Test Setup
| Test System | |
|---|---|
| CPU | Intel Celeron, 500 MHz |
| Motherboard | Asus CUSL2, i815 chipset |
| RAM | 128 MB SDRAM, 7ns (Crucial/Micron or Wichmann Workx) CL2 |
| IDE Controller | i815 UltraDMA/100 Controller (ICH2) |
| Graphics Card | i815 On-Board Graphics |
| Network | 3COM 905TX PCI 100 MBit |
| Operating Systems | Windows 98 SE 4.10.2222 AWindows 2000 Pro 5.00.2195 SP1 |
| Benchmarks and Measuring | |
| Office Applications Benchmark | ZD WinBench 99 - Business Disk Winmark 1.2 |
| Highend Applications Benchmark | ZD WinBench 99 - Highend Disk Winmark 1.2 |
| Additional Content Creation Benchmark | ZD Content Creation Winstone 2000 |
| Performance Tests | ZD WinBench 99 - Disc Inspection Test |
| Temperature Measurements | Using the motherboard's monitoring port and a thermistor, we give you the highest temperature value measured on the drive's surface. All drives ran two hours to ensure they were at working temperature. |
| Noise Measurement | We built our own noise measurement crate to avoid influences from other noise sources. |
| Environment Settings | |
| Graphics Driver | Intel i815 Reference Driver 4.2 |
| IDE Driver | Intel Busmaster DMA Drivers 6.0 |
| DirectX Version | 7.0a |
| Screen Resolution | 1024x768, 16 Bit, 85 Hz Refresh |
Regular readers of Tom's Hardware Guide may wonder why I changed the motherboard from the IWill W100 (Intel 810 chipset) to the Asus CUSL2 (Intel 815 chipset). The most important reason is of course the DTLA drive, which comes with an ATA/100 interface. Asus' CUSL2 motherboard uses the I/O Controller Hub 2 (ICH2), featuring an UltraATA/100 controller. In order to get full software support, I also upgraded the IDE drivers from version 5.01 to 6.0.
Thanks to the fact that there is no need to run any graphics benchmark in order to test hard drives, the performance difference between the 810 platform and the now used 815 motherboard is almost zero. BAPCo's SYSmark 2000 did not show a difference in two of three runs - enough proof for our purpose. Also the ZD Content Creation Winstone confirms equal performance.
