Eurogamer conducted their own hands-on experiment with the New Xbox Experience and installing games to the hard drive. The team wanted to see just how much faster games loaded that were installed to the hard drive as opposed to merely reading off of the game disk.
Here, we see the results for the Orange Box on the Xbox 360. Disk reading times are on the left, HDD times are on the right.
Eurogamer has three full pages of similar tests that compare the times for many of your favorite titles.
Here, we see the results for the Orange Box on the Xbox 360. Disk reading times are on the left, HDD times are on the right.
Loading Half-Life 2
44.5 seconds 25.5 seconds
Half Life 2 Save Game - 'We don't go there any more'
47 seconds 15 seconds
Loading Episode 1
38 seconds 22 seconds
Episode 1 Save Game - 'Direct Intervention'
17.5 seconds 17 seconds
Loading Episode 2
40.5 seconds 25 seconds
Episode 2 Save Game - 'This Vortal Coil'
16 seconds 14 seconds
Loading Portal
34.5 seconds 20.5 seconds
Portal Save Game - 'Testchamber 15'
7.5 seconds 6.5 seconds
Loading Team Fortress 2
57.5 seconds 41.5 seconds
TF2 '2Fort' Capture the Flag System Link match
31 seconds 31 seconds
Most games did see a small benefit from the HDD loading, but not nearly as much as the benefit gained in the Orange Box.44.5 seconds 25.5 seconds
Half Life 2 Save Game - 'We don't go there any more'
47 seconds 15 seconds
Loading Episode 1
38 seconds 22 seconds
Episode 1 Save Game - 'Direct Intervention'
17.5 seconds 17 seconds
Loading Episode 2
40.5 seconds 25 seconds
Episode 2 Save Game - 'This Vortal Coil'
16 seconds 14 seconds
Loading Portal
34.5 seconds 20.5 seconds
Portal Save Game - 'Testchamber 15'
7.5 seconds 6.5 seconds
Loading Team Fortress 2
57.5 seconds 41.5 seconds
TF2 '2Fort' Capture the Flag System Link match
31 seconds 31 seconds
Eurogamer has three full pages of similar tests that compare the times for many of your favorite titles.