Game level load tests w/Doom 3

We were floored when we saw the 18 second faster load time with the Barracuda 7200.7 when compared to the Barracuda V. When we got back up, we were floored again by the surprisingly long load times with RAID-0. NCQ enabled? Check. We ran the test with the Raptors and noted similar results. While we don't really have any explanation, we do know that running RAID has a bit of overhead.

Game level load tests w/Far Cry

Game level load tests w/Unreal Tournament 2004

Things were a bit more consistent with Far Cry and Unreal Tournament 2004. Unlike the Doom 3 tests, RAID-0 gives about a 7% improvement in load times.

Doom 3 Performance Test

If you're hoping a hard drive upgrade will improve framerates, keep on hoping. There's a slight 1fps gain, but the Barracuda V has been the slowest drive in the lineup prior to this test anyways.

Final Words

Well, looking at our results, let's see what we've learned today...

For most home users, there will be no tangible benefit from Native Command Queuing. While benchmarks may look nice, our real-world tests said otherwise. That is not to say that NCQ is useless altogether, but for the majority of desktop computers, you're not going to see a performance gain as you would with a jump to a newer processor. However, in situations when Hyper-Threading is being tapped, we saw some improvement in the results that would not be seen without a major hardware upgrade. On that note, while we did not display non-NCQ performance with the Seagate Barracuda 7200.7, when disabling NCQ, the performance dropped in the benchmarks, slightly below the WD Raptor though still keeping ahead of the Barracuda SATA V. For users who rely on fast subsystems such as video editors, the sequential read performance of NCQ drives is going to be a welcome addition, especially in a RAID-0 setup.

On the topic of RAID-0, we saw negligible performance differences in our benchmarks using stripe sizes of 16kb to 64kb. Again, depending on the applications and data you work with, you can fine tune the stripe size accordingly to max out performance, but in day to day tasks, this does not make a huge impact. We also know we're not the first to realize that RAID-0 is not all up to what it's cracked up to be for desktop applications, specifically in gaming. While we saw some small improvements in load times for Far Cry and Unreal Tournament 2004, we're at a loss at the huge hit for Doom 3 level loading. This was the case for both Seagate and Western Digital, and repeatable each time we tried.

As for the Seagate Barracuda 7200.7, it had a fine showing today, keeping pace with the faster spinning Western Digital Raptor. We did not have the Raptor II in the labs which is a slightly faster drive, but considering the "2800rpm" difference in speed, the Barracuda 7200.7 performed well with NCQ enabled. Where the Raptor loses convincingly is in the price per GB and total capacity category. The review drive today retails for about , whereas the 36GB Raptor is (74GB is $30 more), which has about four times less capacity. Compared to the other drives in the review, the Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 is slightly noisier than their Barracuda V, but much quieter than the Raptors, especially when spinning at full speed. We would have liked to have seen a bigger cache, but we guess we'll have to wait for the Barracuda 7200.8 for that.

This past Summer, Seagate also increased their warranty coverage to 5 years as well, in a period where most are reducing coverage. While there are some stipulations, the warranty covers the period most of us would consider a drive's lifetime, and speaks volumes about the confidence Seagate has in their products.

Pros: NCQ, 5-year warranty, good money/storage value when compared to the 36GB Raptors, and just as fast.

Cons: No immediate benefit with NCQ for the desktop user.

Bottom Line: While there is little benefit with NCQ at this time, this is really only the case with desktop systems. As more multitasking aware applications arrive for the home user, we may see some drastic improvements then. In the meantime, the Barracuda 7200.7 stands as the fastest 7200rpm drive we've had to date.

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