And the data gets into memory exactly how? Through thin air? By a miracle? Without pulling it from the disk which would obviously require an I/O? You have I/Os all the time not only when the application requests data which is not in memory. And these I/Os interrupt the CPU.The speed of the HD is not really important here IMHO. It is not about copying lare amounts of data, but about accessing a lot of small files progressivly in order to maintain a permanent flow of small amounts of data.Alex

double post

Hi Alex,There is no need to turn sarcastic on me. I know perfectly well how data comes from the hard disk into memory...I have worked with computers for the last 25+ years, and PC's ever since IBM built the first Personal Computer. So please...I'm afraid we're getting besides the point here, but I'll just add this comment: "...accessing a lt of small files progressively..."Alex, this is EXACTLY what a large cache is good for!!And no further comments from me, since I'm out of a DSL line until 04JAN05. By then, somebody hopefully will have done some benching.Have a merry Christmas, Alex and the rest of you guys!Sven Sorensen, EKCH

A merry christmas to you too Sven. Didn't want to sound sarcastic. I am simply getting a little impatient with this kind of discussion.All the best,Alex