Real world 7200 vs 5400 vs 4200 speed tests out there?
Other than xbench, does anybody know of any other good, "real-world" HD benchmark utilities out there?
MacinTouch was writing that
"Xbench's User Interface and Disk scores are very inconsistent"
In the MacinTouch article I was looking at, what they do is a real-world test of duplicating a 207MB file and the results were that the 7200 disk they used came in much faster than the larger capacity, slower HD options.
I'm interested in this because I just got my MBP and chose the 100 GB 7200 rpm option because the Apple Store salesman convinced me it was really faster than the 160 GB 5400 rpm version that is selected by default.
A friend of mine went for the 200 GB 4200 rpm model instead, and xbench is showing better hard disk results for him, as follows:
Me (100 GB 7200 rpm):
Disk Test 28.37
Sequential 45.22
Uncached Write 68.84 42.27 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 55.99 31.68 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 22.79 6.67 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 81.94 41.18 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 20.67
Uncached Write 6.51 0.69 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 59.57 19.07 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 74.16 0.53 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 102.37 19.00 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Friend (200 GB 4200 rpm):
Disk Test 35.47
Sequential 49.66
Uncached Write 69.48 42.66 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 51.20 28.97 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 29.95 8.76 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 75.53 37.96 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 27.59
Uncached Write 10.45 1.11 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 55.93 17.91 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 51.92 0.37 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 82.19 15.25 MB/sec [256K blocks]
What really is a good test though? I would consider making a case to Apple that they "sold me a bill of goods" here and try to get my HD changed if it really was slower than the larger capacity, theoretically slower HD!
But is the xbench test really accurate? Or it is, at MacinTouch claims "inconsistent"?
One poster in these forums said that the 7200 rpm really shows its speed when performing such tasks as drilling through large numbers of files in folders, etc.
If I go into my Mail folders, for example, my folder with sent mail has over 13,000 files in it. Nevertheless the folder view opened almost instantaneously. Would that also be the case with the 4200 rpm HD? Is there even a way of benchmarking such differences?
doug
doug
MacinTouch was writing that
"Xbench's User Interface and Disk scores are very inconsistent"
In the MacinTouch article I was looking at, what they do is a real-world test of duplicating a 207MB file and the results were that the 7200 disk they used came in much faster than the larger capacity, slower HD options.
I'm interested in this because I just got my MBP and chose the 100 GB 7200 rpm option because the Apple Store salesman convinced me it was really faster than the 160 GB 5400 rpm version that is selected by default.
A friend of mine went for the 200 GB 4200 rpm model instead, and xbench is showing better hard disk results for him, as follows:
Me (100 GB 7200 rpm):
Disk Test 28.37
Sequential 45.22
Uncached Write 68.84 42.27 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 55.99 31.68 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 22.79 6.67 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 81.94 41.18 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 20.67
Uncached Write 6.51 0.69 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 59.57 19.07 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 74.16 0.53 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 102.37 19.00 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Friend (200 GB 4200 rpm):
Disk Test 35.47
Sequential 49.66
Uncached Write 69.48 42.66 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 51.20 28.97 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 29.95 8.76 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 75.53 37.96 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 27.59
Uncached Write 10.45 1.11 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 55.93 17.91 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 51.92 0.37 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 82.19 15.25 MB/sec [256K blocks]
What really is a good test though? I would consider making a case to Apple that they "sold me a bill of goods" here and try to get my HD changed if it really was slower than the larger capacity, theoretically slower HD!
But is the xbench test really accurate? Or it is, at MacinTouch claims "inconsistent"?
One poster in these forums said that the 7200 rpm really shows its speed when performing such tasks as drilling through large numbers of files in folders, etc.
If I go into my Mail folders, for example, my folder with sent mail has over 13,000 files in it. Nevertheless the folder view opened almost instantaneously. Would that also be the case with the 4200 rpm HD? Is there even a way of benchmarking such differences?
doug
doug
iMac G5 20" / iSight, Mac OS X (10.4.3), 1.5 GB RAM
