EFD Software's HD Tune is described on the company's web site as such:
"HD Tune is a hard disk utility with many functions. It can be used to measure the drive's performance, scan for errors, check the health status (S.M.A.R.T.), securely erase all data and much more."
The latest version of the benchmark also adds temperature statistics and improved support for SSDs, among a few other updates and fixes. Though again this is a strictly synthetic test, it's yet another data point to help paint a more complete picture of performance across various workloads and access patterns.
Though their access times were somewhat higher than the competition--likely indicative of their lack of DRAM cache--the Toshiba TR200 series drives performed well here overall. They also led the pack in average transfers and burst rates, which should translate to solid system responsiveness under heavier sequential workloads like video editing, for example.
