New build crystal disk results

[Scarey]

I've just finished the new rig and have run Crystal disk. I have a Corsair C300 64GB SSD on the Marvel Sata 6 set as OS boot drive. I also have 2x WD Cavair Blacks 1TB set on the Sata 6 Intel mobo and rapid storage as raid 1. However, all 3 drives are using Bit Fenix Alchemy Sata 2 cables, as they don't sell Sata 3 yet. Although they are high quality and I've read may give higher readings than standard Sata 2 cables I expect. Have a look at the images and see what you think

 

[SmoulderingCircuits]

I've just finished the new rig and have run Crystal disk. I have a Corsair C300 64GB SSD on the Marvel Sata 6 set as OS boot drive. I also have 2x WD Cavair Blacks 1TB set on the Sata 6 Intel mobo and rapid storage as raid 1. However, all 3 drives are using Bit Fenix Alchemy Sata 2 cables, as they don't sell Sata 3 yet. Although they are high quality and I've read may give higher readings than standard Sata 2 cables I expect. Have a look at the images and see what you think

Would've saved on the SSD and just put another couple drives in the RAID - your HDDs are generally faster even as a pair

 

[Scarey]

I already had the SSD form a previous lappy

I am genuinely surprised at the HD's performance though. Especially seeing that is 1TB of fast storage mirrored in raid 1.

 

[SmoulderingCircuits]

I already had the SSD form a previous lappy

I am genuinely surprised at the HD's performance though. Especially seeing that is 1TB of fast storage mirrored in raid 1.

SSDs are a gimmick my friend, you only buy one for the shock tolerance/ power consumption/ silence. They aren't the speed demons they're cracked up to be [for the price]

 

[BaMb1N0]

on the other hand the caviar blacks are really fast drives. so in raid 0 they outperform many SSD's IF you're reading/writing sequentially. if you do that scattered, you'll get results like the 4K write's all the time. that's where the SSD's effect kicks in. i'm surprised that intel finally managed to read from both drives in raid 1. although >400 MB/s is an impossibility for the two blacks. that value is certainly not reliable as well as the 4K read one.

 

[hmmblah]

I've just finished the new rig and have run Crystal disk. I have a Corsair C300 64GB SSD on the Marvel Sata 6 set as OS boot drive. I also have 2x WD Cavair Blacks 1TB set on the Sata 6 Intel mobo and rapid storage as raid 1. However, all 3 drives are using Bit Fenix Alchemy Sata 2 cables, as they don't sell Sata 3 yet. Although they are high quality and I've read may give higher readings than standard Sata 2 cables I expect. Have a look at the images and see what you think

That second pic is wrong. Either shopped or a bugged run. There is no way you are getting almost 500MB Read speeds in RAID1. You wouldn't get those kinds of speeds with RAID 0 even. It should be more like 110MB.

SSDs are a gimmick my friend, you only buy one for the shock tolerance/ power consumption/ silence. They aren't the speed demons they're cracked up to be [for the price]

They are not a gimmick. A traditional hard drive with a moving platter and r/w head cannot match the performance of a good SSD. There are applications where you won't notice the difference of course, like playing games. Loading times will be cut down, but actual gameplay should be unaffected.

Edit: Look at this article. The burst speeds aren't even at 400+. Sustained is right around 112.

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/reviews/western_digital_caviar_black_2tb

 

[S_I_N]

first of all nice runs secondly I cant believe its being questioned WD Blacks KICK ASS!!!!!!! I have 4 in raid 0 and can pump out awesome scores as well. When used on a sata6GB port and such currently due to mobo's limitations I can only run mine on sata3Gb ports. But I'll gladly run any test you want to show you how kick ass they are

 

[hmmblah]

first of all nice runs secondly I cant believe its being questioned WD Blacks KICK ASS!!!!!!! I have 4 in raid 0 and can pump out awesome scores as well. When used on a sata6GB port and such currently due to mobo's limitations I can only run mine on sata3Gb ports. But I'll gladly run any test you want to show you how kick ass they are

Sure, they are great drives. Not that great though. You won't see any difference on a 3Gb port vs a 6Gb port either. They won't max out a 3Gb port, so they sure as hell won't max out a 6Gb port. Do you really believe he is pulling almost 500MB/sec with two mechanical drives in RAID1?

 

[S_I_N]

Sure, they are great drives. Not that great though. You won't see any difference on a 3Gb port vs a 6Gb port either. They won't max out a 3Gb port, so they sure as hell won't max out a 6Gb port. Do you really believe he is pulling almost 500MB/sec with two mechanical drives in RAID1?

yes I do but in all honesty I dont know alot about raid 1 but heres a link to my thread on my 4 blacks in raid 0 theres a test result doc I uploaded showing my 3 test runs at different intervals

http://forum.overclock3d.net/index.php?/topic/34663-test-results-for-4x-640gb-wd-blacks-raid-0/

 

[Scarey]

Just an update. busy atm, but i'll post a few runs soon on the blacks. The 4k read has dropped, but the seq read has been consistently high, hitting 535MB/s on1 run. I tried the ASUS sata 6 cables that camewith the mobo and the figures dropped about 20%. I put the Alchemy sata 2 cables back on and the figures climbed again. No photo shop done I assure you, I was assurprised as you guys. Will put more up soon.

 

[S1EJ0]

SATA 2/3 cables are the same. No point buying different unless you want specific colours or braided ones.!

