Benchmarks*: Diskeeper 2008 Pro Premier 12.0.758.0

The benchmark results of Diskeeper 2008 Pro Premier are available in a spreadsheet. A quick summary of the results: the $99 Diskeeper 2008 doesn't always work as well as the free Windows Disk Defragmenter (WDD) supplied with Windows XP, and only marginally faster than DK2007. Once more I am at a loss to explain why only one of the tests achieved a result 3.9% better than WDD, or why the final I-FAAST test caused a slower result.
The graph shows Diskeeper 2008 Pro Premier (DK) in dark blue, and the results from Windows XP in light blue. The first test is at the bottom, and shorter lines mean faster times.

• "Basic XP" refers to the standard install, without Office 2007, so there are only 710 files to be tested.
• "Defrag" refers to the read times of the same 710 files, after several defrag passes using the DK program, with no "Optimize Files" or "Optimize Boot" options enabled. A 12.8% performance improvement is measured, almost identical to the WDD result.
  
• "Defrag+Auto" refers to the read time after enabling "Optimize Boot" functions in Windows, and the I-FAAST option in Diskeeper. An improvement of 27.0% is recorded.
  
• "XP+Auto" is the result obtained after enabling both "Optimize Files" and "Optimize Boot" functions in Windows, and then running WDD, i.e. the best that Windows XP can manage.
  
• "Basic Office" refers to the read time of all 802 test files, where no defragmentation has been done whatsoever, after the installation of Microsoft Office 2007 Professional (Trial).
• "Full Defrag" refers to the read time of all 802 test files after several reboots and several passes using the DK program, with no I-FAAST or "Optimize Boot" options enabled. A 30.7% performance improvement has been measured, the best result so far, but only 3.9% better than "Office Auto" below.
• "I-FAAST+Auto" is the result obtained after enabling and "Optimize Boot" functions in Windows, and then running DK with I-FAAST enabled . This performance improvement of 16.7% is not as good as was expected, and slower than "Office Auto".
  
• "Office Auto" is the result obtained by allowing Windows XP to do its own defrag after enabling both "Optimize Files" and "Optimize Boot" functions.

The performance improvement ranges between 12% and 30%, with better results obtained when the built-in Windows functions are employed; "Optimize Boot" is enabled by default. The only advantage is that DK2008 allows for automatic defragmentation. Still, an average 21.8% performance improvement over no defrag at all isn't bad, but I expected much better from a program that costs $99. Disabling I-FAAST provides the equivalent functionality of the $49 Diskeeper 2008 Professional, but even so this is one of the most expensive defrag packages available.
I enabled most options in DK2008, including directory consolidation, InvisiTasking, statistics collection, and so on. The top graphic shows the end result of all the tests, but the directories are still scattered around and the large clump of files at the end is presumably the result of I-FAAST moving older files to the end. I suspect this may also account for the slower performance, but can't explain why I-FAAST would think that any of the files being tested are "old" or "slow".
I did not enable the "Optimize Files" option because I didn't want it to clash with or degrade the I-FAAST facility, which represents half the cost of DK2008 Pro Premier. Clearly more work has gone into the methods used to defragment the drive, but the performance gains come with a very hefty price tag. The next program to be tested is O&O Defrag Professional Edition 10.0.1634.

Diskeeper 2008 Professional: Preliminary Results | First Impressions | A Closer Look at the DK2008 Review on 3DProfessor.org: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | How Fast is I-FAAST™? | Diskeeper 2007 Review | DK2007 Benchmark
*See: Benchmarks*: Why the Asterisk?