Improving Sandra HDD scores?

[brennan]

Yes, yes, I know, Sandra isn't a good HDD test. But, HD Tach requires the registered version ($50) to run on NT, and I'm on Win2K, so I can't do that. Other than HD Tach, Sandra is the most common test. So, I'm stuck with it for now.

I have a 75gxp 30gb on the Highpoint controller of an Abit KT7-RAID with a TBird 1.34GHz, and I'm getting scores of ~20,000 on Sandra's HDD test. Occasionally, I've seen 22,000, but only infrequently. Sandra says that a 30gb ATA/100 should bench around 24,000, but I've NEVER seen that. I've tried multiple versions of the Via 4-in-1 drivers, multiple versions of the Highpoint drivers, and multiple re-applications of Service Pack 2. Nothing has changed it much. Also, this is a totally fresh install of Win2K, and there's very very little fragmentation.

So you 75gxp guys, what are you getting in Sandra? This seems low to me, but I'm curious as to what anyone else has. Any input is appreciated.

-brennan

 

[dowxp]

Who?

 

[ChrisOh]

22000 and 24000 really isn't a big diff... maybe your score will be higher with FAT32 in WinME

 

[Gustavus]

I also have the IBM 30Gig HD, on an ABIT BE6 II MB. I just ran the drive benchmark in SiSoft Sandra and it returns a value of 23,758.

 

[brennan]

Yeh, that may be making a difference...I'm on NTFS partitions in Win2K.

Gustavus, what's your OS/partition type?

-brennan

 

[brennan]

Well, I improved it somewhat, but it's still not totally up to snuff. Even though I have a 3-day-old install of Win2K and Disk Defrag says it doesn't need it, I defragmented the hard drive. I also swapped my existing ATA/66 cable for a different one. After that, my scores went up from 20,000 (which I'd been starting to get pretty consistently with all the newest drivers and a re-apply of SP2) to 22,516. So not bad, and definitely better, but still not as high as I would have expected. Or are my expectations just off?

Ooh, and also, could the fact that I have it partitioned into 4 drives make a difference?

By the way, heh, Bang, I saw that last night.

-brennan

 

[Gustavus]

brennan
Sorry for leaving that out: Windows 98SE and FAT32.

PS
Last night I simply ran SiSoft Sandra with the HD as it was. I just defragged the drive and reran it to see if that made a difference. It did, but not much. The new score is 24,052 versus the 23,758 I got last night. I am sure there is a little variability in the scores from run to run, but it seems that this HD should return a SiSoft Sandra score of nominally 24,000

 

[sharkeeper]

FAT32 does indeed score higher than NTFS on this silly benchmark:

FAT 32 2x60GXP IBM 4KB STRIPE 32KB ALU HPT 370

NTFS 2x60GXP IBM 4KB STRIPE 512 BYTE ALU HPT 370

Cheers!

 

[brennan]

Gustavus: Great, thanks. I figured that's what it was, but it's good to confirm it. Combined with Sharkeeper's post (thanks to you as well), I'm guessing that my performance is totally reasonable, given the Win2K/NTFS combination. I'd love to run HD Tach to be sure, but eh, $50 just ain't worth it to me.

Thanks a bunch, guys. At least I don't feel anymore like something is wrong. Unless running RAIDless is considered wrong. Hmm. I may have to remedy that situation...

-brennan

 

[Gustavus]

brennan
HDTach is freeware if you don't want to run the write tests -- at least it was when I downloaded it and installed it on my system. For your info, here is what I measure on this drive with HDTach ver. 2.61.

maximum transfer 39313kbps
avarage transfer 29094kbps
CPU utilization 14.4%

measurements made with the large disk test enabled.
I don't know how to post the HDTach display here, but these figures may be of use to you for comparison if you decide to test your drive.

PS
I just checked the TCD Labs., Inc. page and I may be misinforming you about the status of HD Tach. It is true that if you pay the shareware fee they give you a registration number which when you register will enable the write test. I know it works indefinitely in the read only tests without that, but whether they condone that sort of use or not I am not sure. You can certainly download it and test your HD at no expense.

 

[dowxp]

you take a screen capture. i'll post mine, but im on raid, so it doesnt really help anyone. i just like to boast. haha. me and my ego fills this forum.

--

http://www.ghg.net/shukuo/hdtach.gif

this is on my current system in my sig, fasttrack 100 with 20 and 15 75gxp. this was taken with adv. size check, not that it really really matters. taken on a fresh reinstall. currently, it has decresed to 12/65. i dont know why. currently, my raid is full of dv video. =) i guess the only way to test it is to test it with write enabled (un parititioned)

 

[Gustavus]

Bangsailo
Why is your transfer rate so ragged? Mine is nearly smooth, i.e. lots of little "dimples" and minor "peaks" in an otherwise smooth plot.

 

[brennan]

Gustavus:

HD Tach is freeware (write-free) only on Win95/98 systems - I loaded it on my machine and it told me "Windows NT support only in registered version". Win2K is included in the WinNT category. Feh.

-brennan