Burst Transfer Speed
Here, the transfer rate of the interface is measured by reading data directly from the cache memory.
Drive Access Time
The access time is quite an important factor for performance evaluations. Both 120 GB drives from WD are in front here, only the IBM DeskStar 60 GXP is slightly faster.
CPU Utilization
"Performance has its price" is a statement that is usually valid for most cases. This test determined how much CPU time is consumed by the IDE drive when copying data. Here, the WD1200JB scores more points, because 4.2% is much less than what the 100 GB drives require (6.8 and 7.2%) - almost half the time! Given today's processor speeds, this may not necessarily be a relevant argument for you, but this test is quite a good assessment of the drive logic quality.
