Performance in Intel IOMeter

Sequential Read & Write Patterns

IOMeter is sending a stream of read and write requests with a request queue depth of 4. The size of the requested data block is changed each minute and we can see the dependence of a drive’s sequential read/write speed on the size of the processed data block. This test is indicative of the maximum speed a hard disk drive can achieve.

The numeric data can be viewed in tables (see the links below). We will be discussing graphs and diagrams.

IOMeter: Sequential Read results

This test proves again that the Samsung has got higher-density platters. The 3-platter Hitachi is almost as fast as the 320GB from Western Digital while the Samsung is far faster on large data blocks. However, it has the lowest speed among the tested HDDs on small data chunks. Besides, the Samsung accelerates to its top speed on 64KB data blocks whereas the others deliver their top speeds starting from 8KB blocks.

The 500GB drive from Western Digital is very good. It is very effective at gluing together small-size requests and delivers a huge top speed (for a 2.5-incher). Just a couple of years ago the read speed of over 80MBps could only be achieved with the then-best 3.5-inchers.

IOMeter: Sequential Write results

The Samsung is poor at writing. Its results are the same as those of the lower-density models. The 500GB Western Digital is again good at processing small data chunks and has a high top speed.