PCMark04

We will use PCMark04 to see a fuller picture of the performance of the tested hard disk drives. This program benchmarks the drive in four different modes: Windows XP Startup is the typical disk subsystem load at system startup; Application Loading is the disk activity at sequential starting-up and closing of six popular applications; File Copying measures the HDD performance when copying a set of files; the Hard Disk Drive Usage parameter reflects the disk activity in a number of popular applications. These four parameters are used to calculate the overall performance rating according to the following formula: HDD Score= (XP Startup Trace x 120) + (Application Load Trace x 180) + (File Copy Trace x 28) + (General Usage x 265) . For details about the benchmark you can refer to the article called PCMark04: Benchmark for Hard Disk Drives?.

We ran each test ten times and averaged the results. The numbers are listed in the table and represented in the diagrams that follow below.

The Hitachi HTS721010G9AT00 isn’t spectacular in the Windows XP Startup subtest, being in fact the worst drive in it. On the other hand, the difference from the last-but-one Seagate ST910021AS is negligible.

In the Application Loading subtest the hero of this review takes the second place. It is outperformed by the other drive from Hitachi.

The Hitachi HTS721010G9AT00 finds itself in the third place in this file copying test.

The Hitachi drives are both better than their opponents from Seagate in the Hard Disk Drive Usage parameter, but the HTS721010G9AT00 model is slower than the HTS721010G9SA00.

The final diagram shows the overall performance scores of the participating drives. The HTS721010G9AT00 takes the second place in it, behind the other hard drive from Hitachi.