DiamondMax 10: What does 16 MB Cache and the New Native Command Queuing do? - Maxtor, Raptor and HD Tach 3 Benchmarks

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The Internet content creation results are very similar. The Raptor takes the lead in the Web Publication results while the Maxtor leads in 2D creation. The difference in these results is minimal and only shows that the Maxtor is able to keep up with the Raptor for this type of work.

Again, the results are very similar and the only results that stand out are the document creation and the communication results. The Raptor takes the lead in the document creation and the Maxtor leads in the communication. Overall, they isn't a great deal to choose from between these two disks in Sysmark 2004. Do bear in mind though that the Raptor is running at 10,000 rpm while the Maxtor is running at only 7,200. If it wasn't for the NCQ and 16 MB of cache on the Maxtor the results here would be a lot more in the Raptor's favour.

HD Tach 3 is a benchmark that tests the burst speed, sequential read speed, and random access times of the hard disk. It is a good solid HD Benchmark program. In the first bar below (Random Access Time) lower is better, in the others a larger number indicates better performance.

For the random access time we see that the Raptor is almost half that of the Maxtor drive. This is expected though, due its 10k rpm rotational speed.

For the average read speed the Raptor comes out on top. HD Tach takes an average read speed from all different areas of the hard disk. From the graph below we see that the speed of the drive gets slower as if moves to the inner parts of the drive and the larger drive is more affected by this.

 

The burst speed tests the speed at which data can be accessed from the on board read ahead memory. All the data would be in the same area of the disk so NCQ would not provide any benefit. This leaves the reason for the Maxtor's strong showing in the burst speed test down to the it's onboard 16MB cache.

Next: Disk Bench 2.3 and Conclusion >>
 

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Comments On: DiamondMax 10: What does 16 MB Cache and the New Native Command Queing do?

· Just another idiot to compare different capacity and areal density drives!    · why the raptors support NCQ on all the silicon image controllers just not the recent...    · not really, all that matters is results - not many people care whats inside the box,...    · We, at Poweroid.com, paid for all the hard drives used in this test. And all the...   >>> Post your comment now!