Harddrive benchmark program

[Ark]

What programs you guys using to benchmark your harddrives?
Different programs give me different results.
So far I tried:
- Sandra by SiSoft
- Norton System Information for NU2001
- CT3 from promise.

Also it will be interesting to see your benchmarks here.

-----
I made some experiments with my WD 20GB ATA66 drive. Here some results:
PII-233 440LX, Windows ME using on bord controller, ATA33 only:
- Master primary channel:.........NU 2.3, Sandra 13600 (9000 cache off), CT3 30000
- Slave on Primary Channel........NU 2.1, Sandra 10000 (6000)
- Master on Secondary channel.....NU 4.3 Sandra 10000 (6000)

Same PC, Ultra66 card by promise
- Master on IDE1 channel..........NU 2.1, Sandra 12000 (7000) less than ATA 33 (yes I enabled ATA 66 in the drive), CT 3 55000

C466 VIA chipset, ATA 66
- Slave on Primary Channel........NU 28,(28 not 2.8), Sandra 11000 (6000)

P166 430HX
- Slave on primary IDE............NU 1.2
- Master on Ultra66 channel.......NU 2.3, Sandra 12000 (7000)

Any ideas why Ultra66 is not really faster, and results are depending on CPU?

 

[vvvvvv]

sandra

 

[PassMark]

You may also like to try out PerformanceTest. Especially version 3.3 as it has better application level disk testing.

http://www.passmark.com/betatest.htm

David
PassMark Software

 

[Ark]

Thanks PassMark
I'll try it

 

[ModemMix]

HD Tach
sandra isnt a very good HD benchmark, its very inconsistant

 

[xtreme2k]

get HDTach
at www.tcdlabs.com

 

[Ark]

Just got some results from HDtach:
Read speed is the same for onboard IDE and Ultra66
But Read burst speed is much higher with Ultra66
See results here: Ultra66 On Board IDE

Thanks guys

 

[xtreme2k]

Ark

that is good benchmarks of yours
the reason behind the read speed is the same regardless of U33/66 is that the drive cannot read more than 33MB/s sustained, therefore even the U33 onboard can handle it nicely

the only benefit of getting U66 is that you have better burst speed

if you have a 75GXP, you will find U33 is not enough for its read speed it can do 38MB at the beginning of the drive
exceeding U33 limitation

 

[Goi]

I use HDTach and Threadmark

 

[Ark]

Thanks guys, I fill better now.

Where I can find Threadmark?
From Adaptec website:



<< Thank you for your interest in our ThreadMark Benchmarking software.

We originally developed ThreadMark for our internal use and continue to use it to test and examine the properties of multi-tasking hard drives. However, we are not able to give external users the level of technical support that meets our quality goals and are no longer able to support this product publicly.

There are a number of other benchmarks available that measure different aspects of Hard drive performance. You may want to review postings to the news:comp.benchmarks news group to find out more about what is available and how to benchmark properly.

Thank you again for your interest in ThreadMark
>>

 

[Goi]

Threadmark has indeed been discontinued, but if you do a websearch you can still find it available for download at some sites. However I'm not sure of the validity of the results. I get some pretty strange values.

 

[xtreme2k]

i think storagereview - a leading storage website
still uses threadmark

if i remember correctly

 

[Goi]

They use Threadmark as a result of popular demand. I think their main stable is Business/High-End Winbench and their new IOMeter benchmarks.