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    Show your HD Tune bench!

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by R4000, Jul 7, 2007.

  1. mullenbooger

    mullenbooger Former New York Giant

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    Something is not right. IIRC correctly it might be running in pio mode or somethinglike that. Not sure how to change it orr if it could be somethhing else
     
  2. meegulthwarp

    meegulthwarp Notebook Consultant

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    Read page 2 of this thread to see how to get rid of PIO.

    Also try defragmenting the HDD.
     
  3. AzeaezA

    AzeaezA Notebook Enthusiast

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    Could you tell me what range of posts I should read (#) as I read the threads in 100 post mode.

    What de-fragment software would you recommend?
     
  4. K-TRON

    K-TRON Hi, I'm Jimmy Diesel ^_^

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    I mentioned how to get rid of PIO mode in your other thread,
    Just go to device manager, and right click the SATA controller.
    Click uninstall
    Than windows will automatically set the driver to DMA mode, where it should be.

    K-TRON
     
  5. t30power

    t30power Notebook Deity

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    [​IMG]

    Same noise is equal to the WD Scorpio Black. Surprisingly to my opinion there's no longer a dense HDD with quiet accoustics.
     
  6. K-TRON

    K-TRON Hi, I'm Jimmy Diesel ^_^

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    t30power, your harddrive is performing very poorly. Those huge dips are not good. They are either caused by background processes, or a very fragmented drive.
    Run disc cleanup, clean up all temporary internet files and such, and defragment your harddrive.

    You should also run MSCONFIG and shutoff any processes, services and programs which are running in the background which you are not using.

    You should get a nice curve from that drive, with around 45mb/sec of data transfer, not 23.5mb/sec

    K-TRON
     
  7. t30power

    t30power Notebook Deity

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    Thanx for the advice K-TRON

    This drive is not mine, it belongs to a dv-5 from a friend of mine which asked me to recover his crashed Vista partition. I disabled superfetch + windows defender + indexing but Windows kept trashing the HDD whilst the test was being made.
    I removed the drive and tested it on a USB enclosure with the top off to measure the 'noise levels' and as stated below I was dissapointed because even though it's only 5,400rpm the drive is exactly audible as the 7,200RPM S.Black.

    I know Vista is a mess I just tried seeing the HDTune numbers of this drive which I'm sure it can do better than that.
     
  8. Koshinn

    Koshinn Notebook Deity

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    16gb Runcore SATA SSD, mini-pcie slot on my ASUS EEE 900a

    $200 laptop + $70 SSD upgrade + $20 2GB RAM = win.

    The HD is faster than the 200gb 7200 rpm Hitachi in my AW m15x.
     

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  9. porksoda

    porksoda Notebook Enthusiast

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    Toshiba:

    [​IMG]

    Hitachi:

    [​IMG]
     
  10. AzeaezA

    AzeaezA Notebook Enthusiast

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    I cannot see sata controller?

    [​IMG]
     
  11. K-TRON

    K-TRON Hi, I'm Jimmy Diesel ^_^

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    It is under storage controllers
    Click the little "+" next to it

    K-TRON
     
  12. porksoda

    porksoda Notebook Enthusiast

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    its under ide ata/atapi controllers
     
  13. AzeaezA

    AzeaezA Notebook Enthusiast

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    anyone? :confused:
     
  14. t30power

    t30power Notebook Deity

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    AzeaezA, go to IDE ATA/ATAPI tab, then double click on all the subcategories, and browse the tabs, there should be one where it says something like SATA/AHCI, there it should read DMA instead of PIO, so just remove it and let Vista reinstall the driver.

    Sorry cant take a snapshot I'm not using Vista ATM.

    Diskeeper seems to be a good defragmenter.
     
  15. FrankTabletuser

    FrankTabletuser Notebook Evangelist

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    Seems ok, or? :D :D :D
    [​IMG]

    And my currently used HDD:
    [​IMG]

    both times with 64kb block size.
     
  16. K-TRON

    K-TRON Hi, I'm Jimmy Diesel ^_^

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    WOWWWW
    Frank what is that?

    1100mb/sec that completely eats my 15Krpm harddrive array

    Please give us a link or a video :D

    K-TRON
     
  17. coolink

    coolink Notebook Geek

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    Did another bench with my Scorpio Blue 500GB with a dell driver. Improved a little bit. The results looks very good for a 5400rpm drive.
     

