The obvious drive to contrast the WD450AA's performance against is retail-archrival Maxtor's
DiamondMax 60. Both drives feature 5400rpm
spindle speeds combined with 15 gig/platter capacities.
The WD450AA's access time measures in at 15.4 milliseconds. Taking into account the drive's rated 9.5ms access time along with it's 5.6ms latency (an effect of its 5400rpm spindle speed), 15.4ms is right in line with specs after overhead is considered. The WD's access time measures lags a bit behind Maxtor's offering, which actually beats its specified 9.0ms seek.
High areal density allows the WD450AA to turn in an outer-zone sequential transfer rate of 25.6 MB/sec... speedy compared to previous offerings, but still just a tad slower than the DiamondMax 60's 27.8 MB/sec.
Let's turn to how these low-level figures translate into high-level WB99 performance.
WinMarks...
