Can Command Queuing Turbo Charge SATA?

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

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Processor
Socket 775 Intel Pentium 4 Processor 520, 2.8 GHz1 MB Cache, FSB800
System Components
DDR2-SDRAM 2x 512 MB PC5400Corsair CM2X512-5400C4PRO
Motherboard Asus P5AD2 PremiumIntel 925X Chipset
Graphics Card ATI X600 XT, 128 MB, PCI Express
System Hard Drive Western Digital WD800JB80 GB, 7,200 rpm, 8 MB cache
Hard Drive Set I Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 ST3160827AS160 GB, 7,200 rpm, 8 MB cache, NCQ supportSeagate Barracuda 7200.7 ST3160023AS160 GB, 7,200 rpm, 8 MB cache
Hard Drive Set II Western Digital WD360 Raptor36 GB, 10,000 rpm, 8 MB cacheWestern Digital WD740 Raptor74 GB, 10,000 rpm, 8 MB cache, TCQ support
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 2.0Disk Inspection Test
I/O Performance IOMeter 2003.05.10Fileserver Benchmark PatternWebserver Benchmark PatternDatabase Benchmark PatternWorkstation Benchmark PatternThroughput Benchmark Pattern
Application Performance Winbench 99 2.0Disk WinmarksDisk Inspection
Patrick Schmid
Editor-in-Chief (2005-2006)

Patrick Schmid was the editor-in-chief for Tom's Hardware from 2005 to 2006. He wrote numerous articles on a wide range of hardware topics, including storage, CPUs, and system builds.

  • 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?
    Reply