Western Digital WD2500YD: Enterprise on the Desktop

PCMark05

We are utilizing the HDD test suite within PCMark05 for further comparative hard disk scores as it provides a mixture of actual application results and specific read/write percentages utilized within these programs. This also provides a standardized industry benchmark that can be used by others for comparison with our results. The program utilizes the RankDisk application within the Intel iPEAK SPT suite of tools to record a trace of disk activity during usage of real world applications. These traces are then replayed to generate performance measurements based upon the actual disk operations within each application. The HDD test suite contains 53% read and 47% write operations with each trace section utilizing varied amounts of read or write operations. Additional information about the test suite can be found in PDF format here: PCMark05 whitepaper.

Our test results are based upon the following trace runs:

Windows XP Startup: This test consists of 90% reading and 10% writes that tracks XP activities at start-up.

Application Loading: This test consists of 83% reading and 17% writes that tracks the opening and closing of the following programs.
Microsoft Word
Adobe Acrobat Reader
Windows Media Player
3Dmark 2001SE
Leadtek WinFast DVD
Mozilla Internet Browser

General Hard Disk Drive Usage: This test consists of 60% reading and 40% writes that tracks application usage utilizing the following settings.
Opening a Microsoft Word document, performing a grammar check, saving and closing.
Compression and decompression using WinZip
Encrypting and decrypting a file using PowerCrypt
Scanning files for viruses using F-Secure Antivirus
Playing an MP3 file with Winamp
Playing a WAV file with Winamp
Playing a DivX video using DivX codec and Windows Media Player
Playing a WMV video file using Windows Media Player
Viewing pictures using Windows Picture Viewer
Browsing the Internet using Microsoft Internet Explorer
Loading, playing and exiting a game of Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon

Virus Scanning: This test consists of 99.5% read operations as the test tracks the scanning activities of 600MB of files for viruses.

File Write: This test consists of 100% write activities by writing 680MB of files onto the hard disk.







Our PCMark05 numbers follow a familiar test pattern with the WD Raptor having a 39% advantage over the WD2500YD drive in the total score number. The performance delta between the two RE2 drives and our RE test drive is minimal with the RE drive displaying very good results in the virus scan test while the WD5000YS displays sub-par performance that is also mirrored in our iPEAK virus scan test.

The general usage and application benchmarks that represent the majority of daily operations on a typical PC configuration favor the Western Digital drives. The Western Digital 500GB and 400GB RE2 drives are basically even throughout these tests with the RE 250GB drive trailing but still remaining competitive with the other drives. Our RE16 and RE2 drives all finish at the bottom of the File Write test even though these drives are touted for their excellent write performance capabilities. We believe the short file sizes and very sequential nature of the test file favors the Raptor and Seagate drives. The Raptor basically runs off and leaves the competition in the dust in the PCMark05 benchmarks.