Testing

Intel D850GB Motherboard
P4 1.5Ghz Processor
256 RDRAM
Adaptec 39160 SCSI Controller
Seagate 73LP ST373405LW
Geforce2 Ultra GTS

The HDTach results show that the average read speed for the whole drive is 45739.8kps, and random access time is 8.4ms. You can also see the high burst speed provided by the U160 interface.

The STR graph above shows the sustained transfer rate of the drive for all areas of the platters in the drive. Starting strong at around 56MB, the drive finishes at around 33MB. Pretty Impressive!

Sisoft Sandra gives a synthetic benchmark of the drive and displays its overall resulting score. I basically just throw this benchmark in to give an overall idea of where the Seagate ranks. The Sisoft suite has been known to give weird results sometimes, so I use it's results loosely.

**FAT32 used for both OS's

For the Winbench scores I tested the drive in both Windows ME and Windows 2000 using FAT32. The Playback scores give more of a real-world example of how this drive performs when it comes to applications. Not suprising, the drive seemed to perform better in Windows 2000.

Overall the scores are pretty impressive.

Conclusion

Overall, I was very impressed with the Seagate Cheetah 73LP ST373405LW. The Cheetah performed very well in all of the benchmarking applications that I threw at it. Although I did not have the opportunity to do an actual comparison with this drive, I think I can say from the results I received from this drive, as well as feedback, and other reviews, that this is an overall outstanding drive. This drive would be an awesome competitor for any drive matched up against it.

The biggest drawback of this drive was its price. At a retail of around $1029.99, not everyone is going to be able to rush out and purchase this drive. But hey, if you have the money, why not buy two and RAID 0 them? :)

Bottom Line: Whether you are looking for a great U160 SCSI drive for your server or looking to achieve increased performance out of your gaming system, I would highly recommend the Cheetah 73LP ST373405LW for your needs. Its performance would make a great addition to anyone's system.