Windows Usage & Benchmarks

The drives showed up in Windows without a problem. After formatting and partitioning the drives, I was ready to go. To benchmark the drives, I tested a drive in the unit first, then removed the drive hooked it directly to the motherboard and a power connector.

The first benchmark I used was HDTach, a nice benchmarking tool specifically made for hard drives. HDTach returns to us several results, but all related to read speeds. I'll have to run a second benchmark to look at read performance. Let's look at how the drive performed in HDTach.

The results aren't all that impressive, but keep in mind I'm working with 5400RPM drive. 2.5" drives are typically slower than their 3.5" counterparts, with the exception of SAS drives. Also, it can be noted that the graphs and speeds are the same for each way I tested the drive (in the SATABAY425BK, and connected directly to the motherboard). This isn't a complete surprise, and it's definitely a good sign for the unit. This means the unit doesn't contribute to the drive's read performance.

Since HDTach doesn't support write tests, I opted to go the old fashioned route and copy a file from a faster drive. I've installed a 36GB Western Digital Raptor for this purpose, ensuring the 2.5" drive will be the bottleneck of the transfer. I've selected a 750MB movie file to transfer. Let's see how long the transfer takes when the drive is in the SATABAY425BK, and then when it's connected directly to the motherboard.

Once again, I don't see a discrepancy between the two connections. The SATABAY425BK looks solid for speed, as the unit doesn't impede on performance.

I'm not expecting different results in Linux, but there's always a chance.