We really like PCMark 7's Secondary Storage benchmark module for its pseudo real-world application measurement approach to testing. PCMark 7 offers a trace-based measurement of system response times under various scripted workloads of traditional client / desktop system operation. From simple application start-up performance, to data streaming from a drive in a game engine, and video editing with Windows Movie Maker, we feel more comfortable that these tests reasonably illustrate the performance profile of a hard drive in an end-user / consumer PC usage model, more so than a purely synthetic transfer test.
As in many of our other tests, the WD RE scored higher than most of the field by a relatively small margin, although it was firmly beaten by both of the WD VelociRaptor drives in the group.
When we break down the Secondary Storage scores here, the story is essentially the same as above, although our drive posted particularly strong Video Editing and Windows Media Center numbers.
