For these rounds of tests I used three different drives and installed first the 32 bit XP and then Vista to see the difference between installation and boot times as this seems to be a relevant point with many end users and enthusiasts. I basically just stated a stop watch right as the OS began installation after the serial number was entered and he actual installation process begins. The results were pretty far apart between the 10,000RPM Raptor, and the 15,000RPM VelociRaptor did not fair much beer in this round of tests. Installing the OS is clearly fastest on the Kingston SSD M Series drive, but boot times were almost identical.
| | Vista Installation | Boot Times | COD4 Installation |
| WD 36GB Raptor | 16.45 | 1 minute 8 seconds | 10 minutes 4 seconds |
| WD 300GB Velociraptor | 13.43 | 1 minute 1 second | 9 minutes 41 seconds |
| Kingston 80GB M Series | 9.25 | 55 seconds | 9 minutes 9 seconds |
