Hello:

I just put together my first computer and am wondering how i can make sure the hard drive is working properly. Both the drive and motherboard are SATA 3.0, and I want to know if there is a system check to make sure that it is actually performing at that rate. I have the intel desktop utilities, but it doesn't give me this information.

I am running Windows XP Home
Intel 955x board
Pentium D 920 2.8
Seagate Barracuda 7200, SATA 3.0, 160 gig

You can use HD Tach to measure the speed of your hard-drive, but I can already tell you that it won't be performing at SATA 300 rate. There are no hard-drive that can get even close to that. You should be over-enjoyed if you get even a fifth of that.