SATA and IDE disc drives

[ppppenguin]

Modern discs are much faster than older ones. Much of the improvements come about from the increased cache memory on the controllers - coupled with the fact that the interface can access that cache much more quickly. Of course, the greater density, meaning more bits per tack, really helps. What hasn't really altered is the track-to-track seek times, which is why caching is so important. In short, treat yourself to a new SATA drive sometime - even second-hand - and I think you might be impressed...

Or even splash out on a solid state disk. Seek time is essentially zero.

Probably not the latest design or best value but my Crucial MX100 512GB drives were I think, under £150 each. Expensive compared to ordinary spinning rust but fast and high quality. Alas, almost a year on, I still haven't finally commissioned the PC they're used in.