Performance in Intel IOMeter Sequential Read & Write Patterns

IOMeter is sending a stream of read/write requests with a request queue depth of 4 to the hard disk drive. 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 red; the best results are highlighted with blue.

The table suggests that the drives from Hitachi show the highest speed, although on different block sizes. The Seagate ST3120024A was the slowest on big blocks (it is the oldest drive after all), while the Seagate ST3120026AS was surprisingly slow on small blocks.

As you understand, it’s unreasonable to put all the results into one diagram, so we again divide the drives into groups according to their manufacturer.

You can see the graphs by clicking the following links:

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

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

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The outsider on large blocks remained the same, while the WD1200BB/60 was the slowest on small data blocks. Curiously enough, we have three best drives in this test that come from three different manufacturers: Maxtor 6Y120P0/80, Samsung SP1213C and Hitachi HDS722512VLAT20.

You can view the diagrams below:

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

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