Testbed and Methods

The following benchmarks were used:

• IOMeter 2003.02.15
• WinBench 99 2.0
• FC-Test 1.0

Testbed configuration:

• Intel SC5200 system case
• Intel SE7520BD2 mainboard
• Two Intel Xeon 2.8GHz CPUs (800MHz FSB)
• 2 x 512MB PC3200 ECC Registered DDR SDRAM
• IBM DTLA-307015 hard disk drive as the system disk (15GB)
• Onboard ATI Rage XL graphics controller
• Windows 2000 Professional with Service Pack 4

Like in our previous reviews, we built RAID arrays out of the HDDs using one and the same controller. Although the results are thus bound to the particular controller’s characteristics, we don’t have to guess what part of them are due to the HDDs and what, to the controller. The controller was an Areca ARC1220 installed into a PCI Express x8 slot.

The sets of HDDs were installed into the standard boxes of the SC5200 system case and fastened with four screws to the bottom panel. Each set consisted of four samples of a HDD model (all from the same batch). We built the following arrays out of them:

• RAID0
• RAID10
• RAID5

These array types differ greatly in terms of load the controller puts on the HDDs even when they perform the same operations. RAID0 ensures maximum performance, RAID10 adds mirroring to RAID0, and RAID5 transforms each write request to the array into four requests to the HDDs in it.

The controller was set at the Performance mode for maximum performance during the tests. This mode allows deferred writing and look-ahead reading for both the controller (in its own buffer memory) and the HDDs. Thus we will see how efficient the HDDs’ firmware algorithms are when utilized in a RAID array.

When we talk about the results of a particular HDD below, we will mean the results of the array built out of the HDDs of that model.