upgrading to WD SE HDD, what score to expect in PCMark2002?

[rourkchris]

I'm upgrading from a 60GB 7200rpm Maxtor HDD to a Western Digital 80GB with 8mb cache HDD. I currently get a HDD score of 983. What improvement, if any, can I expect?

[vicarious george]

Last night I ran PCMark2002 on the Western Digital 80gb w/ 8mb cache. I only scored about 800. I then ran SiSoft Sandra and received a score of 21mb/sec.

For your reference, I also have another system that has the Maxtor 60gb. I ran Sisoft Sandra on that one and received almost the same score. (21.2mb/sec) I have not yet run PCMark2002 on this system, but I will when I get home from work.

I let the Western Digital drive defragment overnight, and I ran SiSoft Sandra this morning while I was getting ready for work. The score increased to 23mb/sec. This should translate to a PCMark2002 score between 800-900. I'll verify this when I get home tonight.

So, to answer your question, the benchmark scores of these two drives will be very close, and the actual real-world performance will be virtually identical. Given this fact, I don't see any practical reason to upgrade to the Western Digital. If you really want an upgrade, you can do one of two things:

1.) Buy the Maxtor and run it w/ the WD in a RAID configuration.
or
2.) Buy the Maxtor 80gb HDD w/ the 8mb cache. (This is a little more expensive than the WD, but it uses a newer design technology and is ATA133 capable.

Hope this helps...

[jason3287]

I have the WD 80GB "Special Edition" 8MB cache HDD that you guys are talking about. I scored 828 on PCMArk and thought it sucked, or I did something wrong. Now finally, someone else has the same score. Thanks!!
I still think that score kind of stinks, because everyone says this drive is top of the line and blazing fast. I could have scored 828 with a 5400RPM 2MB cache Maxcrap.
IMO the drive is very over rated.