SATA2 HDD slow based on these hdparm -Tt /dev/sda numbers [SOLVED]

graysky · 2009-12-23 08:32:06

I have a EG45M-UD2H running BIOS F3 (latest one as of the time of this post). I'm noticing a pretty significant HDD speed decrease with this board vs. my old board. If I take the same Seagate 7200.12 (1 gig) HDD and benchmark it on another motherboard, the cached reads are about 7x higher.

For example, under the EG45M-UD2H:

# hdparm -Tt /dev/sda

/dev/sda:
 Timing cached reads:   2692 MB in  2.00 seconds = 1346.47 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:  386 MB in  3.01 seconds = 128.13 MB/sec

On another motherboard (DFI LP P35-T2R):

# hdparm -Tt /dev/sda

/dev/sda:
 Timing cached reads:   14740 MB in  2.00 seconds = 7378.19 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:  368 MB in  3.02 seconds = 122.04 MB/sec

The only relevant settings I see in the BIOS are:

BIOS settings: Integrated Peripherals>SATA RAID/AHCI Mode [AHCI] <-- I have also set this to disable and there is no difference
SATA Port0-3 Native Mode [Enabled or Disabled] <-- I tried both and there is no difference

Does anyone have any thoughts?

$ lsmod | grep ahci
ahci                   34321  4 
libata                151860  4 pata_acpi,ata_generic,ahci,pata_jmicron

Last edited by graysky (2009-12-28 19:36:50)

markp1989 · 2009-12-27 02:53:31

sounds like hddparm may off messed up, my p45 board isnt on right now, but i loged in to my server and did a hddparm test ....

mark@torrentslave:~$ sudo hdparm -Tt /dev/sda

/dev/sda:
 Timing cached reads:   2308 MB in  2.00 seconds = 1153.72 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:  332 MB in  3.01 seconds = 110.25 MB/sec
mark@torrentslave:~$

the 7000mbs cache read, way to high for a sata 3gb interface, so i think the first reading is a mistake.

i dont know of any other hdd test utils apart from dding to /dev/null. but some one will probably mention one soon

graysky · 2009-12-27 12:36:26

markp1989 wrote:

sounds like hddparm may off messed up, my p45 board isnt on right now, but i loged in to my server and did a hddparm test ....
mark@torrentslave:~$ sudo hdparm -Tt /dev/sda

/dev/sda:
 Timing cached reads:   2308 MB in  2.00 seconds = 1153.72 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:  332 MB in  3.01 seconds = 110.25 MB/sec
mark@torrentslave:~$
the 7000mbs cache read, way to high for a sata 3gb interface, so i think the first reading is a mistake.
i dont know of any other hdd test utils apart from dding to /dev/null. but some one will probably mention one soon

Thanks for the info, markp. Can you post the output from your P45 board once you have that system powered up? To answer your question, there's bonnie++ but it takes quiet a long time to run.

EDIT: This whole issue is a non-issue -- PEBKAC. Seems as though I was misusing the -T switch:

hdparm manpage wrote:

-T
Perform timings of cache reads for benchmark and comparison purposes. This displays the speed of reading directly from the Linux buffer cache without disk access. This measurement is essentially an indication of the throughput of the processor, cache, and memory of the system under test.

Last edited by graysky (2009-12-28 19:34:45)

Arch Linux

#1 2009-12-23 08:32:06

SATA2 HDD slow based on these hdparm -Tt /dev/sda numbers [SOLVED]

#2 2009-12-27 02:53:31

Re: SATA2 HDD slow based on these hdparm -Tt /dev/sda numbers [SOLVED]

#3 2009-12-27 12:36:26

Re: SATA2 HDD slow based on these hdparm -Tt /dev/sda numbers [SOLVED]

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