Test Results for 4x 640GB WD Blacks Raid 0

S_I_N

S_I_N

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Ok so todqay my 4 WD black 640GB 64mb Cache Sata3 6Gb drives arrived so I thought I'd share some comparison benchmarks. First I benched my Seagate Momentus XT Hybrid drive. Then the Blacks in Raid 0 at full capacity and then short stroked. For those unfamiliar with short stroking its a process where you take 10% of the drive and make it into a solo partition. It uses the outer edges of the platters where there is less seektime involved so in theory making it faster. You can still use the remaining hdd space but it'll have to be another partition. So for my short stroke partition in Raid 0 10%=64GB times 4= 256GB partition. Now these are 6Gb/sec drives and my mobo supports 6Gb and I set it in bios as 6Gb but for whatever reason crystal disk shows it as 3Gb. I ran all 3 scenarios twice I then copied the info to a word doc so I hope it transfers over ok lol.

Anywho for your info and discussion please.

View attachment test results.doc

and here it is with win7 installed at a 512GB raid 0 (set it at 512 in raid trying for a 500gig solid partition lol guess my math was off actually not a fresh install just cloned my 500GB XT drive. Did a fresh install but benched at 388 lol but that was at 50% size

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

CrystalDiskMark 3.0.1 x64 © 2007-2010 hiyohiyo

Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]

Sequential Read : 888.624 MB/s

Sequential Write : 257.992 MB/s

Random Read 512KB : 668.339 MB/s

Random Write 512KB : 265.660 MB/s

Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 45.115 MB/s [ 11014.3 IOPS]

Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 6.321 MB/s [ 1543.2 IOPS]

Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 4.068 MB/s [ 993.3 IOPS]

Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 8.287 MB/s [ 2023.2 IOPS]

Test : 100 MB [C: 8.0% (38.0/476.8 GB)] (x5)

Date : 2011/04/12 23:33:36

OS : Windows 7 [6.1 Build 7600] (x64)
 
kinda suprised there have been no comments on this would it help if I put the results in a post instead of the doc link???
 
I'll be honest. I was too lazy to download the Word doc; but did just then, now I'm too lazy to flick between 3 pages of text to compare the numbers.

Imma an Excel nerd. (hint hint, bonus points for graphs)
 
Your random reads 4KB went up quite a bit on the short stroked partition. Also, nice read/write speeds on that array.

I don't really see any other difference between whole drive and short stroked drive though. Is their a tangible real world difference?
 
its fast no doubt but I wouldnt say as snappy as the ssd I had was. I can feel a diff towards the faster between the XT and the 6Gb raid array. I tried a test yesterday my local comp store here got in a batch of Sata 6Gb cables and since my array is reporting 3Gb in crystal mark and everything is set for 6Gb I was curious as to if it was the cables making it report that way. And the answer is no differences in testing between 3Gb and 6Gb cables or reporting so I'm guessing crystal disk mark is set to that. But on a positive side I like these cables better and at $3 a pop wasnt a bad investment. Their round and black and shorter than my other cables so hiding them is alot easier.

Momentis XT

* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]

Sequential Read : 107.609 MB/s

Sequential Write : 96.200 MB/s

Random Read 512KB : 35.165 MB/s

Random Write 512KB : 69.432 MB/s

Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 0.652 MB/s [ 159.1 IOPS]

Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 0.666 MB/s [ 162.6 IOPS]

Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 0.791 MB/s [ 193.1 IOPS]

Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 0.678 MB/s [ 165.5 IOPS]

Test : 100 MB [C: 8.2% (38.0/465.7 GB)] (x5)

Date : 2011/04/12 19:22:28

OS : Windows 7 [6.1 Build 7600] (x64)

WD Blacks Raid 0 Full Capacity

* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]

Sequential Read : 902.001 MB/s

Sequential Write : 278.091 MB/s

Random Read 512KB : 771.166 MB/s

Random Write 512KB : 267.441 MB/s

Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 13.208 MB/s [ 3224.5 IOPS]

Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 7.640 MB/s [ 1865.4 IOPS]

Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 4.299 MB/s [ 1049.5 IOPS]

Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 10.576 MB/s [ 2582.0 IOPS]

Test : 100 MB [E: 0.0% (0.1/2048.0 GB)] (x5)

Date : 2011/04/12 20:18:42

OS : Windows 7 [6.1 Build 7600] (x64)



WD Blacks Raid 0 short stroked

* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]

Sequential Read : 896.661 MB/s

Sequential Write : 281.430 MB/s

Random Read 512KB : 716.960 MB/s

Random Write 512KB : 277.401 MB/s

Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 11.503 MB/s [ 2808.4 IOPS]

Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 7.612 MB/s [ 1858.3 IOPS]

Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 12.989 MB/s [ 3171.2 IOPS]

Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 10.385 MB/s [ 2535.3 IOPS]

Test : 100 MB [E: 0.0% (0.1/238.4 GB)] (x5)

Date : 2011/04/12 20:36:31

OS : Windows 7 [6.1 Build 7600] (x64)

there posted the better results for the 3 trials will be doing a fresh install later this week or next week when I get my new Asus Crosshair IV EXTREME we'll see how it goes lol Been wanting this mobo for awhile now and scored one for 190$ shipped.
 
