During our tests we used the configuration listed below and the only variable component between each benchmarking session was the hard disk drive being tested. We also build a RAID0 array with two Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 160 GB (ST3160815AS, SATA-300, 7,200 rpm, 8 MB buffer) hard disk drives with the ICH9R south bridge chip from the motherboard we were using (ASUS P5K-E/WiFi-AP, which is based on Intel P35 chipset), using the recommended strip size, 128 KB.

Hardware Configuration

• CPU: Core 2 Duo E6600
• Motherboard: ASUS P5K-E/WiFi-AP (1013 BIOS)
• Memory: 2 GB Corsair Dominator TWIN2X2048-8500C5D (DDR2-1066/PC2-8500 with 5-5-5-15 timings), configured at 1,066 MHz
• Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce 8800 GTS 320 MB
• Video resolution: 1440x900 75 Hz
• Video Monitor: Samsung Syncmaster 932BW
• Power Supply: OCZ ProXStream 1000 W
• CPU Cooler: Thermaltake TMG i1
• Optical Drive: LG GSA-H54N

Software Configuration

• Windows XP Professional using NTFS file system
• Service Pack 3
• Intel Inf driver 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

We adopted a 3% error margin. So, performance differences below 3% cannot be considered meaningful. In other words, products where the performance difference is below 3% must be considered as having similar performance.