[ The PC Guide | Systems and Components Reference Guide | Hard Disk Drives | Hard Disk Performance ]

Hard Disk External Performance Factors

Performance factors that are solely a function of the capabilities of the hard disk drive itself are the internal performance factors. However, there are also external performance factors to be considered, which relate to how the hard disk relates to other components in the system. The most important factor here is the speed of the interface between the hard drive and the rest of the PC, which can be a bottleneck to peak performance.

This section discusses external factors that affect the performance of a hard disk in the "real world" of a system. Note that many of these factors are so external that they don't relate directly to the drive itself, but rather the rest of your system. This means that these factors can be different for the same drive in a different system.

Next: Interface Speed and the External Data Transfer Rate

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