WD AV-GP 2TB Hard Drive Review :: Test Setup And Methodology

• Intel DX58S0 X-58 Motherboard
• Kingston KHX16000D3K3/3GX DDR3 3GB Kit
• EVGA GeForce GTX280
• Sony Optiarc 22X DVD/RW
• WD VelociRaptor 300 GB, SATA 3 Gb/s, 16 MB Cache, 15,000 RPM
• WD Raptor 36GB SATA 3 Gb/s, 16 MB Cache, 10,000 RPM
• WD Green 2TB SATA 3 Gb/s, 32 MB Cache, 7200 RPM
• Intel X25-M/Kingston SSDNow M Series 80GB SATA 2.5" internal SSD
• Thermaltake Toughpower XT 850W

I cut down on a few of the tests I did with the last SSD drive review, but this is an ever evolving learning experience and will change as needed. We will add Windows 7 to our next batch of tests as soon as we make sure all tests can be run accurately and be recorded. I tried to get a good combination of real world and synthetic testing in this review. I am much more used to testing motherboards and video cards as I cut my teeth testing those products, but hard drives and power supplies I am still getting an education on a daily basis as to what is really accurate and important for these types of reviews. Below are the average temperatures of the drives we used in this round of tests, both the idle and active temperatures are recorded. The Raptor drives always ran on the hot side and the 2TB Green actually ran fairly cooler than its counterparts.