Western Digital and Seagate: 320GB Grudge Match

Sounding like a broken record, the WD Raptor places first as its 10k rpm spindle speed and optimized cache play an important role in its ability to sustain high transfer rates. However, the WD3200KS comes back and posts a knockout against the 320GB Seagate with up to a 28% performance lead. While these differences sound large, in actual desktop usage most users will not be able to tell the difference except when utilizing the Raptor in certain situations. These tests certainly reflect what you would see during game play and the non-sequential nature of the requests favor the Western Digital drives.