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graysky
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Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 2:10 am |
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Joined: Wed Dec 10, 2003 8:31 pm
Posts: 1996
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/dev/null
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My SATA drive seems awfully slow for the hardware specs of this Debian-Lenny system. Can you guys post the output of your hdparm -Tt commands with your hardware specs for me as well as provide any comments/suggestions?
Thanks!
Hardware specs: A7N8X-E Deluxe, Athlon XP 3200+, 2x512 meg DDR2-400, HDD is a Hitachi HDS722516VLSA80 150 GB SATA1 drive using the kernel's Silicon Image, Inc. SiI 3112 driver.
Code: # hdparm -Tt /dev/sda
/dev/sda: Timing cached reads: 1092 MB in 2.00 seconds = 546.06 MB/sec Timing buffered disk reads: 176 MB in 3.02 seconds = 58.27 MB/sec By contrast, here is the hdparm -Tt for my really old, 80 gig Western Digital WD800 UDMA-100 drive: Code: # hdparm -Tt /dev/hda
/dev/hda: Timing cached reads: 1142 MB in 2.00 seconds = 570.72 MB/sec Timing buffered disk reads: 140 MB in 3.01 seconds = 46.48 MB/sec Here is the output of sdparm: Code: # sdparm /dev/sda /dev/sda: ATA HDS722516VLSA80 V34O Read write error recovery mode page: AWRE 1 ARRE 1 PER 0 Caching (SBC) mode page: WCE 1 RCD 0 Control mode page: SWP 0
_________________ Retired KM user (R4 - R6.04); friend to LH users.
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alien
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Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2008 2:09 am |
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Joined: Mon Jun 21, 2004 5:28 am
Posts: 700
Location:
Germany
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I get similar results (same MB):
Code: /dev/sda: Timing cached reads: 752 MB in 2.00 seconds = 375.35 MB/sec Timing buffered disk reads: 224 MB in 3.01 seconds = 74.38 MB/sec root@violet:~# hdparm -Tt /dev/hda
/dev/hda: Timing cached reads: 742 MB in 2.00 seconds = 370.77 MB/sec Timing buffered disk reads: 160 MB in 3.02 seconds = 52.94 MB/sec root@violet:~#
There are a couple of reasons for this:
1. Most HDs are limited by their read/write speed. Not the cable speed.
2. The A7N8X-E Deluxe has an older SATA/150 which performs similarly to a PATA/133 in many cases.
Lot's more information here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sata#Throughput
_________________ ASUS AT3N7A-I (Atom 330) TBS 8922 PCI (DVB-S2)
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opel70
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Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2008 8:46 am |
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Joined: Tue Apr 11, 2006 7:44 am
Posts: 287
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Los Angeles, CA
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My system shows up with:
Code: /dev/sdb Timing cached reads: 2060 MB in 2.00 seconds = 1030.04 MB/sec Timing buffered disk reads: 212 MB in 3.01 seconds = 70.66 MB/sec
This is on a Seagate Baracuda 750GB drive. The sdparm output is the same.
_________________ Tim
LinHES 8.4 HDHR3 BioStar A770, AMD X2 4050e, 2GB RAM GigaByte GeForce 8400, Chaintech AV710 USB-UIRT
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manicmike
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Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2008 2:11 pm |
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Joined: Sun Aug 28, 2005 7:07 pm
Posts: 821
Location:
Melbourne, Australia
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That's an interesting set of numbers. I hadn't used hdparm for years, but this is what it said about my WD 5000YS
Code: /dev/sda: Timing cached reads: 5752 MB in 1.99 seconds = 2885.60 MB/sec Timing buffered disk reads: 212 MB in 3.02 seconds = 70.24 MB/sec
Very cool: Didn't realise drives were that different in r/w speed.
Mike
_________________ ********************* LinHES 7.4 Australian Dragon *********************
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Dale
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Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2008 3:26 pm |
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Joined: Fri Oct 31, 2003 11:40 pm
Posts: 357
Location:
Irvine, Ca
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If you said what type fs you have on the partition, I missed it. I have just recently timed some xfs stuff here, and have discovered that on a new xfs partition it was really slow compared to a new ext3 fs on the same partiition. I'm sticking with ext3 from now on.
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alien
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Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2008 1:21 am |
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Joined: Mon Jun 21, 2004 5:28 am
Posts: 700
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Germany
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The first number, "Timing cached reads" is a measure of the CPU, cache and memory. I.e. Everything except the HD. The second number is a measure of the HD speed. Surprising similar in all cases..... Except for graysky, but his drive appears to be an older generation (150G Sata1).
Dale,
Did you find a difference in the hdparm timings with different partition formats? That seems strange because hdparm doesn't take a partition as a parameter. I didn't think it measured the fs performance (what would it do with two partitions with different formats?).
_________________ ASUS AT3N7A-I (Atom 330) TBS 8922 PCI (DVB-S2)
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marc.aronson
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Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2008 2:23 am |
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Joined: Tue Jan 18, 2005 2:07 am
Posts: 1532
Location:
California
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Timings for Western Digital 750GB SATA green drive:
Code: /dev/sda: Timing cached reads: 14070 MB in 1.99 seconds = 7053.55 MB/sec Timing buffered disk reads: 230 MB in 3.00 seconds = 76.63 MB/sec root@mythhd:~# hdparm -Tt /dev/hda Timings for Seagate 400GB IDE drive: Code: /dev/hda: Timing cached reads: 13826 MB in 2.00 seconds = 6930.18 MB/sec Timing buffered disk reads: 200 MB in 3.00 seconds = 66.62 MB/sec
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manicmike
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Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2008 5:54 am |
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Joined: Sun Aug 28, 2005 7:07 pm
Posts: 821
Location:
Melbourne, Australia
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Just so you know, the hdparm man page says that the numbers are meaningless if you don't perform the operation 2 or 3 times, the last one being most accurate.
Mine were all pretty close, though. WD5000YS
Code: /dev/sda3: Timing cached reads: 5670 MB in 1.99 seconds = 2844.32 MB/sec Timing buffered disk reads: 212 MB in 3.03 seconds = 70.07 MB/sec
I think the idea behind the 2-3 times is to wake the disk up. Numbers were substantialy different for another drive that doesn't get used much.
Mike.
_________________ ********************* LinHES 7.4 Australian Dragon *********************
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Dale
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Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2008 10:55 am |
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Joined: Fri Oct 31, 2003 11:40 pm
Posts: 357
Location:
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alien wrote: Did you find a difference in the hdparm timings with different partition formats? That seems strange because hdparm doesn't take a partition as a parameter. I didn't think it measured the fs performance (what would it do with two partitions with different formats?).
Actually, I did not use hdparm on the partitions, I timed some actual work taking place on fresh new filesystems.
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graysky
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Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2009 1:37 pm |
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Joined: Wed Dec 10, 2003 8:31 pm
Posts: 1996
Location:
/dev/null
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An update, I think the numbers I was getting are just fine given the vintage of the hardware (SATA1). I ran the same on my P35-based/SATAII system and got the following under Ubuntu 8.10:
Code: $ sudo hdparm -Tt /dev/sda1
/dev/sda1: Timing cached reads: 15880 MB in 2.00 seconds = 7952.77 MB/sec Timing buffered disk reads: 344 MB in 3.01 seconds = 114.19 MB/sec
_________________ Retired KM user (R4 - R6.04); friend to LH users.
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