Windows 7 HD and SSD Performance Analyzed

Windows Vista vs. Windows 7 - Traditional Hard Disk

Western Digital Raptor 74 GB (10,000 RPM, SATA)

For our first test, we wanted to compare performance numbers between Windows Vista and Windows 7. Our Windows Vista configuration is using Vista Ultimate Edition x64 SP1, whereas our Windows 7 configuration is using Windows 7 Release Candidate x64 (build 7100). Our hard drive of choice is Western Digital's 10,000 RPM Raptor 74 GB, still considered one the faster platter-based SATA hard disk on the market today. Here's how the two operating systems stack up.

Traditional hard drives don't see much of a performance boost with Windows 7, as our tests show. Both read and write speeds are about the same for our Raptor drive, although burst transfer rates see a slight performance boost on Windows 7. Fair enough, let's move on to something more exciting, SSDs.