Disk Response Time

In this test IOMeter is sending a stream of requests to read and write 512-byte data blocks with a request queue of 1 for 10 minutes. The total number of requests processed by the HDD is over 60 thousand, so we get a sustained response time that doesn’t depend on the HDD’s buffer size. The results are sorted by read response time.

It’s clear that the read response depends on the spindle rotation speed: Fujitsu’s HDDs are ranked according to this parameter (7200, 5400 and 4200rpm). The 7200rpm models are all very close irrespective of the form-factor. The Hitachi 7K200 is the best one in this test.

To remind you, the ratio of write to read response is indicative of the efficiency of the deferred write algorithms. Seagate’s HDDs are all inferior to the other manufacturers’ products in this respect because their algorithms are traditionally weak. Well, the Seagate 7200.1 has a somewhat lower response time at writing than Seagate’s 3.5” drives, but this only makes it fast enough to outperform the 4200rpm Fujitsu MHV2 BT.