A note on the testing
We've elected to do our testing in Windows XP today, which exposes us to all sorts of SCSI performance baggage thanks to the WRITE_THROUGH flag. For an explanation of the Windows XP WRITE_THROUGH issue, see this page of my 10K-RPM drive comparison. We tested all the drives using basic disks in Windows XP and made no attempt to bypass or circumvent WRITE_THROUGH.

It's also worth nothing that this review is going to be full of apples to oranges, pears, and even a banana comparison. We'll be looking at the Atlas 15K's performance versus an older 15K-RPM SCSI drive from IBM, 10K-RPM SCSI drives from Maxtor and Seagate, a 10K-RPM Serial ATA drive from Western Digital, and a two-drive ATA/133 RAID 0 array. Making things even more interesting is the fact that each of the drives we'll be testing, with the exception of the two 10K-RPM SCSI drives, has a different capacity. Drives with lower capacities use fewer platters and generally have lower seek times that can offer slightly better performance than larger drives with more platters.

Our testing methods
All tests were run three times, and their results were averaged, using the following test systems.

 System
ProcessorIntel Pentium 4 2.26GHz
Front-side bus533MHz (4x133MHz)
MotherboardTyan Trinity GC-SL
ChipsetServerWorks Grand Champion SL
North bridgeServerWorks CMIC-SL
South bridgeServerWorks CSB5
Memory size512MB (1 DIMM)
Memory typeCAS 2.5 PC2100 ECC DDR SDRAM
GraphicsATI Rage XL
Storage Controllers

Adaptec 29320-R

SIIG Serial ATA PCI

3ware Escalade 7500
Storage Driver

Adaptec 1.1.0.0

Silicon Image 1.0.0.44

3ware 1.12.0.17
Storage

IBM UltraStar 15K 18GB
Maxtor Atlas 15K 73GB
Maxtor Atlas 10K IV 147GB
Seagate Cheetah 10K.6 147GB

Western Digital Raptor WD360GD 37GB

Maxtor 740X-6L 40GB
2-drive RAID 0
Operating SystemWindows XP Professional SP1

The Adaptec 29320-R was used in the motherboard's 64-bit, 133MHz PCI-X slot, while the 3ware Escalade 7500 was used in the motherboard's 64-bit, 100MHz PCI-X slot. Since the Escalade 7500 only supports 64-bit PCI speeds up to 33MHz, it shouldn't be at any disadvantage in a PCI-X slot that offers a top speed of 100MHz. The SIIG Serial ATA controller doesn't support 64-bit PCI, so it's riding the plain old 32-bit PCI bus.

A special thanks goes out to the Computer Repair Shop for kicking in the Western Digital Raptor WD360GD and UltraStar 15K.

We used the following versions of our test applications:

The test systems' Windows desktop was set at 1024x768 in 32-bit color at a 75Hz screen refresh rate. Vertical refresh sync (vsync) was disabled for all tests.

All the tests and methods we employed are publicly available and reproducible. If you have questions about our methods, hit our forums to talk with us about them.