Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

hard drive write/read speed

bearbo

bearbo

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jul 20, 2006
1,858
0
so suspecting there's something wrong with my hard drive (5,400RPM 120GB for MBP 15 C2D), i did the xbench test (i know there's problem with the CPU and related portion, but i assume the disk test portion should be relatively simple, and thus low variance) and here's what i found

Code: 
Disk Test	23.32	
		Sequential	22.64	
			Uncached Write	21.41	13.15 MB/sec [4K blocks]
			Uncached Write	10.62	6.01 MB/sec [256K blocks]
			Uncached Read	48.78	14.28 MB/sec [4K blocks]
			Uncached Read	65.31	32.83 MB/sec [256K blocks]
		Random	24.04	
			Uncached Write	8.34	0.88 MB/sec [4K blocks]
			Uncached Write	51.92	16.62 MB/sec [256K blocks]
			Uncached Read	63.36	0.45 MB/sec [4K blocks]
			Uncached Read	87.97	16.32 MB/sec [256K blocks]
does that look normal? or should i be concerned with this?
the reason i ask is when i start up the computer, it takes on average one minute to get to the password window, and another minute to minute and half to load the user info, and i have nothing in my start-up item list other than what's already there...

can someone shed some lights on this?
 
After G

After G

macrumors 68000
Aug 27, 2003
1,583
1
California
Low 4k score = low overall score is my guess.

Take these two examples:

Code: 
Results	29.54	
	System Info		
		Xbench Version		1.3
		System Version		10.4.8 (8L2127)
		Physical RAM		2048 MB
		Model		Macmini1,1
		Drive Type		ST98823AS
	Disk Test	29.54	
		Sequential	57.25	
			Uncached Write	60.02	36.85 MB/sec [4K blocks]
			Uncached Write	56.71	32.09 MB/sec [256K blocks]
			Uncached Read	50.59	14.80 MB/sec [4K blocks]
			Uncached Read	63.28	31.80 MB/sec [256K blocks]
		Random	19.90	
			Uncached Write	6.32	0.67 MB/sec [4K blocks]
			Uncached Write	58.32	18.67 MB/sec [256K blocks]
			Uncached Read	69.97	0.50 MB/sec [4K blocks]
			Uncached Read	87.91	16.31 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Code: 
Results	40.40	
	System Info		
		Xbench Version		1.3
		System Version		10.4.8 (8L2127)
		Physical RAM		2048 MB
		Model		Macmini1,1
		Drive Type		Maxtor 6 Y160P0
	Disk Test	40.40	
		Sequential	38.72	
			Uncached Write	42.40	26.03 MB/sec [4K blocks]
			Uncached Write	40.21	22.75 MB/sec [256K blocks]
			Uncached Read	26.27	7.69 MB/sec [4K blocks]
			Uncached Read	59.56	29.94 MB/sec [256K blocks]
		Random	42.24	
			Uncached Write	18.19	1.93 MB/sec [4K blocks]
			Uncached Write	62.98	20.16 MB/sec [256K blocks]
			Uncached Read	83.40	0.59 MB/sec [4K blocks]
			Uncached Read	84.42	15.66 MB/sec [256K blocks]
The first came from an internal SATA drive. (Looks like that 6 killed me)
The second came from an external FW drive.

How much memory do you have?
 
CanadaRAM

CanadaRAM

macrumors G5
Oct 11, 2004
12,417
6
On the Left Coast - Victoria BC Canada
XBench is pretty much totally unreliable as a comparitive measure or as a real world performance indicator.

Hard drive performance can be cut in half, simply by writing to the inner tracks as opposed to the outer tracks of the drive.
 
MacNut

MacNut

macrumors Core
Jan 4, 2002
22,998
9,976
CT
A hard drive is not constantly running at full speed either like in a test so normal day to day operation will give a different result.
 
bearbo

bearbo

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jul 20, 2006
1,858
0
memory is 2GB. i tested memory use rember and apple's hardware test, none of them yield any problem :S

so what would you guys say about my start up time, does that sound normal at all? it's significantly slower than my previous MBP CD 2.16 15" and 17"... how can i improve that? thanks

what test is reliable then, that i can test the disk speed with?
 