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  18. FrankTabletuser

    FrankTabletuser Notebook Evangelist

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    That's my RAMDisk :D http://superspeed.com/desktop/ramdisk.php (that's the program I use, but there are also free solutions available)

    At the moment my RAMDisk has only 512MB and I mainly use it to store Opera and its cache folders on it.
    The 1.1GB/s aren't that fast, compared to other benchmarks of a RAMDisk. These values are mainly so low because of the ULV CPU I use and because it's only a notebook. (with a 512KB block size I get around 1.6GB/s)

    So the thing is limited by the CPU speed and the amount of RAM you have installed.

    There are several videos on youtube which show benchmarks with a RAMDisk.

    Sadly you can't boot your primary OS from a RAM Disk.
    Still, there's a software, SuperVolume (maybe there are some free softwares also available), which does something similar. This won't increase the boot times, because it boots normally from the HDD, but after the OS is started it loads the whole partition in the RAM and thus you'll get a blazing fast OS. All you need is enough RAM or a small enough OS partition, and Win XP.


     
  19. mullenbooger

    mullenbooger Former New York Giant

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    Diskeeper, defragler, jkdefrag
     
  20. ajreynol

    ajreynol Notebook Virtuoso

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    hey guys. long-time lurker and brand new poster here, but not new to web forums. I have a question for the brilliant minds here. I have a laptop with 2HDDs running in Raid 0. 4200rpm'z. the HD Tune is as follows:

    [​IMG]

    Transfer speeds are strong and the burst rate is "lol, wut?"...but the access time is very unimpressive.

    My question is this: I just ordered a pair (2) of those 500GB 7200.4 Seagate Momentus HDDs to replace the 500GB 4200RPM hdd's that came with the laptop...but will I see any meaningful increase in overall performance from the 7200rpm configuration? with access times, in particular?

    Because if not, I'll save my $300 and wait a couple years for the SSD's to drop in price.

    Thanks for your advice, guys! (i'll also post this question in the Seagate 7200.4 thread. the more input the merrier when discussing a $300 HDD investment!)
     
  21. K-TRON

    K-TRON Hi, I'm Jimmy Diesel ^_^

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    Yes you will definitely see a big performance gain. With two 7200.4's in raid 0 expect maximum's around 210mb/sec, minimums around 80mb/sec, and averages around 150mb/sec
    Seek times should be around 16ms or so

    Your programs will run faster, but if you were to save your $300, you will be able to get a much better drive or SSD next year for the same amount of money. I would say its still worth it to upgrade your drives, because it will take a few years before you can get 1TB SSD's at $300

    K-TRON
     
  22. ajreynol

    ajreynol Notebook Virtuoso

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    thanks for the thoughts!

    16ms is certainly more respectable than 19-20ms. also, do you all think the WD Scorpio Blue (500GB) would provide faster access times than the Seagate?

    not sure what to do, but your reply has been very valuable. thank you!
     
  23. t30power

    t30power Notebook Deity

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  24. Michel.K

    Michel.K 167WAISIQ

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    For a RAM-disk that is not fast, really. When i had a ram-disk on my laptop i got around 2000-2500MB/s. So either your memory is really slow or you have some drivers missing! ;)
     
  25. K-TRON

    K-TRON Hi, I'm Jimmy Diesel ^_^

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    I have never tried this, I have a physical I-RAM, but I never tried this software. Does it actually work?

    Does software like adobe CS3 load instantly?

    K-TRON
     
  26. t30power

    t30power Notebook Deity

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    I don't know my memory timings are 5 - 5 - 5 - 15 I think.

    ajreynol, I think you could either wait for the WD 500GB 7200rpm drives, the 320GB version have access time of ~15ms, I got one of those and it reads at 14.5ms. I've never heard of a 500GB 4,200rpm sounds quite useless IMO.

    KTRON: Let me test it out!
     
