8 MB buffer vs. 2 MB buffer

[jtommyj]

I have a chance to get a WD hard drive with 8 MB buffer. I have a Tyan Dually system with a 20 GB HD for OS (Win XP Pro and Win 2K3 Server dual boot) a 45 GB IBM for conversion files and a 160 GB Maxtor for storage of DVD files. My set up has 1.5 GB registered PC-2100 and 2x AMD XP1900+ processors.
Does anyone have any expereience or advice if the 8 MB buffer would speed up the AVI to DVD conversion using TMPGENC versus staying with a 2 MB buffer ?
Maybe a little technical but just looking for someone who may ahve recently upgraded hard drives and has any input.

[lgh529]

I could be wrong, but increasing the HD buffer will not increase the speed of MPEG encoding. MPEG encoding is more of a processor and RAM issue as opposed to a disk issue.

[nerdboy69]

I agree. I don't think it will help.
It may help with video capture where you are getting occasional dropped frames, but unlikely to help with re-encoding as this is more CPU bound.

The extra buffer is more likely to be noticeable for bursts of HD access, not for a constant stream.

[sterno]

A larger cache on the HD is very unlikely to improve encoding speed because it will probably take longer to process a frame of video than to read it from the disk. A larger cache can sometimes hurt you when you capture. But for an application/system drive or a general data (not video stuff, smaller files) drive it can improve overall performance.