Few questions about my new WD Caviar SE15 SATA Drive

M

M. B.

I have just "upgraded" from a Maxtor DiamondPlus 9 (120 Gig / Model:
6y120m0) SATA-150 drive to the Western Digital Caviar SE15 SATA-2 Drive. In
case you are not familiar with these drives, here are links to the data
sheets/specs for them:

http://maxtor.com/_files/maxtor/en_us/documentation/data_sheets/diamondmax_plus_9_data_sheet.pdf

http://www.westerndigital.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=133

1) I am using an ASUS P4C800 Deluxe motherboard, and the new drive is
connected directly to the SATA-150 slot. Even though this new drive
supports SATA-2 (up to 300 mb/s Burst Speed), my current motherboard does
not. However, I was a bit surprised that by using HD Tach 3.0.1.0 (full
version) and running it using "Quick Bench" that my scores from the old
drive (Maxtor) to this one hardly improved. I thought that the difference
in the 16mb Cache (vs 8mb on the Maxtor) would make some more difference.
In any case, here is what I got:

Maxtor Model 6y120m0:
---------------------------
Burst speed: 97 mb/s
Random access: 13.6 ms
Avg read: 43.8 mb/s

Western Digital Caviar SE15:
---------------------------------
Burst speed: 130 mb/s
Random access: 13.4 ms
Avg read: 52.9 mb/s

Do the above scores seem to appear normal? If I get an external SATA-2
controller and plug it into the motherboard, should I expect further gains
in the score on the new WD Caviar?

2) In my motherboard BIOS, under the IDE drive confirguration, I current
have the "32bit data transfer" turned OFF for the WD Caviar drive. Should I
turn it ON?

I look forward to hearing back from the "experts" with some comments.
 
M

M. B.

I do have a few things to add:

1) My board is P4C800 Deluxe and NOT the P4C800-E Deluxe version.

The description for the P4C800 Deluxe and the P4C800 Deluxe-E versions both
state the following:

"The P4C800 Deluxe offers the most complete RAID solution. A Promise SATA
controller offers RAID 0, 1 and 10 functions with Max. 2 UltraATA 133 ports
and 2 SATA HD ports, enabling users to build a RAID array with any 2, 3 or 4
of the ports. With unique multi-RAID function, RAID 0 and RAID 1 array can
co-exist."

However, there seems to be something "extra" in the P4C800-E Deluxe version:

"Intel is the world's first chipset maker to integrate Serial ATA (SATA) and
RAID 0, 1 functions into the South Bridge. The latest ICH5R chipset now
delivers 150MB/s fast data transfer (SATA) and striping performance to
enhance computing efficiency."

a) Will this ICH5R make any difference? I can swap to an "-E" board for
free if it's performance worthwhile. It seems that my current P4C800
Deluxe board has a ICH5 (no R) chip.

b) As of right now, my WD Caviar is connected to the motherboard's standard
SATA connector. Do you think it may have any postive performance gains if
I connect it to the Promise 378 SATA controller in IDE (not RAID) mode? The
Promise 378 in identical on both boards.

Thanks again.
 
C

Chris Hill

I have just "upgraded" from a Maxtor DiamondPlus 9 (120 Gig / Model:
6y120m0) SATA-150 drive to the Western Digital Caviar SE15 SATA-2 Drive. In
case you are not familiar with these drives, here are links to the data
sheets/specs for them:

http://maxtor.com/_files/maxtor/en_us/documentation/data_sheets/diamondmax_plus_9_data_sheet.pdf

http://www.westerndigital.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=133

1) I am using an ASUS P4C800 Deluxe motherboard, and the new drive is
connected directly to the SATA-150 slot. Even though this new drive
supports SATA-2 (up to 300 mb/s Burst Speed), my current motherboard does
not. However, I was a bit surprised that by using HD Tach 3.0.1.0 (full
version) and running it using "Quick Bench" that my scores from the old
drive (Maxtor) to this one hardly improved. I thought that the difference
in the 16mb Cache (vs 8mb on the Maxtor) would make some more difference.

I'm not surprised. Cache is great if what you need is in it, but any
decent speed testing program will make sure that isn't the case. If a
ton of cache helped, there'd be a premium drive that had it. If you
really want more speed get something with higher data densities or
something that spins faster.
 

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