For large files like this, the read heads will still be "jumping around" anyway, because unless you just de-fragged your disk, the file is likely to be physically spread out. Even putting files on separate disks may not improve performance all that much, because your actual IO rate depends on many things:
  1. Individual disk performance. RPMs, local buffer, etc
  2. RAID? Mirroring can typically support twice the read performance
  3. Controller type. SCSI is better for multi-tasking than EIDE. However SCSI supports lots more devices, so if it has 7 devices all accessed simultaneously, you're no better off
  4. Bus speed and contention.
  5. (Most important) Application contention. What else on your system is trying to use the same disks? Are they shared?
In general, your best bet for IO performance is to make sure that when you can read, read as much as you can.

In reply to Re^2: Threads Doubt by Illuminatus
in thread Threads Doubt by Anonymous Monk

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