Help understanding HD-Tach Results

[esabet]

Hi;

This is the first time I am using HD-Tach. I am using verison 3.0. I am trying to compare my SSD performance against my older drives on a strip Raid.

My SSD is Crusicla 256GB Model No. CT256M225.

My Raid setup (strip) is a pair of 7200 RPM WD drives, 350 GB each, total 700GB!

In HD-Tach I selected the Quick Bench.

Here is the result for the Crucial SSD:



And here is the result on the Raid:



Can someone explain to me the results. If you look at the Burst Speed it seems the Raid is doing better than the SSD!!!

Thanks.

 

[sub.mesa]

First: burst rates are irrelevant; it used to determine the interface bandwidth (i.e. only the electronical part of an HDD) but it's not something you should look at if you're concerned about performance.

HDTach tests only sequential performance, that's not why you bought your SSD; you bought your SSD to be fast on random I/O so it makes it a good system boot disk with applications installed etc. For large files storage, HDDs are still the preferred choice as the speed difference is minimal and much cheaper per GB.

So, to test the performance of your SSD, try these benchmarks:
- HDTune Pro evaluation's Random Access test
- AS SSD benchmark

That should give you numbers where the SSD shines - when doing random I/O.

 

[esabet]

First: burst rates are irrelevant; it used to determine the interface bandwidth (i.e. only the electronical part of an HDD) but it's not something you should look at if you're concerned about performance.

HDTach tests only sequential performance, that's not why you bought your SSD; you bought your SSD to be fast on random I/O so it makes it a good system boot disk with applications installed etc. For large files storage, HDDs are still the preferred choice as the speed difference is minimal and much cheaper per GB.

So, to test the performance of your SSD, try these benchmarks:
- HDTune Pro evaluation's Random Access test
- AS SSD benchmark

That should give you numbers where the SSD shines - when doing random I/O.

Thanks for the clarification!!

So let me ask, if I was to install a HDD in addition to the SSD, what files would you recommend to be installed on the SSD and what files on the HDD? For example games, Outlook and etc..

The reason I ask this, from what I understand, SSDs have a life span and the more you read, write and erase, the worst it is! Is that true as well?

Thanks.

 

[staticlag]

The entire OS install, and some programs like a web browser, java, programs you use often but don't write.

On the HDDs - programs that write files, image editing, video rendering, browser cache, swap file, outlook pst files.

 

[esabet]

The entire OS install, and some programs like a web browser, java, programs you use often but don't write.

On the HDDs - programs that write files, image editing, video rendering, browser cache, swap file, outlook pst files.

Understand! Thanks.

So would it be wise to configure windows Swap file to the HDD or would that impact the performance of the OS?

 

[staticlag]

It wouldn't really impact performance, most people just turn them off since in this age of huge amounts of cheap RAM and fast HDD they aren't used much.