Test Setup
| Test System | |
|---|---|
| CPU | Intel Celeron, 500 MHz |
| Motherboard and Graphics | Asus CUSL2-LS, i815E Chipseton-board graphics |
| RAM | 128 MB SDRAM, 7ns (Crucial) CL2 |
| IDE Controller | i815 UltraDMA/100 Controller (ICH2) |
| SCSI Controller | Adaptec AIC-7899 Ultra-160 |
| Network | 3COM 905TX PCI 100 Mbit |
| Operating Systems | Windows 2000 Pro 5.00.2195 SP1 |
| Benchmarks and Measurements | |
| Office Applications Benchmark | ZD WinBench 99 - Business Disk Winmark 1.2 |
| Highend Applications Benchmark | ZD WinBench 99 - Highend Disk Winmark 1.2 |
| Low Level Benchmarks | HD Tach 2.61 |
| Performance Tests | ZD WinBench 99 - Disc Inspection Test |
| Settings | |
| Graphics Drivers | Intel i815 Reference Drivers 4.3 |
| Storage Drivers | IDE: Intel Busmaster DMA Driver 6.03SCSI: Adaptec Ver. 3.5 |
| DirectX Version | 8.0a |
| Screen Resolution | 1024x768, 16 Bit, 85 Hz Refresh |
When I was setting up the drive, I encountered the problem that Windows 2000 was not able to format the 180 GB drive with FAT32. In this test situation, it was easier to create a 100% NTFS partition in Windows 2000 without any problems and that's what we used for our benchmark setup. You can use the commands Fdisk and Format in Windows 98 to create a FAT32 partition that can be read by Windows 2000, but Fdisk will report it as being a maximum of 40 GB (total capacity modulo 64). You'll have to enter '100%' to create a full sized partition. Tom addressed the Fdisk issue in Special Problem - FDISK on Arrays Larger than 64 GB .
Hard disk manufacturers specify disk size in 1 GB = 1 Billion Bytes (10^9). The binary logic of operating systems instead defines 1 GB = 2^30 = ~1.073 * 10^9. This difference always results in a lower reported size. In the case of the Barracuda the 181.6 GB calculate into 168 GB formatted size.
