iPEAK multitasking
We've developed a series of disk-intensive multitasking tests to highlight the impact of seek times and command queuing on hard drive performance. You can get the low-down on these iPEAK-based tests here. The mean service time of each drive is reported in milliseconds, with lower values representing better performance.

The Caviar Black handles our first batch of iPEAK workloads relatively well, faring best with those that include a compressed file extraction. Note that while the SpinPoint is a little faster than the Black in a couple of tests, it's much slower in others.

Our second wave of iPEAK workloads doesn't change the overall picture much. The Caviar Black is a consistent performer here, often finishing near the front of the pack and never falling lower than the middle. In most of our iPEAK tests, the Black is faster than the 640GB SE16, too.