Performance in PCMark05

We didn’t have time to test all the HDD models included into this review in the new version of PCMark. Anyway, you’ll be able to see the progress of Hitachi’s HDDs over a substantial period of time.

The results are similar to the same test of the previous version of the benchmark except that the Deskstar 7K1000 enjoys a bigger lead over its predecessors and that the 7K500 Serial ATA is faster than its version with a Parallel ATA interface. The capacity of the HDD seems to determine the result here.

The results are almost 100% identical to those of the previous version of the benchmark, but the T7K250 has fallen farther behind. The HDD capacity must be the decisive factor again.

This benchmark agrees with PCMark04 again: the size of the buffer is the decisive factor. And the dependence on the storage capacity has become stronger.

The file copy test has been replaced in the newer version of the benchmark with two separate tests of write and read speed when scanning files for viruses. Unfortunately, the resulting read speed has little to do with reality. Particularly, the results are roughly similar among the tested HDDs and exceed their physical capabilities. If the HDD is requested sequentially located data with small pauses, the data will be given out from the buffer by means of look-ahead reading. This must be the case with this test.

The write speed as reported by PCMark’05 almost equals the possible maximum for sequential writing. The Deskstar 7K1000 even exceeds this theoretical maximum thanks to its huge buffer. So, these two tests, which have replaced one copy test of PCMark04, don’t have anything valuable to tell us.

The storage capacity is the decisive factor for this benchmark, so the overall scores shouldn’t surprise you.