 

[Scarey]

That's what I thought, but they seem to be screened to differtent levels. ASUS gave 2x sata2 & 2x sata3 cables. Guess it comes down to quality. Need to read some more. Defo difference between the Alchemy & boxed AS|US cables though....to my scores anyway.

 

[hmmblah]

yes I do but in all honesty I dont know alot about raid 1 but heres a link to my thread on my 4 blacks in raid 0 theres a test result doc I uploaded showing my 3 test runs at different intervals

http://forum.overclock3d.net/index.php?/topic/34663-test-results-for-4x-640gb-wd-blacks-raid-0/

RAID1 adds absolutely zero performance. It's the same performance as running a single drive, sometimes a little less.

Just an update. busy atm, but i'll post a few runs soon on the blacks. The 4k read has dropped, but the seq read has been consistently high, hitting 535MB/s on1 run. I tried the ASUS sata 6 cables that camewith the mobo and the figures dropped about 20%. I put the Alchemy sata 2 cables back on and the figures climbed again. No photo shop done I assure you, I was assurprised as you guys. Will put more up soon.

For kicks I ran the same bench as you on a server here. This is 6 15000 rpm SAS enterprise drives in RAID 10. It's basically 3 RAID 0 arrays mirrored and can allow for up to a two drive failure. They are connected to a $500 hardware RAID SAS controller.

There is no way two 7200rpm consumer drives in a mirror are pulling half the read speed of the setup above. Can you run it again using 1000MB instead of 50MB?

 

[S_I_N]

lol I didnt notice he ran at 50 yeah that can have an inpact I normally do 100 as thats what I see most reviewers using so I wanna match best I can.

 

[Scarey]

Do you want me to run them in 100 or 1000? I bet the 50 has had an impact. never know which one to choose.

 

[hmmblah]

Run them both. I'm curious as to why the test is working like it is.

 

[Ya93sin]

Well RAID1 should give about 2x greater read (reading from 2 places at once), and same write speeds. So I think its OK, isn't there a 'burst' mode for HDDs? Might explain the high score.

And SATA 2 cables should give identical performance whether plugged into SATA II or III ports afaik

For the disk mark I think I usually do a 1GB run for everything, I tried asking TTL what settings he uses, but I don't thing I got a reply.

SSDs are a gimmick my friend, you only buy one for the shock tolerance/ power consumption/ silence. They aren't the speed demons they're cracked up to be [for the price]

Gimmick.... I ran W7 x64 first on the HDD (before I got the SSD), and then again on the SSD (where it is permanently), and I assure you the difference is clear.

Now Read speeds are very important, and you get that with SSDs.

One of the biggest advantages is responsiveness, that's not just affected by read/write speeds, but also latency, which iirc, is at least 100x lower on an SSD than it is on a HDD. HDD latencies I think are around the 13ms mark, SSDs are fractions of that.

Then data recovery-SSDs fail like all drives, but into a read-only mode, so data can't be lost in the same way it can on a HDD.

Now you can get better speeds RAID0-ing HDDs, and better prices, but you also get higher failure rates, as well as 3x the noise of 1 HDD.

 

[SmoulderingCircuits]

Well RAID1 should give about 2x greater read (reading from 2 places at once), and same write speeds. So I think its OK, isn't there a 'burst' mode for HDDs? Might explain the high score.

And SATA 2 cables should give identical performance whether plugged into SATA II or III ports afaik

For the disk mark I think I usually do a 1GB run for everything, I tried asking TTL what settings he uses, but I don't thing I got a reply.

Gimmick.... I ran W7 x64 first on the HDD (before I got the SSD), and then again on the SSD (where it is permanently), and I assure you the difference is clear.

Now Read speeds are very important, and you get that with SSDs.

One of the biggest advantages is responsiveness, that's not just affected by read/write speeds, but also latency, which iirc, is at least 100x lower on an SSD than it is on a HDD. HDD latencies I think are around the 13ms mark, SSDs are fractions of that.

Then data recovery-SSDs fail like all drives, but into a read-only mode, so data can't be lost in the same way it can on a HDD.

Now you can get better speeds RAID0-ing HDDs, and better prices, but you also get higher failure rates, as well as 3x the noise of 1 HDD.

Headphones with sound dampening

I can't hear my graphics cards even with fans at 97% while wearing headphones - I doubt a hard disk would cause any problem then.

I really don't understand people trying to build silent rigs. Quiet, yes - but silent is pointless - there will always be other background noises that will fill the silence

 

[Ya93sin]

Noise is one of the smallest issues, I'm just mentioning it.

 

[SmoulderingCircuits]

Noise is one of the smallest issues, I'm just mentioning it.

SSD marketing revolves around nitty gritty gripes.

Never again will you have pots and pans falling out the cupboards due to the EARTHQUAKES caused by a conventional hard disk

. SSDs have no moving parts! Never again will you have to upgrade to a 1500w PSU to power your hard disk's RAIN FOREST DESTROYING motor.

SSDs have no motors! Never again will you be DEAFENED by the THUNDEROUS ROAR of a hard disk as the SONIC BOOM throws you across the room.

SSDs are silent! SSDs are smaller too! Never again will you have to lug an extra EIGHTY GRAMMES around in your rig.

SSDs! Buy today! /marketing

If you've got the money though, no reason not to get one