Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast
Results 1 to 16 of 20

Thread: HDD testing

  1. #1
    HEXUS.timelord. Zak33's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    I'm a Jessie
    Posts
    35,176
    Thanks
    3,121
    Thanked
    3,173 times in 1,922 posts
    • Zak33's system
      • Storage:
      • Kingston HyperX SSD, Hitachi 1Tb
      • Graphics card(s):
      • Nvidia 1050
      • PSU:
      • Coolermaster 800w
      • Case:
      • Silverstone Fortress FT01
      • Operating System:
      • Win10
      • Internet:
      • Zen FTC uber speedy

    HDD testing

    Hi guys,

    I just purchased two Western Digital 320 gig SATA drives.
    WD3200AAKS (desktop drive, slightly cheaper)
    http://www.wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=299


    WD3200YS RE16 (enterprise edition, slightly more dough)
    http://www.wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=233


    I intend to see if the enterprise version is faster or slower in normal daily Hexus style use (ie games, film encoding, boot up, defraging etc)
    I got them both to test against each other, on the same system, with fresh installs, identical in every respect.

    I'm going to use XP Pro SP2, and HD Tachometer, and I shall use IL-2 1946 and Q4 for boot times.

    What else should I use to benchmark them?

    I'm open to offers. I'm installing XP on both tonight and will test tomorrow, so I'd like some ideas and links pls to free downloadable benchmarking software for hard disks.

    Cheers, look forward to your help.

    Quote Originally Posted by Advice Trinity by Knoxville
    "The second you aren't paying attention to the tool you're using, it will take your fingers from you. It does not know sympathy." |
    "If you don't gaffer it, it will gaffer you" | "Belt and braces"

  2. #2
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Posts
    263
    Thanks
    7
    Thanked
    2 times in 2 posts
    1) Copy lots of small files from same drive to same drive.

    2) Copy large file(s) from same drive to same drive.

    3) Copy lots of small files from one drive to other drive.

    4) Copy large file(s) from one drive to other drive.

  3. #3
    Gentoo Ricer
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    Galway
    Posts
    11,048
    Thanks
    1,016
    Thanked
    944 times in 704 posts
    • aidanjt's system
      • Motherboard:
      • Asus Strix Z370-G
      • CPU:
      • Intel i7-8700K
      • Memory:
      • 2x8GB Corsiar LPX 3000C15
      • Storage:
      • 500GB Samsung 960 EVO
      • Graphics card(s):
      • EVGA GTX 970 SC ACX 2.0
      • PSU:
      • EVGA G3 750W
      • Case:
      • Fractal Design Define C Mini
      • Operating System:
      • Windows 10 Pro
      • Monitor(s):
      • Asus MG279Q
      • Internet:
      • 240mbps Virgin Cable
    tests 1 and 2 are pointless if the copying is within the same partition, since all the Filesystem will do is rewrite the file descriptor tables.
    Quote Originally Posted by Agent View Post
    ...every time Creative bring out a new card range their advertising makes it sound like they have discovered a way to insert a thousand Chuck Norris super dwarfs in your ears...

  4. #4
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Posts
    263
    Thanks
    7
    Thanked
    2 times in 2 posts
    Quote Originally Posted by aidanjt View Post
    tests 1 and 2 are pointless if the copying is within the same partition, since all the Filesystem will do is rewrite the file descriptor tables.
    This is not the case with XP (FAT and NTFS) at least - the files will still actually be recreated and re-written.

  5. #5
    o|-< acrobat's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Posts
    1,754
    Thanks
    225
    Thanked
    75 times in 58 posts
    • acrobat's system
      • Motherboard:
      • Gigabyte DS4 965p Revision 2
      • CPU:
      • E6600
      • Memory:
      • Corsair 4gig DDR 800 (C4)
      • Storage:
      • two 320gig Seagate Barracudas, and one 750 gig Seagate Barracuda (7200.10) and a 750gig same brand.
      • Graphics card(s):
      • 8800GTX
      • PSU:
      • Corsair HX 620
      • Case:
      • Akasa Eclipse 62
      • Monitor(s):
      • Apple Cinema Display 20"
      • Internet:
      • Virgin Media - Slow, expensive rip off, Indian customer service. Great choice eh? :C
    I used something called "HD Tach". It does a proper benchmark of any hard disk.

