Hard Drive Speed

[Conan]

After discovering this hard drive speed benchmark:

http://members.home.nl/rvandesanden/Downloads/ATTO.rar

I discovered that my SATA Seagate 120 gig sucks ass compared to my IDE Maxtor 160 gig.

Seagate:

http://www.info.com.ph/~mendez/sigs/seagate.JPG

Maxtor:

http://www.info.com.ph/~mendez/sigs/maxtor.JPG

Except maybe for a Western Digital Raptor, SATA drives are no better or even inferior to IDE drives. I have transfered back XP to my Maxtor drive and am using the Seagate drive for storage.

[FastGame]

Conan, If your going to use ATTO to compare HD's then you have ATTO set wrong. In order for the comparison to be valid you need to set 'Total Lengh' to 32mb, and the I/O to 'Neither'. Leave the 'Direct I/O' checked.

ATTO is a good benchmark but its not the final say.....

Also use
HDTach 2.70 (http://www.simplisoftware.com/Public/index.php?request=HdTach#) and Winbench 99 (ftp://ftp.pcmag.com/benchmarks/winbench/wb9920.exe)

Here's some real head to head results Here (http://storagereview.com/php/benchmark/bench_sort.php) use the pull down to select benchmarks.

Conan if you want SATA to shine on your board then you need two identical HD's on Raid, untill then all single HD's are dogs according to benchmarks ;)
Except maybe for a Western Digital Raptor, SATA drives are no better or even inferior to IDE drives.
Oh there's no "maybe" about it, WD Raptor smokes the guts out of all the non-SCSI HD's :)

Got to go, its feeding time for my Raptors...........:D

[Conan]

Conan, If your going to use ATTO to compare HD's then you have ATTO set wrong. In order for the comparison to be valid you need to set 'Total Lengh' to 32mb, and the I/O to 'Neither'. Leave the 'Direct I/O' checked.



I configured ATTO as you said, results are closer but my Maxtor still whips the Seagate.

So what would you suggest, buy another Seagate SATA drive and run them in Raid 0, or get a single Raptor drive?

[FastGame]

I configured ATTO as you said, results are closer but my Maxtor still whips the Segate
well the Maxtor is better :)
So what would you suggest, buy another Seagate SATA drive and run them in Raid 0, or get a single Raptor drive?
Raid 0 with either the Maxtor or Seagate will kick a single Raptors butt;)

If you want to use your SATA to the fullest then Raid will kick a$$, but so will your regular ATA in Raid :)

Test both your drives and see what your CPU utilization is between SATA and IDE channels, that would give you some idea on which is the most efficient.

Single drive use or in Raid the Raptor screams because of the low access times, thats what you can see with your eye's, don't need a benchmark to tell the difference.

If I were you and going to change something then I'd do Raid 0 Raptors or Seagates and the large drive for storage.

Weren't you happy before you did the benchmark ? if so pretend you never did so and save some $$$

[Conan]

Thanks FG! When I can afford it I'll get another Seagate, they run pretty hot though, about 6 to 8 degrees more than the Maxtor.

[FastGame]

Actually I wouldn't worry about it. Unless your always working with lage files (video,graphics,transfers) Raid 0 isn't worth the bother IMO, plus you could lose everything if a drive fails. If you do alot of backups then Raid 1 is an option....

For everyday PC use a single Raptor is one fast drive, a change you'll notice without a benchmark ! but have you ever head a 10,000 rpm HD ? my friggin Cockatoo now mimics that whine and drives me crazy! LOL

I could live quite happy with either your Seagate or Maxtor as a main drive only ;)

Benchmarks, dam trouble makers.. :eek:

[lynchknot]

Mine probably really sucks eh? It's like at 85 - much slower, i'm not sure what to think of Drive E. The top graph is the new Western Digital (8mb) and the bottom is that old Seagate 80 with only 2mb cache.

http://www.quickbase.com/up/8q9jbnau/g/rbqr/eg/va/test.gif



http://www.quickbase.com/up/8q9jbnau/g/rbqs/eg/va/tset2.gif

[rik]

I can't wait to hear that Cockatoo...be sure and bring him to the convention in Las Vegas. ;)

[lynchknot]

I have a cockatiel here the mimics nose blowing. It's hilarious - almost sounds real. Everytime you blow your nose he'll blow his..er.. beak.

[lynchknot]

Does anyone know why it appears my new drive sucks compared to the old drive?

[Conan]

@Lynch, the write speed of your new drive is good, the read is slightly low though.

[FastGame]

Yep LK your drive looks pretty good to me, what heck you talking about ?
I can't wait to hear that Cockatoo...be sure and bring him to the convention in Las Vegas. ;)
no problem ;) he talks pretty good but drives ya crazy, if you don't let him out of the cage he starts screaming "Let me out of here" then he does the Raptor whine and it kills my ears. I beat at him with a fly swater & he shuts up.

[lynchknot]

@Lynch, the write speed of your new drive is good, the read is slightly low though.

but why does is seem worse. overall, than the old seagate which is only 5200rpm and 2mb.

[lynchknot]

ok FG with your settings seems like there is not much difference between 5200/2mb and 7200/8mb

Western:

http://www.quickbase.com/up/8q9jbnau/g/rbqu/eg/va/1.gif

Seagate:

http://www.quickbase.com/up/8q9jbnau/g/rbqv/eg/va/2.gif

[FastGame]

you still have ATTO set wrong :( why is Direct I/O unchecked ?

[lynchknot]

duh, i dunno - hehe - new one coming up....does it matter if I have 40 or so processes running?

[lynchknot]

ok FG I see a difference now

http://www.quickbase.com/up/8q9jbnau/g/rbqx/eg/va/test.gif