Results Summary

The HighPoint Rocket 620 obviously runs a poor second place to the Intel ICH10. Even though it uses the Marvel 88SE9128 SATA controller which supports the new SATA 6 Gb/s transfer protocol, it was unable to perform as well as the venerable Intel ICH10's SATA 3 Gb/s controller.

Generally, the Intel ICH10 was much faster than the HighPoint Rocket 620 in random accesses. The Rocket 620 was only equal to, or slightly better than, the Intel ICH10 in sequential accesses.

However, the Rocket 620's barely noticeable advantage in sequential access performance is completely overshadowed by its much poorer performance in random accesses. Oddly enough, the Rocket 620 was much faster than the Intel ICH10 in the real-world WinBench 99 tests.

We summarized the benchmark results in the table on the right for your convenience.

Understandably, Western Digital's main concern is to get the full 3 TB capacity fully accessible, not to ensure optimal performance. Besides, this is a Caviar Green drive, so its target market would be users who want the most storage capacity possible for the least amount of money or power consumed. Anyone who buys a Western Digital Caviar Green drive knows that they would have to sacrifice some performance for all that.

What Does This Mean?

As interesting as the results are, they are really only of academic interest at this point. Despite its poor performance, the Rocket 620 (as provided by Western Digital) remains the only way to access the full capacity of the 3 TB Caviar Green (WD30EZRSDTL) hard disk drive. If you want to buy and use the 3 TB Caviar Green hard disk drive, you will have to live with the HighPoint Rocket 620... at least for the moment.

When UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) motherboards hit the market this year, you will be able to switch to the chipset's internal SATA controller. Until then, you will have to live with the HighPoint Rocket 620. Look at the bright side - you can expect an instant performance boost from your 3 TB Caviar Green hard disk drive when you upgrade to a UEFI motherboard!

Until then, you should decide if it's worth upgrading to the WD30EZRSDTL based on current benchmarks. Any benchmark results you see right now will be exactly what you can expect from the Rocket 620 controller. It's not as if the benchmark results were based on the Intel ICH10. So, if you need the extra storage space and feel that the drive is fast enough for your needs, that's reason enough to upgrade.

Of course, for most people, cost is also a consideration, and the WD30EZRSDTL comes at a considerable price premium. It would be cheaper to buy two 2 TB Caviar Green (WD20EARS) drives than a single WD30EZRSDTL. You will have to weigh that against the convenience of storing everything in a single drive, and the lower running cost of a single drive. Caveat emptor!

Useful Links

For the full review and benchmark results of the Western Digital Caviar Green 3 TB (WD30EZRSDTL) hard disk drive, click here!

To learn how to properly install the WD30EZRSDTL hard disk drive in Microsoft Windows Vista, click here!

For the lowest current prices on Western Digital Caviar Green hard disk drives, click here!

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