finally got a new hdd. seagate 320gig sataII 16mb cache perpendicualr recording

its random acess time is slower than my 80gig hitachi sataII, but its average and burst speeds are much faster.

I've got several of these, great drives all around (speed/noise/heat/warranty/etc), and excellent $/GB ratio.

I see it also uses twice the CPU power, 2% VS 4%. Looks good, best drive you can buy now!

Since both numbers are +/- 2%, chances are it could be less Likely it's not, but one has to take the numbers with a grain of salt. It's only so accurate (ain't 2.0 vs 4.0, both could be around 3 really). Besides, it's reading quite a bit faster (66 vs 50), so a little more CPU usage wouldn't be very surprising (can't see it use an extra 2% of an OC'ed opteron 170's time though)

i ran the test multiple times and got 3-4% each time. not like it matter tho, my opteron is plenty able to handle it.