  27. Michel.K

    Michel.K 167WAISIQ

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    It should, but you have to install on the i-ram, adobe photoshop cs3, indesign cs3 or flash cs3 or whatever doesn't matter, anything should aslong as it fits on the i-ram installed :)
     
  28. K-TRON

    K-TRON Hi, I'm Jimmy Diesel ^_^

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    I have installed software on an I-RAM array, and it works beautifully. However you are using some software to do this on a laptop.
    I have not tried this on my laptop, so does it work?
    I guess I am limited by 512mb, which I guess is too small for most of the adobe suite

    K-TRON
     
  29. ajreynol

    ajreynol Notebook Virtuoso

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    well, you saw the HD Tune my 4200's.

    [​IMG]

    certainly not useless.

    anyway, what is the ETA for the WD 7200's? I can certainly wait if it'll be worth waiting for.
     
  30. SonDa5

    SonDa5 Notebook Deity

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    Over 2 years with my SATA 1 300GB Maxtor SL300 hdd RAID 0 Array in my desktop.
    Solid performers. Not that impressive to the new SSDs though. :D

    [​IMG]
     
  31. sniper_sung

    sniper_sung Notebook Evangelist

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    VAIO SZ Napa Platform, I think the chipset is the bottleneck for Intel X25-E...
     

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  32. mirage_bg

    mirage_bg Notebook Deity

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    My last result:
     
  33. ajreynol

    ajreynol Notebook Virtuoso

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    my most recent.

    5K500.B's. raid 0'd.
     

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  34. Phil

    Phil Retired

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    WD1600BEKT. Acces time of 14.4 ms seems impressive. Possibly because it's the one platter version.
     
  35. mirage_bg

    mirage_bg Notebook Deity

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    My last New Scorpio Black...14.7ms :)))Love it!!!
     

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  36. Evoss-X

    Evoss-X Notebook Deity

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    WD Scorpio Black 320GB BEKT
     
  37. mirage_bg

    mirage_bg Notebook Deity

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    Guys, what is your opinion about these results?:
     

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  38. FrankTabletuser

    FrankTabletuser Notebook Evangelist

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    The Hitachi 5k500.B as a system drive running in SATA-150 mode and the drive is half full.
     

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  39. JohnnyFlash

    JohnnyFlash Notebook Virtuoso

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    Wow, I'm surprised how low those IOPS are. I'm gonna get a couple of these in a week or so.
     
  40. sxusteven

    sxusteven Notebook Evangelist

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    [​IMG]
    Joining the ramdisk party :) :p


    This speed is achieved by DDR2 800 ram. Also hit 2327.9mb/s average but too lazy to post SS.
    I would reccomend using Cenatek Ramdisk, as it is free (or appears to be free even though there is a buy link).
     
  41. FrankTabletuser

    FrankTabletuser Notebook Evangelist

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    I've rerun the same tests on my Windows 7 x86 RC partition and there I get identical results.
     
  42. JohnnyFlash

    JohnnyFlash Notebook Virtuoso

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    I didn't mean I thought there was a problem with the one particular drive, I was just surprised at the scores. I thought the 5K500.B's would be a little closer to my 7K320's.
     
  43. Phil

    Phil Retired

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    That's why a good 320GB 7200rpm drive will still outperform a 500GB 5400rpm drive in most situations.
     
  44. mirage_bg

    mirage_bg Notebook Deity

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    I can prove this statement from my own experience. Two days ago moved from WD Scorpio Blue 500GB 5400rpm to Black 320GB w/ free fall sensor and can tell that the difference is noticeable in terms of speed- everything load faster, my system is more flexible by general now. So for me- the change was worth in all points of view.
     
  45. aussiek2000

    aussiek2000 Notebook Consultant

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    How is this?
     

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  46. Phil

    Phil Retired

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    Transfer rate is ok. Fastest 5400rpm drive witth the same density do 52-53MB/sec average.

    Your acces time is very good for a 5400rpm drive.
     
  47. aussiek2000

    aussiek2000 Notebook Consultant

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    ran it again. how is this?
     

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  48. Phil

    Phil Retired

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    Better. Now it's on par with it's class.
     
  49. MidnightSun

    MidnightSun Emodicon

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    It's very good. Your access time and transfer speeds are faster than my Hitachi 7200RPM drive!
     
  50. ShadowVlican

    ShadowVlican Notebook Enthusiast

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    WDC WD1600BEVS (160GB 5400rpm 2.5" sata)

    [​IMG] [​IMG]
     
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