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    L702X HDD Performance Questions

    Discussion in 'Dell XPS and Studio XPS' started by xps-brent, Aug 14, 2011.

  1. xps-brent

    xps-brent Newbie

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    I have had my XPS 17 for a couple weeks now and am really enjoying it. I did a clean install of Win 7 Pro (including all latest drivers from Dell, Windows Updates, etc.) and have it setup nicely how I want it. I have noticed a couple things in reference to the HDD that I would like to get some feedback on, however. The HDD I have is the 750GB WDC WD7500BPKT-75PK4T0.

    1. Just to check things out, I used CrystalDiskMark and HDTune to see what type of performance I was getting. On average, I am getting 100MB/s sequential read/write with this drive. I think this is fairly normal, but I saw some results where the average was 120MB/s. Do you think my results are where they need to be? BTW, I have done these tests in normal and safe mode with very little difference.

    2. I notice that the HDD light blinks about once a second when there is no activity taking place (I have used resource monitor as well to investigate). I checked this in safe mode with the same results. Is your HDD light blinking like this?

    One last thing. I lurked on this forum for a while gaining all sorts of great knowledge before and after the purchase of this laptop. So, thanks for the great info!!

    Brent
     
    xps-brent, Aug 14, 2011
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  2. letmeknov

    letmeknov Notebook Consultant

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    Your hard drive is absolutely fine. My system drive (Momentus XT) got ~100 mb in seq read/write test, and the light blinks even when my machine is idle. So don't worry, this is a normal behavior.
     
    letmeknov, Aug 14, 2011
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  3. xps-brent

    xps-brent Newbie

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    Sounds good. Thanks for the reply!

    Brent
     
    xps-brent, Aug 14, 2011
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  4. morfmedia

    morfmedia Notebook Geek

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    XPS Brent, to get maximum scores ensure the machine is set to high performance + there is no power saving etc. In all honesty 100MB sec is very good for a laptop drive!
     
    morfmedia, Aug 15, 2011
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  5. madmattd

    madmattd Notebook Deity

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    100MB/s is about the best you will see without a RAID (which Dell won't let us do on this system...) or an SSD. Of course that is sequential transfer as always...
     
    madmattd, Aug 15, 2011
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  6. xps-brent

    xps-brent Newbie

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    Cool. Thanks again, guys, for the replies. I just wanted to make sure I was on par.

    I just ordered a WD USB 3.0 external HDD, so hopefully that will work as expected without the woes it seems many have with USB 3.0 with this system.

    Brent
     
    xps-brent, Aug 16, 2011
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  7. morfmedia

    morfmedia Notebook Geek

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    Pretty sure that was fixed with a bios update
     
    morfmedia, Aug 21, 2011
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  8. xps-brent

    xps-brent Newbie

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    Just to follow up...I got the WD 750GB Essentials SE USB 3.0 external HDD, and it works great. I'm getting around 92MB/s according to Crystal. No drops or anything wacky going on.

    Brent
     
    xps-brent, Aug 21, 2011
    #8