Have a Maxtor 120GB 8MB Serial thats connected to an Asus P4C800-E Deluxe on the Promise SATA1 port. Did a clean install of XP Pro SP1 (slipstreamed) using the Promise Serial ATA driver's (updated from ASUS's site) during installation. Complete format and fresh install. Installed Intel INF file first then display, network then sound. Installed SandraMAX3 for OC's site and got consistent numbers of around 38K. Started installing some software, first did some basics, TWAIN driver. Ran Sandra and got basically same results. Checked fragmentation, etc. ok. Installed Paperport 9, Streets and Trips and used Network Wizard. Number dropped to about 32K and weren't all that consistent but ranged from 31 to 34K.
Shouldn't the performance be about the same if the disk is free of fragments and is basically clean or is the test inaccurate as the drive fills up or places data a fixed contiguous point in the disk - like the middle or toward the end? Or is something else going on. When I first got the drive I had it plugged into the standard SATA1 port but the performance wasn't all that stellar - numbers about 29K to start and had the Promise controller disabled.
Any other benchmarking software (free) that I should try that works under XP?
Shouldn't the performance be about the same if the disk is free of fragments and is basically clean or is the test inaccurate as the drive fills up or places data a fixed contiguous point in the disk - like the middle or toward the end? Or is something else going on. When I first got the drive I had it plugged into the standard SATA1 port but the performance wasn't all that stellar - numbers about 29K to start and had the Promise controller disabled.
Any other benchmarking software (free) that I should try that works under XP?