As you could see on previous page, we measured performance using three different programs, DiskSpeed32, HD Tach and HD Tune.  On this page we will analyze the results provided by DiskSpeed32, while on the next pages we will discuss the results brought by the other two programs.

First, let’s take a look on the burst transfer rate results.

Seagate Barracuda LP, Seagate Pipeline HD Pro, Seagate Barracuda 7200.12, Seagate SV35.3 and Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 (ST3100033AS) achieved the best burst transfer rates as measured by DiskSpeed32. Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 achieved a burst transfer rate 10.62% higher than Western Digital Caviar Black and 3.92% higher than Samsung Spinpoint F1, for example. The green product from Seagate, Barracuda LP, achieved a burst transfer rate 4.47% higher than its competitor from Samsung (Eco Green F2) and 7.14% higher than its competitor from Western Digital (Caviar Green). On the enterprise arena, Seagate Barracuda ES.2 achieved a burst transfer rate 7.07% higher than Western Digital RE3.

Interesting enough, in this test Seagate drives were the ones that achieved the highest results, and Western Digital were the ones that achieved the lowest, with Samsung drives in the middle.

Keep in mind that the burst transfer rate measures the maximum transfer rate between the motherboard SATA port and the hard disk drive controller located on the drive itself, and may not represent real-world performance.

But the most import result is the average transfer rate. Here the winner was Seagate Barracuda 7200.12, which was 3.32% faster than Samsung Spinpoint F1 and 7.28% faster than Western Digital Caviar Black. “Green” models clearly give up on performance in order to consume less power: Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 was 12.39% faster than Seagate Barracuda LP, 16.24% faster than Samsung Eco Green F2 and 22.57% faster than Western Digital Caviar Green. Comparing only “green” models, Seagate Barracuda LP was the fastest, being 3.42% faster than Samsung Eco Green F2 and 9.06% faster than Western Digital Caviar Green.

Western Digital RE3 and Seagate Pipeline HD Pro achieved the same performance level here, being around 15% faster than Seagate SV35.3 and 33% faster than Seagate Barracuda ES.2.

The maximum transfer rate is achieved when the disk is reading data stored on its outer most tracks. Here Seagate Barracuda 7200.12, Western Digital Caviar Black and Western Digital RE3 (“group one”) achieved the best performance level. In second place come Seagate Pipeline HD Pro, Samsung Spinpoint F1, Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 (ST31000333AS), Samsung Eco Green F2 and Seagate Barracuda LP (“group two”). Lower performers on this test were Seagate SV35.3, Seagate Barracuda ES.2, Western Digital Caviar Green and Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 (ST31000340AS) (“group three”).

Disks from the first group were, on average, 6% faster than the disks from the second group and 18% faster than disks from the third group. Disks from the second group were, on average, 11% faster than the disks from the third group.

The minimum transfer rate is achieved when the disk is reading data stored on its inner most tracks. As you can see, the difference between the maximum and the minimum transfer rate is huge, and that explains why is so important to defragment your hard disk drive from time to time, to ensure that data is mostly stored on the disk’s outer tracks, which provide a higher transfer rate.

Here we could see big differences in performance, with Western Digital Caviar Black and Western Digital RE3 taking the lead. Caviar Black achieved a performance 10.56% higher than Samsung Spinpoint F1, 11.87% higher than Caviar Green,  35.49% higher than Seagate Barracuda 7200.12, 47.88% higher than Seagate Barracuda LP and 368.76% higher than Samsung Eco Green F2.