Image processing

Adobe Photoshop

ACDSee PowerPack

Our hard drives don't appear to affect performance in Photoshop, but ACDSee is a different story. Again, the 7200.8 comes in just behind the DiamondMax 10.

Multitasking and office applications

Microsoft Office

Mozilla

Mozilla and Windows Media Encoder

The Barracuda 7200.8 doesn't separate itself from the field in any of WorldBench's office or multitasking tests...

Other applications

Winzip

Nero

But the drive performs quite well in Nero and WinZip. In both cases, the 7200.8 beats out the DiamondMax 10; in Nero, it even schools the fastest Raptor.