ok fresh install and new Crosshair IV Extreme Mobo and still very decent results

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

CrystalDiskMark 3.0.1 x64 (C) 2007-2010 hiyohiyo

Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]

Sequential Read : 849.962 MB/s

Sequential Write : 134.325 MB/s

Random Read 512KB : 751.974 MB/s

Random Write 512KB : 115.056 MB/s

Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 4.982 MB/s [ 1216.3 IOPS]

Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 4.222 MB/s [ 1030.9 IOPS]

Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 11.366 MB/s [ 2774.8 IOPS]

Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 5.574 MB/s [ 1360.9 IOPS]

Test : 100 MB [C: 5.5% (13.0/238.3 GB)] (x5)

Date : 2011/04/18 19:58:16

OS : Windows 7 [6.1 Build 7600] (x64)

I'm pleased with it lol but I do miss the snappiness of the SSD this is very noticeably quick but imho not quite SSD
 
For some comparisons here so that noobs like me can easier see the difference from a pretty normal HDD setup to that insane stuff S_I_N got going on there. Here are the results of my two HDD's. I got one 1TB WD Caviar Black. It's the SATA 6Gb/s version, but running off normal SATA II plugs(?). And I got one 500GB Seagate Barracuda. It's a normal SATA II drive. Here are the results (Feel free to add them to the main thread if you want to. Just so it's easier for noobs like me to see the difference. Just a thought):

1TB WD Caviar Black:

http://tinypic.com/r/5nn8m9/7

500GB Seagate Barracuda:

http://tinypic.com/r/33c1z88/7

And a question, should I get a second 1TB Caviar Black and maybe even a couple more some time later? I was thinking about getting a second one the 20th next month, but something else came up too so I'm not sure what to go for.
 
KapteinFruit said:
And a question, should I get a second 1TB Caviar Black and maybe even a couple more some time later? I was thinking about getting a second one the 20th next month, but something else came up too so I'm not sure what to go for.
Click to expand...

one thing to remember is I short stroked those (made a 10% partition) that forces it to stay in the outer edge of the disk gaining the performance. My current partition is 10% of each drive or 256GB if you add more dives you could get a larger main partition simply due to the larger starting size. Now as I stated in another thread the reason I did 4 drives is cause when i did 2 I saw a noticeable increase in speeds (bare in mind this was back in the day when Veloci's ruled) When I added a third drive I dint feel the speed increase as I did with 2 drives. Then I said hey i got this other drive laying around lets try another time and the 4th I saw even more noticeable increase so thats where I stopped.

Also worth noting is that even though the read write speeds look great look at the IOPS for the 4k cluster. They are no where near SSD levels Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 4.982 MB/s [ 1216.3 IOPS] Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 4.222 MB/s [ 1030.9 IOPS]for my Raid 0 and Random 4 KB Reads: Up to 20,000 IOPS; Writes: Up to 8,000 IOPS for an SSD.

I have even tried doing the SSD tweaks to this array to see if it would make it snappier and unfortunately no change overall. So when I can affors the SSD size I want I'll most likely get two and raid them so I can keep my WD Blacks in Raid as well. Seeing as my mobo wont let me set anything but IDE with a raid I cant do solo SSD and have my raid as well. So I'll run a double raid since all 6 of my sata ports are 6Gb

but I'm Mc Lovin it lol
 
very nice conclusions

the leap between the XT and the array, to, the unstroked and stroked, isn't that huge for me to consider stroking my RAID

but, i did buy another two 1TB WD black's 6gbps, just now to add to my raid array (soon it will be 7x 1TB RAID0)
 
dugdiamond said:
very nice conclusions

the leap between the XT and the array, to, the unstroked and stroked, isn't that huge for me to consider stroking my RAID

but, i did buy another two 1TB WD black's 6gbps, just now to add to my raid array (soon it will be 7x 1TB RAID0)
Click to expand...

What!? 7 1TB WD Caviar Black's? In RAID 0? How do you install Windows? Do you have a separate OS drive? I thought you couldn't install Windows on HDD's that are over 2TB?
 
it is the size of EACH drive that it is limited to, NOT the total size of the array.

my mobo supports '2.2TB Infinity'
 
dugdiamond said:
it is the size of EACH drive that it is limited to, NOT the total size of the array
Click to expand...

I just ran into this on a server install. MBR can only create partition sizes of 2TB. To create bigger you need to use GPT. GPT only works on systems with EFI. I had planned on doing 4 1TB drives in RAID 5 for ~3TB usable. Instead I did RAID 10 for about ~2TB usable. With the RAID card I was able to allocate all the space in RAID 5, but Windows Setup would only use 2 of the 3TB with the RAID 5 setup.

If you know a way around this, please share
smile.gif
.
 
only with a hybrid (i think)

besides the array will be ~7TB

split into 3 partitions

  1. 512GB BOOT (short)
  2. 1.5TB APPS
  3. 5TB STORAGE
 
unfortunately, after some extensive googling, i have just realised that '2.2TB infinty' drives cannot be RAIDed, they can only be used a single data drives (unless partitioned smaller)
 
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