A suggestion for a future version of mIRC would be to buffer logs to memory before they are written to disk, and then flush the buffer to disk every few minutes, perhaps even every half hour, or after whatever duration a user chose.
The issue with current functionality is, if you turn logging on, new lines from the server result in the drive heads (the vast majority of the time) needing to move to write the line to the appropriate file. This dramatically increases the number of head movements, thereby shortening hard drive life. You can imagine the effect of multiple active channels!
While difficult to prove, the method by which mIRC logs to disk at the very least contributes to the dramatically lower-than-normal life I've experienced on multiple hard drives over the years.
If the logs were buffered to memory (much like DeadAIM does for AIM conversations) and written to disk less frequently, I would have to argue that you would serve to increase the life of users' hard drives, at least a bit!
