Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad QX6700 @ 3GHz (9x333MHz) Motherboard: ASUS Maximus Extreme(Supplied by ASUS) Memory: 2x 1GB DDR2-1600 OCZ XMP (Supplied by OCZ) Graphics Card: MSI Geforce 8800GTS 640MB (Supplied by MSI) Cooling: GIGABYTE 3D Galaxy II (Supplied by GIGABYTE) Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP SP2 Drivers: Intel INF 8.3.1.1009, Forceware 163.21
Our test platform remains unchanged from our Seagate 7200.11 Hard Disk review. We’ll be including the Seagate drive’s results in these tests using both the drive on the SATA bus as well as placing it in a SATA to USB HDD carrier. We also used the Western Digital 2.5” HDD we reviewed recently in both SATA and USB mode, and our Hitachi drive in both SATA and USB mode using the cradle. Both the WD 2.5 HDD and the Hitachi 2.5 HDD in the USB mode used the Hitachi supplied USB caddy.
HD Tach has been around for a long time and is excellent when it comes to testing hard drive performance. It is also a very handy program when it comes to testing the controller used on particular motherboards. Tests such as Read, CPU Utilization and Burst are available at a click of the button and give you a good idea of how the hard drive can perform from system to system.
None of the drives are able to keep up with the power of the Seagate 7200.11 desktop drive; this is just put in there for reference to desktop technology. However, the Hitachi drive does manage to beat out the Western Digital drive by a few MB/s in Sustained Read. Both perform almost identically in Burst though. When it comes to the USB stages, both drives are identical; the USB is the limiting factor here, preventing both drives from performing at their peak.
