The ultimate goal of this paper is to control the angular speed, in a model of a DC motor driving an inertial load has the angular speed, as the output and applied voltage, as the input, by varying the applied voltage using different control strategies for comparison purpose. The comparison is made between the proportional controller, integral controller, proportional and integral controller, phase lag compensator, derivative controller, lead integral compensator, lead lag compensator, PID controller and the linear quadratic tracker design based on the optimal control theory. It has been realized that the design based on the linear quadratic tracker will give the best steady state and transient system behavior, mainly because, the other compensator designs are mostly based on trial and error while the linear quadratic tracker design is based on the optimal control theory which can give best dynamic performance for the controlled system.