Hard Disk Drive Performance Comparison Guide

[Zenphic]

Originally Posted by Adrian Wong

Hard to do so, as we cannot maintain a steady ambient temperature. That's why we are currently concentrating on this as a Performance Comparison Guide.

Good point! Keep up the work

[Dashken]

Ever wanted a guide on hard drive performance, where you can compare the performance of a wide range of hard drives? Well, we are not quite there yet, but that is our ultimate objective.

In this performance comparison guide, we will test and compare the performance of all the hard drives we can get our hands on. This is similar to what we are doing in the Intel Core 2 Processor Performance Comparison Guide.

In this revision, we have added both the 160 GB Seagate Momentus 5400.3 and the 80 GB Hitachi Travelstar 5K160 mobile hard drives into the mix. Let's check it out.

Here's a quote from the guide :-

"WinBench 99 2.0 has proven that it can still serve as a consistent and reliable hard drive benchmark even in Windows Vista. It has given us a lot of interesting data. If the Business and High-End simulations were not good enough, the raw transfer rate results were certainly most useful. From the transfer rate results, you can see which hard drive has a higher transfer rate, and how areal density affects that performance metric. It also shot down the perception that a newer model is always faster."

Link : Hard Drive Performance Comparison Guide Rev. 1.2

[Dashken]

The guide has just been updated!

Ever wanted a guide on hard drive performance, where you can compare the performance of a wide range of hard drives? Well, we are not quite there yet, but that is our ultimate objective.

In this performance comparison guide, we will test and compare the performance of all the hard drives we can get our hands on. This is similar to what we are doing in the Intel Core 2 Processor Performance Comparison Guide.

Here's a quote from the guide :-

"WinBench 99 2.0 has proven that it can still serve as a consistent and reliable hard drive benchmark even in Windows Vista. It has given us a lot of interesting data. If the Business and High-End simulations were not good enough, the raw transfer rate results were certainly most useful. From the transfer rate results, you can see which hard drive has a higher transfer rate, and how areal density affects that performance metric. It also shot down the perception that a newer model is always faster."

Link : Hard Drive Performance Comparison Guide Rev. 1.3

[Dashken]

The guide has just been updated!

Ever wanted a guide on hard drive performance, where you can compare the performance of a wide range of hard drives? Well, we are not quite there yet, but that is our ultimate objective.

In this performance comparison guide, we will test and compare the performance of all the hard drives we can get our hands on. This is similar to what we are doing in the Intel Core 2 Processor Performance Comparison Guide.

Here's a quote from the guide :-

"WinBench 99 2.0 has proven that it can still serve as a consistent and reliable hard drive benchmark even in Windows Vista. It has given us a lot of interesting data. If the Business and High-End simulations were not good enough, the raw transfer rate results were certainly most useful. From the transfer rate results, you can see which hard drive has a higher transfer rate, and how areal density affects that performance metric. It also shot down the perception that a newer model is always faster."

Link : Hard Drive Performance Comparison Guide Rev. 1.4

[Dashken]

The guide has just been updated!

Ever wanted a guide on hard drive performance, where you can compare the performance of a wide range of hard drives? Well, we are not quite there yet, but that is our ultimate objective.

In this performance comparison guide, we will test and compare the performance of all the hard drives we can get our hands on. This is similar to what we are doing in the Intel Core 2 Processor Performance Comparison Guide.

Here's a quote from the guide :-

"WinBench 99 2.0 has proven that it can still serve as a consistent and reliable hard drive benchmark even in Windows Vista. It has given us a lot of interesting data. If the Business and High-End simulations were not good enough, the raw transfer rate results were certainly most useful. From the transfer rate results, you can see which hard drive has a higher transfer rate, and how areal density affects that performance metric. It also shot down the perception that a newer model is always faster."

Link : Hard Drive Performance Comparison Guide Rev. 1.5

[Unixlord]

Any chance of seeing some 32MB drives added to mix and a comparison on how cache size effects the drive's performance and in which workloads? Cache speed is certainly a factor that would be nice to see explained.

ps: I've got a 32MB cache Maxtor 500GB and I'm willing to help.

[Adrian Wong]

Originally Posted by Unixlord

Any chance of seeing some 32MB drives added to mix and a comparison on how cache size effects the drive's performance and in which workloads? Cache speed is certainly a factor that would be nice to see explained.

ps: I've got a 32MB cache Maxtor 500GB and I'm willing to help.

You read my mind! Just requested for some 32 MB drives. Let's see if I can get some.

Oh, that's great. Where are you located? One thing though, the drive will have to be formatted.

[Unixlord]

It needs to be formated? Hmm that's unfortunately not possible. Sorry to disappoint. But if there are any benchmarks that don't require formatting I'll gladly conduct them from where I am.

[Adrian Wong]

Originally Posted by Unixlord

It needs to be formated? Hmm that's unfortunately not possible. Sorry to disappoint. But if there are any benchmarks that don't require formatting I'll gladly conduct them from where I am.

Ahh.. That's the problem. The results will vary if different testbeds are used. That's why all tested hard drives are kept empty and used only for tests because if we have to retest quite often.

[Dashken]

Ever wanted a guide on hard drive performance, where you can compare the performance of a wide range of hard drives? Well, we are not quite there yet, but that is our ultimate objective.

In this performance comparison guide, we will test and compare the performance of all the hard drives we can get our hands on. This is similar to what we are doing in the Intel Core 2 Processor Performance Comparison Guide.

Here are the latest updates in Revision 1.7 :-

- Added the 300 GB Western Digital VelociRaptor enterprise hard disk drive.
- Added the 640 GB Western Digital Caviar SE16 desktop hard disk drive.

Link : Hard Disk Drive Performance Comparison Guide Rev. 1.7