm HDD.

 

[AndyHui]

The difference in ATA speeds rarely translate into a performance difference.

I would go with the 20GB 7200RPM drive as the boot drive, depending on how old the two drives are.

 

[neuralfx]

which model's are they? from what you have said, the 7200rpm drive ..
-neural

 

[muffinman]

sorry, i forgot to add the make of the drives.......the 20 gig ata 66 7200rpm is a western dig. and the 40 gig ata 100 5400 rpm is a samsung.......the samsung is brand new and the west. dig. is a year old.

 

[oldfart]

I have a WD 15 gig 7200 rpm ATA66 drive and it is not very fast. HDtach benches it ~ 25 MB/sec. Not even maxing out ATA33. Dont know on the Samsung model. I dont think they are known for speed.