I wish you went into more detail as to why you make the recomendations you do. Both drives on a single IDE channel (primary or secondary) will be forced to the interface speed of the slower drive, tis true... but why do you recommend trying to match the rotational speed of the drives? It really doesn't make a difference either way. Sure, one drive will be faster/slower then the other. If you're going to recommend sorting your files between drives, then, well, you take that into account. If you're going to recommend RAIDing them, then you end up with an effective speed somewhere between the speed of the individual drives. Even if you do end up with different interface speeds, that's why you've got two channels. (More, with SATA boards.)
James Mastros (theorbtwo) -- james.mastros@biz (reverse . and @).
Two things: First, I have 600 words max. (Originally 400 words, but, since I don't get paid by the word there, I talked them into a longer piece that fits an online "page" better.)Still, there's just so much you can do in that amount of space, while still maintaining a "voice" (a.k.a., attitude, by request).
Second, I'm from the Satchel Paige school of hard drive selection: "Never look back. You don't know who's gaining on you." In other words, don't devolve your computer system. That's why I recommended that they crap-can anything less than an ATA100. And I recommended that they "get a drive that's close to the technical specs of the one you have." You'd have to be crazy to mount a 5400rpm drive along with a 7200rpm model but that does leave wiggle room.
Third, you said it yourself, "Sure, one drive will be faster/slower then the other," and previously, "Both drives on a single IDE channel (primary or secondary) will be forced to the interface speed of the slower drive." I would change that to 'actual operating speed' and then ask, "Will a 5400rpm drive be slower than a 7200rpm drive? Will you be offloading files from your primary to your secondary?" Yes and darn yes. Should your secondary be slower in any case, no way.
Fourth, you're going to love the next installment when I explain CS v. M/S... And the one after that when I compare USB and FireWire external speeds will simply slay you. ;-)
The only time I saw any 'speed' change or slowdown was during booting. The slow 5400 40gb drive was my storage drive the 7200 30gb was my bootdrive. during normal use things ran fine it was when I transfered files or plain used the slow drive that things slowed down. Not enough to walk away for an hour but still it slowed down. 2 Maxtor 200gb 7200rpm drives later I am a happy camper. :)
I had two of those, Hitachi, $1500 a pop back in the day. If you have a small boat, put the drive in a bucket and fill the bucket with cement. Makes a great anchor.