    Just remember a few things though:

    1) You are meant to boot up from fresh and then let your PC settle for 5 mins or so first.

    2) Make sure absolutely nothing is running in the background that might read/write from the drive while you are testing it - and screw up your results.

    3) The test results vary. So its worth testing each drive about 5 times or so. Then you can see what the drive achieves during those tests. Then test the other drive and it should hopefully show you which is faster.

  6. #6
    HEXUS.timelord. Zak33's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    I'm a Jessie
    Posts
    35,176
    Thanks
    3,121
    Thanked
    3,173 times in 1,922 posts
    • Zak33's system
      • Storage:
      • Kingston HyperX SSD, Hitachi 1Tb
      • Graphics card(s):
      • Nvidia 1050
      • PSU:
      • Coolermaster 800w
      • Case:
      • Silverstone Fortress FT01
      • Operating System:
      • Win10
      • Internet:
      • Zen FTC uber speedy
    I've been doing all those, and it's very interesting.

    Replicating large files on the same HDD is the most strenuous, without a doubt.

    But I've also just sussed a faster boot time for XP.

    Quote Originally Posted by Advice Trinity by Knoxville
    "The second you aren't paying attention to the tool you're using, it will take your fingers from you. It does not know sympathy." |
    "If you don't gaffer it, it will gaffer you" | "Belt and braces"

  7. #7
    o|-< acrobat's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Posts
    1,754
    Thanks
    225
    Thanked
    75 times in 58 posts
    • acrobat's system
      • Motherboard:
      • Gigabyte DS4 965p Revision 2
      • CPU:
      • E6600
      • Memory:
      • Corsair 4gig DDR 800 (C4)
      • Storage:
      • two 320gig Seagate Barracudas, and one 750 gig Seagate Barracuda (7200.10) and a 750gig same brand.
      • Graphics card(s):
      • 8800GTX
      • PSU:
      • Corsair HX 620
      • Case:
      • Akasa Eclipse 62
      • Monitor(s):
      • Apple Cinema Display 20"
      • Internet:
      • Virgin Media - Slow, expensive rip off, Indian customer service. Great choice eh? :C
    Quote Originally Posted by Zak33 View Post
    But I've also just sussed a faster boot time for XP.
    Do share Mines pretty quick actually but I'm interested anyway.

    Also, I forgot to mention, I got quite a nice program called "HD Tune" which benchmarks hard disks too. It also checks they are working ok aswell, and shows the temperature of them. Its a little bit reduntant though nowdays, since that new version of SpeedFan is showing me the temperature of everything short of my armpits and stuff. Its quite accurate now too - for me atleast. I quite liked the way HD Tune works though anyway.

  8. #8
    HEXUS.timelord. Zak33's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    I'm a Jessie
    Posts
    35,176
    Thanks
    3,121
    Thanked
    3,173 times in 1,922 posts
    • Zak33's system
      • Storage:
      • Kingston HyperX SSD, Hitachi 1Tb
      • Graphics card(s):
      • Nvidia 1050
      • PSU:
      • Coolermaster 800w
      • Case:
      • Silverstone Fortress FT01
      • Operating System:
      • Win10
      • Internet:
      • Zen FTC uber speedy

    Quote Originally Posted by Advice Trinity by Knoxville
    "The second you aren't paying attention to the tool you're using, it will take your fingers from you. It does not know sympathy." |
    "If you don't gaffer it, it will gaffer you" | "Belt and braces"

