On 30/07/2021 15:29, Rich Freeman wrote:
Honestly I feel like the whole SMR thing is a missed opportunity, mainly because manufacturers decided to use it as a way to save a few bucks instead of as a new technology that can be embraced as long as you understand its benefits and limitations. One thing I don't get is why it is showing up on all sorts of smaller drives.
It's showing up on desktops because - PROVIDED THE CACHE IS LARGER THAN THE AMOUNT OF DOCUMENTS IS ABLE TO GET THROUGH - it performs just fine. So if you're using a pre-installed OS, and you mostly use your computer to surf the web, watch youtube videos, etc, you're not going to stress said cache.
Then Windows decides to download a major update and response times go pear-shaped ...
Basically, so long as you don't fill the cache, your typical luser is unlikely to notice. The snag is people like us are much more likely to do things that put the cache under i/o pressure, and it's like a motorway - once the traffic goes above the carrying capacity, throughput COLLAPSES.
Cheers, Wol
