Wearnes 6x Benchmark Summary

Wearnes 6x Benchmark Summary

Benchmark Summary
The February 20th issue of PC Magazine published by Ziff-Davis claimed that Wearnes 6x CD-ROM performed poorly compared to the competition on the new Winbench ‘96 test. This directly contradicted previous Ziff-Davis test results as reported in August ‘95 PC Computing. PC Computing stated, "The Wearnes is an internal drive that uses an EIDE interface to deliver throughput at speeds up to 910KBps." After extensive re-testing over the past week and based on a number of benchmarks we proved conclusively the Wearnes CD-ROM drive still lives up to its advertised 6x data transfer rate.
Benchmark History and Testing
When we introduced the Wearnes 6x in August ‘95 MPC level II was the only product specification used. The most popular benchmarks used to prove specifications were Microsoft’s CDSpeed and MPC Wizard 2.0. The drive design was optimized to obtain a 6x transfer rate on these two benchmarks. Microsoft’s CDSpeed and MPC Wizard 2.0 test throughput at 925 KBps and 1024+ KBps respectively.
At this time there are no standards for benchmark testing. Manufacturers have created an array of different benchmarks. Each use their own unique methods for measuring a drives performance. Gateway uses a suite of benchmarks along with extensive real world application testing. Today newer benchmark programs such as Winbench ‘96 from Ziff-Davis have emerged. All drives aren’t fine-tuned to perform well in their unique way of measuring a drives performance. There also seems to be some confusion among industry technical writers regarding access times. Preliminary MPC-III specifications require a sub 250 ms access time. MPC-III is the latest specification for multi-media personal computers and is expected to be released later this year.
In order to prove 6x performance independent of benchmarks we have also done extensive testing on Wearnes 6x with some comforting results. When compared to recognized industry leaders in 6x CD-ROM, the Wearnes stacked up very nicely in multiple real world tests measuring throughput. For complete test results please consult the WEARNES.TXT file located in the Download Drivers section.
Recent Favorable Reviews
From the February ‘96 Window Sources published by Ziff-Davis, page 96, in a review of the P5-166 it reads "We give the Gateway high marks for multimedia as well; it includes an Ensoniq wavetable sound card, a Wearnes 6x ATAPI CD-ROM..."
The Wearnes also received a favorable write-up in the March ‘96 issue of PC Computing published by Ziff-Davis, page 150. "And Wearnes six-speed CDD-620 CD-ROM drive, while not well known, is nothing to complain about, either."
And in the August ‘95 PC Computing published by Ziff-Davis, "The Wearnes is an internal drive that uses an EIDE interface to deliver throughput at speeds up to 910KBps."
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