  9. #9
    HEXUS.timelord. Zak33's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    I'm a Jessie
    Posts
    35,176
    Thanks
    3,121
    Thanked
    3,173 times in 1,922 posts
    • Zak33's system
      • Storage:
      • Kingston HyperX SSD, Hitachi 1Tb
      • Graphics card(s):
      • Nvidia 1050
      • PSU:
      • Coolermaster 800w
      • Case:
      • Silverstone Fortress FT01
      • Operating System:
      • Win10
      • Internet:
      • Zen FTC uber speedy
    OK: Results so far

    Copying a 13.3 gig file from a Barracuda SATA to the Desktop model AAKS

    3m 30 secs
    3m 28 secs
    3m 30 secs
    3m 30 secs


    Copying the 13.3 gig file from Barracuda SATA to Enterpise model YS RE
    3m 58 secs
    3m 57 secs
    3m 56 secs
    3m 58 secs

    So consistently faster for the cheaper drive.

    Copying a file from the same drive to the same drive, using the same 13.3 gig file

    Desktop AAKS
    9m 10 secs
    9m 17 secs
    9m 11 secs

    Enterprise YS RE
    8m 58 secs
    8m 58 secs
    8m 58 secs

    Uber consistant and faster for the more money drive

    HD tacho next
    AAKS desktop drive

    Burst Rate 205mb/s 204mb/s 205 mb/s
    Rndm Access 13.2 ms 14.5 ms 13.3 ms
    CPU use 5% 5% 5%
    Average Read 69.8mb/s 69.5mb/s 69.8 mb/s

    YS RE enterprise drive
    Burst Rate 202mb/s 202mb/s 203mb/s
    Rndm Access 14.5 ms 13.3 ms 13.8 ms
    CPU use 5% 5% 5%
    Average Read 57.1mb/s 56.7mb/s 57.0mb/s

    Suprised about this, the average read speed is faster on the cheaper drive, as is the Random Access times


    XP Boot times
    AAKS Desktop drive
    37 secs
    36 secs
    37 secs

    YS RE enterprise drive
    38 secs
    38 secs
    38 secs


    So, in short, the cheaper drive is faster so far in most stuff

    Quote Originally Posted by Advice Trinity by Knoxville
    "The second you aren't paying attention to the tool you're using, it will take your fingers from you. It does not know sympathy." |
    "If you don't gaffer it, it will gaffer you" | "Belt and braces"

  10. #10
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Posts
    263
    Thanks
    7
    Thanked
    2 times in 2 posts
    Those results are pretty much what I expected. The AAKS is the newer model with less platters, but the NCQ is slightly better on the YS RE model, which accounts for the better results on the same drive to same drive test.

  11. #11
    o|-< acrobat's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Posts
    1,754
    Thanks
    225
    Thanked
    75 times in 58 posts
    • acrobat's system
      • Motherboard:
      • Gigabyte DS4 965p Revision 2
      • CPU:
      • E6600
      • Memory:
      • Corsair 4gig DDR 800 (C4)
      • Storage:
      • two 320gig Seagate Barracudas, and one 750 gig Seagate Barracuda (7200.10) and a 750gig same brand.
      • Graphics card(s):
      • 8800GTX
      • PSU:
      • Corsair HX 620
      • Case:
      • Akasa Eclipse 62
      • Monitor(s):
      • Apple Cinema Display 20"
      • Internet:
      • Virgin Media - Slow, expensive rip off, Indian customer service. Great choice eh? :C
    cool

  12. #12
    HEXUS.timelord. Zak33's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    I'm a Jessie
    Posts
    35,176
    Thanks
    3,121
    Thanked
    3,173 times in 1,922 posts
    • Zak33's system
      • Storage:
      • Kingston HyperX SSD, Hitachi 1Tb
      • Graphics card(s):
      • Nvidia 1050
      • PSU:
      • Coolermaster 800w
      • Case:
      • Silverstone Fortress FT01
      • Operating System:
      • Win10
      • Internet:
      • Zen FTC uber speedy
    I'm keeping the Enterprise drive (slower though it is) as it'sgot a Molex.

