Does hard drive buffer size matter?

http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/perf/perf/spec/otherCache-c.html

As memory prices have fallen into the "dirt cheap" range, drive manufacturers have realized that they can increase the size of their buffers at very little cost. Certainly nothing is lost in doing this; extra cache won't hurt performance; but neither does it greatly improve it. As a result, if interface transfer rate is the "reigning champion" of overrated performance specifications, then cache size is probably the "prime contender". Some people seem to think a 2 MB buffer makes a drive four times as fast as one with a 512 KB buffer! In fact, you'd be hard pressed to find even a 4% difference between them in most cases, all else being equal. Not surprisingly, both external transfer rate and cache size are overrated for the same reason: they apply to only a small percentage of transfers.

The cache size specification is of course a function of the drive's cache characteristics. Unfortunately, manufacturers rarely talk about any characteristics other than the cache's size.

spinning rust HDD performance is a complex thing (lately, determined more often than not by firmware optimizations) and cache size is not a silver bullet by any means.

Rotational speed is a much better predictor of drive performance in my experience: 5,400 rpm is slower than 7,200 rpm, which is slower than 10,000 rpm, which is slower than solid state. Even then there are (rare) exceptions.

That said, at such a low price difference, probably worth it.

It really worths the extra money. Why :

when you try to access a content from hard disk , it takes time to find the content you need. buffer is made from good stuff with high speed access. So when you find a content, it will save them all to buffer through an algorithm .

Conclusion: It makes your HDD disk works faster :) especially with large contents :)

nXqd

It is probably not worth the money, though it depends on your usage.

• When you read large continious files (typical for movies etc) then you are limited to the speed of the actual data transfer of the spindles. Cache will not boost this.
• When you write large files (e.g. isos) then you are limited to the speed of the actual data transfer of the spindles. Cache will not boost this.
• When you write lots of small files then these can fit in the cache and the drive can reorder this writes for higher efficiency. This will help.
• When you read lots of small files and you get lucky then the next file to read may already be in a cached track. It is possible that it helps.

Conclusion: It depends on usage.