Western Digital WD1200JB With 8 MB Cache: Outperforms SCSI Drives

Configuration: Simple, As Always

Configuring IDE drives takes only a matter of seconds. You only have to specify the drive to run as the master (first drive attached to an IDE channel) or as the slave (second drive). Since only two drives can be installed per channel, there is no other option. Some drives, like the Western Digital models, also have a jumper setting that has to be used for single drive configuration (master without a slave).

Test Setup

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Test System
CPU Intel Pentium 4, 2 GHz
Motherboard MSI 845 Ultra, i845
RAM 256 MB DDR-SDRAM, CL2,Corsair Microsystems
IDE-Controller i815 UltraDMA/100 Controller (ICH2 / 82801BA)
Graphics Card nVIDIA GeForce3 Ti200,32 MB DDR
Network Adapter 3COM 905TX PCI 100 MBit
Operating System Windows 2000 Pro 5.00.2195 SP2 + SRP1
Benchmarks and Measurements
Office Applications Benchmark ZD WinBench 99 - Business Disk Winmark 2.0
Highend Applications Benchmark ZD WinBench 99 - High-End Disk Winmark 2.0
Low Level Benchmarks HD Tach 2.61
Performance Tests HD Tach 2.61
Settings and Drivers
Graphics Drivers nVIDIA Detonator 4 (23.11)
IDE Drivers Intel Bus Master DMA Driver 6.2
DirectX Version 8.1
Screen Resolution 1024x768, 16 Bit, 85 Hz Refresh
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.