HDD Benchmark - Best real world data?

[vabch22]

Hey guys,

I'm trying to find a good or best overall real-world HDD benchmark utility that will work on XP and Win7. We're testing full disk encryption software and I'm trying to determine which is the best option with the least amount of performance decrease in HDD read/write and CPU usage.

I was thinking HD Tune Pro, but wanted to get your opinions. Free or trial/buy is fine by me. Productivity is what I am looking for, not gaming, etc. Real numbers and not a 3rd party type of scoring is preferred. All drives are mechanical, not SSD.

Thanks

 

[dustNbone]

Do your own real world testing, if it's a specific application you're looking at. You're doing file encryption, so get yourself a buttload of files and encrypt them as a batch job, most of these types of programs will tell you when they're done how long the job took and an approximate data rate (MB/second).

I'm not sure that drive speed is really what's going to effect encryption performance, as this tends to be processor intensive. Once the data is encrypted, it would generally get written to the drive in sequential blocks, not really any different from any other kind of data. Am I missing something? Are you meaning whole disk compression?

 

[vabch22]

Do your own real world testing, if it's a specific application you're looking at. You're doing file encryption, so get yourself a buttload of files and encrypt them as a batch job, most of these types of programs will tell you when they're done how long the job took and an approximate data rate (MB/second).

I'm not sure that drive speed is really what's going to effect encryption performance, as this tends to be processor intensive. Once the data is encrypted, it would generally get written to the drive in sequential blocks, not really any different from any other kind of data. Am I missing something? Are you meaning whole disk compression?

Yes, full disk encryption, sorry. Our users are complaining about slowness, but trying to get data from them is like pulling teeth. HD tach said there was a 60% drop in burst performance and about a 20% increase in CPU usage after the disk was encrypted using a Symantec product. I'm just trying to figure out the best method for getting numbers and reporting on them.