Partitioning Tables Vs San Hardware

Guys,

I am trying to use table partition feature from Sql Server 2005 enterprise edition.

I have Names table with columns FNAME, LNAME and DISPLAYNAME (concatenation of FNAME and LNAME) which I partitioned across 2 drives and 4 file groups based on the below criteria.

CREATE PARTITION FUNCTION pfNameRange(varchar(200))
AS RANGE RIGHT FOR VALUES ('F', 'I', 'S');

Currently there are 5 mill rows in this partitioned tables - partitioned table has clustered index on ID (identity property) and LNAME.

I also created another table with the same data without partition on the table.

When I run the following query I get the same response time of 10secs from both tables.

Names - partitoned table with clustered index on ID and Lname
NameSEARCH - with no partition and no index

select * from names where lname = 'smith'
select * from namesearch where lname = 'smith'

Is it safe to assume that if the data files are on San it doesnt give any advantage of table paritioning?

How can paritioning be made effective with data files on San

Any suggestions and inputs would help.

Thanks