MacNut

MacNut

macrumors Core
Jan 4, 2002
22,998
9,976
CT
Just curious but have you wiped the cache lately, web pages and such.
 
bearbo

bearbo

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jul 20, 2006
1,858
0
MacNut said:
Just curious but have you wiped the cache lately, web pages and such.
Click to expand...

no, but it doubt thats the problem. it's been like this since day 1, that's 1 week and 5 days ago.
 
em5photog

em5photog

macrumors regular
Jan 9, 2007
153
0
Colorado
I just got my new mac book pro 2.16 ghz and seemed to take longer to boot than my old g4 . I did the same test you did got the same results thought my drive might be bad . So I used disk check and all was fine . Since only had it 2 days I decieded to do a clean install I zero'd the drive and reinstalled with the install disc's that came with it. Gues what boots in a blink now take about 20 sec from cold off to desktop . Since your started that way on day too might want try a clean install worked for me it even made it snappier running aps too..
 
bearbo

bearbo

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jul 20, 2006
1,858
0
MACUSER360 said:
I just got my new mac book pro 2.16 ghz and seemed to take longer to boot than my old g4 . I did the same test you did got the same results thought my drive might be bad . So I used disk check and all was fine . Since only had it 2 days I decieded to do a clean install I zero'd the drive and reinstalled with the install disc's that came with it. Gues what boots in a blink now take about 20 sec from cold off to desktop . Since your started that way on day too might want try a clean install worked for me it even made it snappier running aps too..
Click to expand...

that's the thing... i DID a clean install.. well, i didn't format the entire HDD and start over, since i had windwos already installed... you think i should format the entire hdd and do a clean install?
 
em5photog

em5photog

macrumors regular
Jan 9, 2007
153
0
Colorado
It worked for me I think when they did the factory install they messed something up . When I did the install asoon as i turned it on after install i knew it was the problem boot right up and fast . Even when i first turned it on out of the box it was slow to boot. Might want to give it a try . If you do posted back if it worked for you too.
 
phungy

phungy

macrumors 68020
Dec 5, 2006
2,398
10
FL/NY/TX
CanadaRAM said:
XBench is pretty much totally unreliable as a comparitive measure or as a real world performance indicator.

Hard drive performance can be cut in half, simply by writing to the inner tracks as opposed to the outer tracks of the drive.
Click to expand...

I was going to say this...I wouldn't trust XBench as it can be skewed. A 1.83Ghz Macbook received better results than my 2.0Ghz Macbook and I had +1GB of RAM too! Though that probably didn't matter...
 
A

applelabs

macrumors member
Jan 9, 2007
75
0
I got a slightly better score (30.15) with the 160 GB hard drive.
So yours seems normal.

And I haven't done a clean install yet.
 
bearbo

bearbo

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jul 20, 2006
1,858
0
i guess i'll just commit another 3 hrs to re-install later this afternoon...
 
bearbo

bearbo

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jul 20, 2006
1,858
0
given it's under 2 weeks, (but that i already opened it) do you guys think if that doesn't solve the problem, i can have apple replace the machine?
additional problems i've found are:

the battery has been dropping its health level about 1% per cycle and a cycle is about from 100% to about 10% and charge back up... i calibrated the first day i got it.
grainny screen, altho i knew the issue before i got it, and i accept the risk and willing to deal with it if it were the only problem..

i sure hope that harddisk work wonderfully after the reformat and such, i do not want to have to deal with all the hassle with apple. i'm just getting a bit frustrated.
 
bearbo

bearbo

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jul 20, 2006
1,858
0
MACUSER360 said:
post back if it fixes it or not.
Click to expand...

so i've formated the entire HDD, and installing now... i'm between the 1st disk and 2nd disk, i'm just wondering when did you start seeing improvement, is it between the disks or after the installation is complete?

because it's not looking good for me right now :S

esp when starting, after the white background with the gray apple and the twirling thing underneath, right before you would type password, when the blue bar is going, it's going REALLY slow!

help...
 
bearbo

bearbo

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jul 20, 2006
1,858
0
done installing... first restart was okay.. somewhat snappier, 48 seconds from startup sound to user fully loaded

but certainly no 20 seconds :(
 
em5photog

em5photog

macrumors regular
Jan 9, 2007
153
0
Colorado
Did you set yours to a password Mine is not set to one . I can set mine to one and see how long it takes to boot up and yes i thought the same thing while i was installing . I saw a differance after it was done. I also saw a little improvement after shuting it down and starting it back up a couple times I think the os takes a couple shut down and restarts to get everything worrking right..
 
bearbo

bearbo

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jul 20, 2006
1,858
0
MACUSER360 said:
Did you set yours to a password Mine is not set to one . I can set mine to one and see how long it takes to boot up and yes i thought the same thing while i was installing . I saw a differance after it was done. I also saw a little improvement after shuting it down and starting it back up a couple times I think the os takes a couple shut down and restarts to get everything worrking right..
Click to expand...

do you have many applications installed? after i installed all my apps (and they aren't that many!) the it became slow again... it took 1:30 to get to desktop.
 
em5photog

em5photog

macrumors regular
Jan 9, 2007
153
0
Colorado
I have installed a few so far . Parallels, office 04 , aperture, dvd2one mac the ripper, going to be installing Photoshop cs2 , final cut pro and and few others before installing all my programs wanted to make sure I did not have to exchange it first . The programs I installed so far have not made it slow done at all I am going to run my xbench and i will post the results.. you should run it again too.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom