Performance in Intel IOMeter Sequential Read and Write Patterns

Intel IOMeter is sending a stream of read/write requests with a request queue of 4. Every minute, the data block size changes, so we get the dependence of the linear read (write) speed on the size of the data block.

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The worst results are highlighted with red, the best results are highlighted with blue.

The table shows that WD740GD has the highest read speed on large data blocks, while Maxtor 6L080L4 did a good job with small blocks (up to 2KB). As for the worst results, Samsung SV8004H was the slowest on large data blocks (well, it is an old drive with 5400rpm rotational speed), while Seagate ST380013AS suddenly appeared the slowest on small data blocks.

Again, it’s not quite appropriate to put all results into one diagram, so we split the drives into groups according to their manufacturer. Here are the diagrams:

• IBM-Hitachi;
• Maxtor;
• Samsung;
• Seagate;
• Western Digital.

Now, let’s see how these results change in the Sequential Write pattern.

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The leader remained the same – WD740GD is still the fastest at handling large data blocks. The Maxtor team has the best drive for dealing with small data blocks – 6Y080P0. The drives from WD displayed a strong dislike towards small data blocks, while IBM DTLA307075 suddenly fails on large blocks.

You can view the diagrams by clicking on the manufacturer name below:

• IBM-Hitachi;
• Maxtor;
• Samsung;
• Seagate;
• Western Digital.

Now we are going to check out patterns that simulate the work of the disk subsystem of a typical server.