During our benchmarking sessions, we used the configuration listed below. Between our benchmarking sessions the only variable was the hard disk drive being tested. Notice that on Seagate and Maxtor models we needed to remove the SATA-150 compatibility jumper to make them to work as SATA-300 devices. The model from Samsung came already correctly configured.

Hardware Configuration

• CPU: Celeron 430.
• Motherboard: Foxconn 45CMX.
• Memory: 1 GB DDR2-667.
• Video Card: XFX Geforce 7300LE.
• Video Resolution: 1024x768.
• Power Supply: Seventeam 350BKV.
• CPU Cooler: Intel stock cooler.
• Optical Unit: Samsung SH-S202.

• Windows XP Professional with NTFS partitioning
• Service Pack 3
• Intel Inf drive version: 8.3.1.1009
• NVIDIA video driver version: 169.21
  

Benchmarking Software

• DiskSpeed32 3.0.0.5
• HD Tach 3.0.4.0
• HD Tune 2.55

Error Margin

We adopted a 3% error margin; thus, differences below 3% cannot be considered relevant. In other words, products with a performance difference below 3% should be considered as having similar performance.