New drive is slower in benchmark test..

[tempus]

Ok. So I bought another seagate 320gb drive because I am happy with the first one I bought. In benchmark tests on my first Seagate HD Tune resulted in this....

A bench mark of the second drive(newer) resulted in this...
How can "identical" drives yield such different results?
I know the firmware is different but doesn't Seagate pay attention to the final performance.
P.S. I benchmarked the newer drive with the gray jumper in and then out.

[ric449]

How are the drives connected to the motherboard?

[tempus]

the drives are connected by the Sata1 and Sata2 connectors. I have since found out on another forum that firmware 3.AAK is yielding slower performance than earlier firmware versions. I don't know why Seagate decided to slow down their drives in this fashion. :confused:

[flanzig1]

From the images you linked, looks like the firmware change was to provide a more consistant transfer rate. In the real world probably won't see any differance in performance.
Benchmarks are like listing the top speed of a sports car; looks impressive but hardly anyone will use the max performance ratings.