WorldBench
WorldBench uses scripting to step through a series of tasks in common Windows applications. It then produces an overall score. WorldBench also spits out individual results for its component application tests, allowing us to compare performance in each. We'll look at the overall score, and then we'll show individual application results.

The Deskstar E7K1000 can't quite catch Western Digital's 640GB Caviar in WorldBench, but it comes mighty close. Fiddling with the drive's AAM settings doesn't have an impact on WorldBench's overall score, either.

Multimedia editing and encoding

MusicMatch Jukebox

Windows Media Encoder

Adobe Premiere

VideoWave Movie Creator

Among WorldBench's multimedia editing and encoding tests, only Premiere is able to tease meaningful performance differences from our collection of drives. The Deskstar fares well in the Premiere test, where it's just a few seconds off the pace set by Western Digital's VelociRaptor. Again, there's little difference in performance between the Deskstar's performance and silent modes.