Do You Need A New Hard Drive With Your Windows 7 Upgrade?

Features
By Patrick Schmid and Achim Roos
published

Test Setup

Setup for Low-Level Hard Drive Benchmarks

Swipe to scroll horizontally
System Hardware
HardwareDetails
CPUIntel Core i7-920 (45nm, 2.66 GHz, 8MB L2 Cache)
Motherboard (LGA 1366)Supermicro X8SAX Revision: 1.1 Chipset: Intel X58 + ICH10R BIOS: 1.0B
RAM3 x 1GB DDR3-1333 Corsair CM3X1024-1333C9DHX
HDDSeagate NL35 400 GB ST3400832NS 7,200 RPM, SATA/150, 8MB Cache
Power SupplyOCZ EliteXstream 800W OCZ800EXS-EU
Benchmarks
Performance Measurementsh2benchw 3.13PCMark Vantage 1.0
I/O PerformanceIOMeter 2006.07.27File server Benchmark, Web server benchmark, Workstation Benchmark, Database BenchmarkStreaming ReadsStreaming Writes
System Software & Drivers
DriverDetails
Operating SystemWindows Vista Ultimate SP1
Intel ChipsetChipset Installation Utility 9.1.0.1007
AMD GraphicsRadeon 8.12
Intel Matrix Storage8.7.0.1007

We haven’t changed acoustic management, which means that both drives operated at maximum performance.

Test Setup for Windows XP Versus Windows 7 Testing

Swipe to scroll horizontally
Header Cell - Column 0 Header Cell - Column 1
HardwareDetails
CPUIntel Core 2 Duo E6300 (65nm, 1.86 GHz, 2MB L2 Cache)
Motherboard (Socket 775)DFI LANPartyUT P35-T2R, Rev. 1.0 Chipset: Intel P35 + ICH9R BIOS: LP35D521
RAM2 x 1GB DDR2-1066 Crucial CT2566AA1067
HDD IHitachi E7K500, 500GB (HDS725050KLA360) 7,200 RPM, SATA/300, 16MB cache
HDD IIHitachi 7K2000, 2TB (HDS722020ALA330) 7,200 RPM, SATA/300, 32MB cache
GraphicsZotac GeForce 8800 GTS GPU: GeForce 8800 GTS (500 MHz) RAM: 320MB GDDR3 (1600 MHz)
Power SupplyOCZ EliteXstream 800W OCZ800EXS-EU
Benchmarks
Performance MeasurementsPCMark Vantage 1.0SYSmark 2007 Preview, V.1.06
System Software And Drivers
DriversDetails
Operating System IWindows XP Professional, Service Pack 3 (fully updated with Windows Update on 12/09/2009)
Operating System IIWindows 7 Ultimate (fully Updated with Windows Update on 12/09/2009)
Intel Chipset DriversChipset Installation Utility 9.​1.​1.​1019
Nvidia Graphics DriversVersion 195.62
Patrick Schmid and Achim Roos