    And the other goes to my mate for his PC

    Quote Originally Posted by Advice Trinity by Knoxville
    "The second you aren't paying attention to the tool you're using, it will take your fingers from you. It does not know sympathy." |
    "If you don't gaffer it, it will gaffer you" | "Belt and braces"

  13. #13
    o|-< acrobat's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Posts
    1,754
    Thanks
    225
    Thanked
    75 times in 58 posts
    • acrobat's system
      • Motherboard:
      • Gigabyte DS4 965p Revision 2
      • CPU:
      • E6600
      • Memory:
      • Corsair 4gig DDR 800 (C4)
      • Storage:
      • two 320gig Seagate Barracudas, and one 750 gig Seagate Barracuda (7200.10) and a 750gig same brand.
      • Graphics card(s):
      • 8800GTX
      • PSU:
      • Corsair HX 620
      • Case:
      • Akasa Eclipse 62
      • Monitor(s):
      • Apple Cinema Display 20"
      • Internet:
      • Virgin Media - Slow, expensive rip off, Indian customer service. Great choice eh? :C
    Could write time be a factor in why these drives are supposed to be good?

    In other words, the read time may be a few seconds slower than some drives, but maybe they write stuff really quickly?

  14. #14
    HEXUS.timelord. Zak33's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    I'm a Jessie
    Posts
    35,176
    Thanks
    3,121
    Thanked
    3,173 times in 1,922 posts
    • Zak33's system
      • Storage:
      • Kingston HyperX SSD, Hitachi 1Tb
      • Graphics card(s):
      • Nvidia 1050
      • PSU:
      • Coolermaster 800w
      • Case:
      • Silverstone Fortress FT01
      • Operating System:
      • Win10
      • Internet:
      • Zen FTC uber speedy
    In normal use it seems as fast as the AAKS.

    Quote Originally Posted by Advice Trinity by Knoxville
    "The second you aren't paying attention to the tool you're using, it will take your fingers from you. It does not know sympathy." |
    "If you don't gaffer it, it will gaffer you" | "Belt and braces"

  15. #15
    ati
    ati is offline
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Oct 2005
    Location
    London
    Posts
    598
    Thanks
    0
    Thanked
    2 times in 2 posts
    nice one zak33

    it doesnt look like a huge amount of difference tbh.

    what i dont get is why the aaks are not perp?

  16. #16
    HEXUS.timelord. Zak33's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    I'm a Jessie
    Posts
    35,176
    Thanks
    3,121
    Thanked
    3,173 times in 1,922 posts
    • Zak33's system
      • Storage:
      • Kingston HyperX SSD, Hitachi 1Tb
      • Graphics card(s):
      • Nvidia 1050
      • PSU:
      • Coolermaster 800w
      • Case:
      • Silverstone Fortress FT01
      • Operating System:
      • Win10
      • Internet:
      • Zen FTC uber speedy
    perp? you mean Perpendicular?

    I'm not 100&#37; sure they'd need to be. That technology is clever, but not always fastest.

    Quote Originally Posted by Advice Trinity by Knoxville
    "The second you aren't paying attention to the tool you're using, it will take your fingers from you. It does not know sympathy." |
    "If you don't gaffer it, it will gaffer you" | "Belt and braces"

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Similar Threads

  1. External HDD enclosure causing nasty static noise
    By Jez in forum PC Hardware and Components
    Replies: 1
    Last Post: 30-10-2007, 12:16 AM
  2. HDD custom enclosure
    By masterkeith in forum Help! Quick Relief From Tech Headaches
    Replies: 0
    Last Post: 07-04-2007, 02:35 AM
  3. Misco - Ultra HDD enclosure and 250GB HDD deal
    By MD in forum Retail Therapy and Bargains
    Replies: 3
    Last Post: 30-09-2005, 10:20 AM

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •