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.
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.