Testing (continued):
SiSoft Sandra 2005 (File System Benchmark) - The results shown below are taken from SiSoft Sandra 2005's File System Benchmark. This benchmark provides several results, and a handful were selected to represent the performance of each drive. Lower values are desirable for the average access time, while higher values are better for buffered read, buffered write, and burst speed.
The results from SiSoft Sandra shown above are in line with what we saw in HD Tach, as both drives are about the same.
Real World Data Transfers - Real world testing was broken into four phases; small file writing, small file reading, large file writing, and large file reading. Small file testing utilized a folder containing 80 MP3 files with a total size of 341MB. Large file testing utilized a folder containing 4 DiVX files with a total size of 2816MB.
The 200GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 was the original location of these files for the writing tests, and was the final location for these files for the reading tests. A separate directory was used on the 200GB drive for reading and writing, and the system was rebooted after each transfer test.
The total time to transfer each set of files was recorded, and the chart above shows the effective transfer rate achieved by dividing the total size by the time it took to complete. As with the synthetic testing, we see once again that the two Seagate drives are evenly matched (although the 160GB drive wins three out of four, and ties on the fourth).
Thermal Testing - Thermal testing consisted of monitoring the idle and load temperatures of the hard drives' outer surface using a Cooler Master Aerogate bay device. The drives were just placed in still, open air (no case / no fans). The idle condition consisted of the system just sitting at the Windows desktop with no extra applications running for a period of at least one hour. The load condition was created by running SiSoft Sandra 2005's File System Benchmark in a looping pattern for a one hour period.
The Seagate data calls for less energy consumption, which was expected to result in lower temperatures, and that is exactly what testing indicates. The 160GB 5400.3 drive hit a maximum temperature of 40 degrees Celsius, which is four degrees less than the maximum temperature achieved by the 120GB 5400.2.
The test data shows that Seagate has maintained their high level of performance with this new series of drives, and can do so at a lower operating temperature.
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