Vio1's SCSI Benchmarks and Observations

Vio1 · Nov 25, 2004

Finally got my new SCSI setup going!

Background info:
A few months back I sold my 36gb raptors I had in raid-0 and bought myself a 74gb raptor. A few weeks ago I sold that raptor and went SCSI for the first time.

SCSI Drive:

Fujitsu MAS3735 73GB 15000rpm hdd (one of, if not THE fastest SCSI drive available)

SCSI Controller:

LSI u160

Vio1 · Nov 25, 2004

Here are some benchmark results:

HDtach 2.7:

PCmark2004:

SiSoftsandra:

Vio1 · Nov 25, 2004

Observations:

Computer feels way more "zippy" then even the 74gb raptor. Everything pops up real quick. I love it.

Questions:

Is this normal?

-Everytime I boot up the scsi controller scans the computer for devices... any way of having it not scan for new devices and just recognize the drive?

-My computer doesnt boot up faster, actually it takes longer then it did on the raptor... it takes 7 bars before windows opens. Ive noticed, since this harddrive has a led on it (showing harddrive activity) that it doesnt start to load up windows until the 4th bar has passed in windows load up.... before the 4th bar the harddrive is just sitting there idling. Any way of speeding up so that it starts reading the hdd faster?

-Anything I can do/should do to increase SCSI performance on a desktop computer? Looking for somekind of software or something.

Ad Rock · Nov 25, 2004

So have you noticed a "seat of your pants" difference? It would be interesting to see what your old 74 gb raptor would do on these same benches. Maybe you have some saved?

Congrats on the sweet SCSI set-up man

.

Vio1 · Nov 25, 2004

Ad Rock said:
So have you noticed a "seat of your pants" difference? It would be interesting to see what your old 74 gb raptor would do on these same benches. Maybe you have some saved?

Congrats on the sweet SCSI set-up man .

There isnt a HUGE difference from the raptors, but there is something. Something noticable.

As to benchmarks of my older drives... i dont have screenshots, but I do have some benchmark results:

74gb raptor:
HD Tach 2.70............7.6ms seek time
max 73.4mb/s
min 38.1mb/s
avg 65.3mb/s

36gb raptor:
HD Tach 2.70............8.5ms seek time
max 60mb/s
min 36.4mb/s
avg 50.1mb/s

Vio1 · Nov 25, 2004

If you have some benchmark program you want me to try out, let me know.

Daewood · Nov 25, 2004

nice vio but i think that i will stick with buying the 74 gig raptor...

theELVISCERATOR · Nov 26, 2004

and still slower than two 36s raided but access is quicker....

burst speed less than half

man_utd · Nov 26, 2004

vio: I notice the same forever load time, when it is looking for stuff. I haven't really messed around with the controller, but have you pressed ctrl+c before it loads all the stuff up?

Vio1 · Nov 26, 2004

Ya i did, and I dont understand the options in there.

theELVISCERATOR: 172.5mb burst speed is impossible ... the most your computer could do is 150... or is it 120mb? I dont remember.

Vio1 · Nov 26, 2004

Anyone know how to set these jumpers on the harddrive for optimal performance (see first pic up top for jumper pin diagram)?

man_utd · Nov 26, 2004

86.25mb/s per drive does seem a bit high...

Also vio, it looks like the maxtor atlas 15k II is the new performance leader, but it doesn't seem like there is much of a difference between it and the rest of the competition, if any at all.

man_utd · Nov 26, 2004

As far as I can tell (I'm a noob to scsi as well), they are in all the right places

Vio1 · Nov 26, 2004

i havent seen any reviews of the maxtor atlas 2... where did you find one? From storagereviews.com they tested the new Fujitsu and its a bit faster then my drive... but I doubt it would be even noticable.

86.25mb/s maybe is not, but since the motherboard is the bottleneck there is no way that you could have it run at 2x 86.25mb/s

cooter · Nov 26, 2004

Vio,

nice setup. I have been running scsi on my computer for a few years and it is definatley fast as hell, it is the only thing keeping my old 2.8 533 fsb seem fast. ONe thing that i have noticed is that Benchmarks do not give SCSI justice. A raptor or even IDE will almost always beat my setup when it comes to benchmarks, but when it comes to realworld use my scsi's in raid-0 smoke them.

another thing, that screen on bootup will always be there, you get used to it, many SATA and IDE raid controlers have that as well. As far as bootup time, yours seems a bit to slow. when i first redo my computer before i get it on the network the little bar will not even make it across once, the fastest i seen was less then half. After i get the network on it takes about 3 bars across. I am thinking that much of the delay in bootup has to do with a network. I have done some tests when it comes to strip size for my setup similar to what you did with your raptors, except i could only do it for 2 strip sizes. I'll post the results file when i get home for your viewing pleasure.

edit, one thing i would recommend is putting a HD cooler on that drive. They tend to get hot.

theELVISCERATOR · Nov 26, 2004

lol @ impossible....are you saying my screenshot is a forgery?

hmm sata 150x2 should do 300 burst right?

BTW heres Hd tach 3.0 shows a 194.4 burst....

pity...

Vio1 · Nov 26, 2004

take it easy dude... im not saying you forged it... i had something like that too when i raid-0 my 36gb raptors... All im saying is that realistically, your pci bus is bottlenecking your harddrives, and therefore a speed of 190+mb /s is impossible.... Im saying that HDtach isnt correct.... its value is higher then your motherboard can support.

99'erForever · Nov 26, 2004

I have a couple of Seagate 15ks in raid 0. I'm not much of a benchmark man but they do seem awful quick. A windows installation take no time at all. Scsi drives are like an old muscle car. They are loud, hot, and not always the fastest thing on the block but when you fire them up that roar makes you feel like a real man.

Xaotic · Nov 26, 2004

Vio1: theELVISCERATOR is running from the ICH5R southbridge, if it's on the system in his sig. 200MB/s bursts are easily possible, since the ICH5R is not PCI 2.0 linked. It does not share bandwidth with the PCI bus. Also, these are burst speed readings that we are referring to. They consist of bursts of data from cache on the drive and are often much higher than disk throughput can be.

Vio1 · Nov 26, 2004

Xaotic said:
Vio1: theELVISCERATOR is running from the ICH5R southbridge, if it's on the system in his sig. 200MB/s bursts are easily possible, since the ICH5R is not PCI 2.0 linked. It does not share bandwidth with the PCI bus. Also, these are burst speed readings that we are referring to. They consist of bursts of data from cache on the drive and are often much higher than disk throughput can be.

ah. okay. Stand corrected.

**Vio1's SCSI Benchmarks and Observations**

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Attachments

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Attachments

Member

Member

Very kind Senior

Member

Similar threads

Vio1's SCSI Benchmarks and Observations