Now we have the results provided by HD Tune program.

As you can seen on the graph above, we have three performance groups for the burst transfer rate. On the first group we have only Hitach Deskstar P7K500, which achieved a burst transfer rate 10% higher than the disks present on the second group: the other Hitachi hard drive and all models from Seagate and Maxtor. Then on the third group we have the two Western Digital and Samsung disks. Disks from the second group were around 14% faster than the disks from the third group.

As you can see having a bigger buffer size didn’t make any difference on this test.

On HD Tune the two Seagate Barracuda 7200.10, Maxtor DiamondMax 21 and Samsung HD250HJ achieved the same average transfer rate, which was around 6% higher than Western Digital Caviar SE16, 11% higher than Hitachi Deskstar P7K500, 18% higher than Western Digital Caviar SE, 25% higher than Seagate Barracuda ES and 63% higher than Hitachi Deskstar T7K500.

Once again the larger buffer size only made difference for Western Digital Caviar SE16, which achieved an average transfer rate 11% higher than Caviar SE.

As we explained before, the maximum transfer rate is achieved when the disk is reading data stored on its outer most tracks. Here the two Seagate Barracuda 7200.10, Maxtor DiamondMax 21, Western Digital Caviar SE and SE16 achieved the same performance level, with Samsung HD250HJ being between 3% and 8% faster than those disks. Those disks were around 16% faster than Hitachi Deskstar P7K500, 19% faster than Seagate Barracuda ES and 55% faster than Hitachi Deskstar T7K500. A larger buffer size didn’t make any difference here.

And finally we have the minimum transfer rate, which is achieved on the inner most tracks from the hard disk drive. Here the two Seagate Barracuda 7200.10, Maxtor DiamondMax 21 and Samsung HD250HJ achieved the same transfer rate, which was around 12% higher than the one achieved by Hitachi Deskstar P7K500 and Western Digital Caviar SE16, 34% higher than the one achieved by Seagate Barracuda ES, 43% higher than the one achieved by Western Digital Caviar SE and 54% higher than the one achieved by Hitachi Deskstar T7K500.

Here the larger buffer made difference for the Western Digital Caviar SE16, which achieved a minimum transfer rate 27% higher than Caviar SE.