Test System: 925X And ICH6
So far, the market offers only few controllers that support Command Queuing. One option would be Promise’s FastTrak TX4200, supporting both Command Queuing options. However, we used conventional hardware combined with Intel’s the 925X chipset and the new Southbridge ICH6, also supporting Command Queuing. For a motherboard, we used Asus’ P5AD2.
Test Setup
| Processor | |
|---|---|
| Socket 775 | Intel Pentium 4 Processor 520, 2.8 GHz
1 MB Cache, FSB800 |
| System Components | |
| DDR2-SDRAM | 2x 512 MB PC5400
Corsair CM2X512-5400C4PRO |
| Motherboard | Asus P5AD2 Premium
Intel 925X Chipset |
| Graphics Card | ATI X600 XT, 128 MB, PCI Express |
| System Hard Drive | Western Digital WD800JB
80 GB, 7,200 rpm, 8 MB cache |
| Hard Drive Set I | Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 ST3160827AS
160 GB, 7,200 rpm, 8 MB cache, NCQ support Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 ST3160023AS
|
| Hard Drive Set II | Western Digital WD360 Raptor
36 GB, 10,000 rpm, 8 MB cache Western Digital WD740 Raptor
|
| Software | |
| Intel Chipset | Intel Chipset Installation Utility 6.0.1.1002 |
| DirectX | 9.0c |
| OS | Windows XP Professional Build 2600 Service Pack 1 |
| Benchmarks & Settings | |
| Transfer Performance Benchmark | c’t h2benchw Ver. 3.6 |
| Transfer Diagram | Winbench 99 2.0
Disk Inspection Test |
| I/O Performance | IOMeter 2003.05.10
Fileserver Benchmark Pattern Webserver Benchmark Pattern Database Benchmark Pattern Workstation Benchmark Pattern Throughput Benchmark Pattern |
| Application Performance | Winbench 99 2.0
Disk Winmarks Disk Inspection |
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Comment
Thank you for the comparison. Judging by the tests, it seem NCQ is no big deal. Does it really help with multitasking in ways other than speed, though?