Large Cache, Slow Drive or Small Cahce, Fast Drive?

[Purphoros]

Hey everyone!

I'm in the market for more storage and I've come across a few options which seem to fit my needs in the Seagate BarraCuda line.

 

Specifically:
ST4000DM005
4Tb 7200RPM drive with 64Mb of Cache

and
ST4000DM004

4Tb 5400RPM drive with 256Mb of Cache

 

My use case is generally long term storage of large files, movies, songs, shows etc.  It is unlikely I would write to these drives every few weeks and it would likely be a large file of 10Gb or more.  I'm not sure if going with larger cache or a faster drive would make more sense in this situation, or if going for something like a WD Red.  Thoughts?

TL;DR:

Larger cache or faster drive for semi-frequent writes of >10gb?

[Electronics Wizardy]

Cache sizes really don't matter on a hdd. Its not really a cache, but more like a write buffer, and your not doing lots of high queue depth writes where it makes a difference.

 

I get the 7200rpm one, a bit faster(but really not much, there is really much more than rpm to speed). Or just get the cheaper one, it really won't make a difference.

[Purphoros]

1 minute ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Cache sizes really don't matter on a hdd. Its not really a cache, but more like a write buffer, and your not doing lots of high queue depth writes where it makes a difference.

 

I get the 7200rpm one, a bit faster(but really not much, there is really much more than rpm to speed). Or just get the cheaper one, it really won't make a difference.

Would I notice a difference if I used one as a Steam drive?

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, Purphoros said:

Would I notice a difference if I used one as a Steam drive?

load times are gonna be pretty simmilar, and slow.

 

Id get a ssd cache if you want to load games quickly

[Purphoros]

Just now, Electronics Wizardy said:

load times are gonna be pretty simmilar, and slow.

 

Id get a ssd cache if you want to load games quickly

Thanks, I do have an SSD which I use for most games, I would likely only need this for the overflow.

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 minute ago, Purphoros said:

Thanks, I do have an SSD which I use for most games, I would likely only need this for the overflow.

Id also consider just using your ssd with the hdd as a single tiered volume with storage spaces.

[Purphoros]

1 minute ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Id also consider just using your ssd with the hdd as a single tiered volume with storage spaces.

I'll look into that, it would use the SSD like a cache right?

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, Purphoros said:

I'll look into that, it would use the SSD like a cache right?

yea, it puts files you use most on the ssd. And it makes it into one bigger volume

[Purphoros]

Just now, Electronics Wizardy said:

yea, it puts files you use most on the ssd. And it makes it into one bigger volume

Would I need any special software for that or will Windows be able to handle it on its own?

[Electronics Wizardy]

2 minutes ago, Purphoros said:

Would I need any special software for that or will Windows be able to handle it on its own?

windows has storage spaces built in that let you do this. You need to use power shell though

[Purphoros]

Just now, Electronics Wizardy said:

windows has storage spaces built in that let you do this. You need to use power shell though

That's fine, I'm fluent in Google.