Windows XP Startup

After several SSD product reviews in which I recorded Windows XP startup time data, I have repeatedly omitted my results from the article for lack of enough comparison data. In all honesty, I cannot make this an interesting subject. Most of you reading this article have already watched the video of a Windows computer starting up in mere seconds when it used a Solid State Drive, so it wouldn't be very exciting to show it again. Instead, I have recorded the length of time it took for my Dell Inspiron 6400 notebook computer to startup with each drive. Here are the specifications on the notebook:

• Dell Inspiron 6400 Notebook
• Intel Core Duo T2300 @ 1.66 GHz
• 2GB DDR2 667 MHz System Memory
• Windows XP Professional SP3 (identical image cloned to each drive)

This "test" is going to be useful to laptop computer users only, primarily because I did not test the desktop hard drives. The only hard drive included was the high-performance 7200 RPM Hitachi Travelstar 7K100, which recorded a 28-second load time from the moment I pressed the power button to the moment the Windows Login screen was displayed.

The primary purpose of this test was to demonstrate that a Solid State Drive could in fact cut the Windows load time in half, but there are other factors to consider. It's important to note that this particular Dell notebook consumes almost 11 seconds on the BIOS pre-loading and POST (Power-On Self Test) routine prior to actually beginning to load Microsoft Windows XP, so it's not realistic to think that my results would match another system identically.

Drive Hardware

• ACARD ANS-9010 DDR2 SATA RAM-Drive
• G.Skill 64GB MLC 2.5" SATA-2 SSD FM-25S2S-64GB
• G.Skill Titan 128GB SATA SSD FM-25S2S-128GBT1
• Hitachi Travelstar 7K100 2.5" 60GB SATA 7,200 RPM HDD HTS721060G9SA00 (8MB Cache Buffer)
• Intel 80GB X25-M SATA SSD SSDSA2MH080G15E
• MemoRight GT 64GB 2.5" SATA SSD MR25.2-064S
• Mtron Pro 7500 32GB SATA-II SSD MSP-SATA7525
• Mtron Pro 7000 16GB 2.5-Inch 16GB SSD SATA7025
• Mtron MOBI 3000 16GB 2.5" SATA SSD MSD-SATA3025
• Mtron MOBI 3500 64GB 3.5" SATA SSD MSD-SATA3535-064
• OCZ Apex 120GB SATA SSD OCZSSD2-1APX120G
• OCZ Summit 120GB SATA-II MLC SSD OCZSSD2-1SUM120G
• OCZ Agility 120GB SATA-II MLC SSD OCZSSD2-1AGT120G
• OCZ Vertex 120GB SATA SSD OCZSSD2-1VTX120G
• OCZ Vertex EX 120GB SATA SLC SSD OCZSSD2-1VTX120G
• Patriot (Fusion) Torqx 128GB SSD PE000143-PFZ128GS25SSDR
• Patriot Warp v2 128GB SATA-II SSD PE128GS25SSDR
• Seagate Momentus 5400.6 320GB ST9320325AS 2.5" 5,400 RPM SATA-II Hard Disk Drive
• Super Talent UltraDrive ME 128GB MLC SSD FTM28GX25H
• Silicon Power 32GB SLC SATA-II SSD SP032GBSSD750S25

In the next section, I begin to summarize my final thoughts on the OCZ Agility series SSD as well as Solid State Drives in general. Please continue on to see what I think of SSD technology in todays consumer market.

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