HDTune is a bad benchmark, because it tests with a queue depth of just 1. A filesystem will have much higher queue, for example the read-ahead when reading large files will jump to 8 or higher. This is important for any RAID, since RAIDs depend on multiple queue'd I/O's in order to process them in parallel. It cannot do that when there is just one queued I/O everytime, like when using HDTune.
The result can be lower (wrong) results. New versions of HDTune also have a "Files" benchmark, which tests the filesystem. This should produce usable results on RAID-arrays.
But testing sequential performance is dumb, real performance is measured in IOps and that's where SSD's shine. Sadly few free benchmarks use proper tracing&replay benchmarks to determine "realistic" performance of your drive or RAID-array.
------------------------------...man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but usually manages to pick himself up, walk over or around it, and carry on.
Reply to sub mesa
There are no really good windows I/O benchmarks. There is iPeak suite/Rankdisk and IOmeter plus some retrace benches, but these are pretty hard to use as a consumer, they are more suited towards laboratory testing with a person with deep knowledge about storage. In Linux you have many more benches that focus on IOps performance, something i'm missing in Windows.
In general, you should work with a utility that tests on the filesystem, like ATTO and HDTune "Files" benchmark do. For realistic performance its still better to look at good reviews, because the tests done by these reviews are harder to simulate at home.
------------------------------...man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but usually manages to pick himself up, walk over or around it, and carry on.
Reply to sub mesa
I had a buddy drop significant money on two 32Gb SSDs that he then put in RAID 0 as a boot/OS drive. Then I think he put 3x 750Gb HDDs in RAID 5 for storage ( I forget as just woke up after 5 hours sleep ). I personally think thats impractical. Assuming youve got onboard RAID with a dedicated controller your set. If not get a good cheap add in card. Rather than drop ridiculous amounts of cash on a SSD, Grab a few high speed HDDs. I waited on the Seagate 7200.12 b/c its got a 500Gb single platter hopefully reducing the likelihood of mechanical failure, and that the single platter allows for wicked speeds. I average 130mb/s read and write with just the one drive. As i got a cheap p43 b/c i didnt have money when i built my computer i dont have on board RAID and havent gotten myself a second drive. But assuming youve got 4 sata ports thatll do RAID you could have a 2tb RAID 0 drive pushing 500mb/s read and write easily for under $250 ( individually they fluctuate between $55 and $60 depending on the mood newegg is in )
I had a buddy drop significant money on two 32Gb SSDs that he then put in RAID 0 as a boot/OS drive. Then I think he put 3x 750Gb HDDs in RAID 5 for storage ( I forget as just woke up after 5 hours sleep ). I personally think thats impractical. Assuming youve got onboard RAID with a dedicated controller your set. If not get a good cheap add in card. Rather than drop ridiculous amounts of cash on a SSD, Grab a few high speed HDDs. I waited on the Seagate 7200.12 b/c its got a 500Gb single platter hopefully reducing the likelihood of mechanical failure, and that the single platter allows for wicked speeds. I average 130mb/s read and write with just the one drive. As i got a cheap p43 b/c i didnt have money when i built my computer i dont have on board RAID and havent gotten myself a second drive. But assuming youve got 4 sata ports thatll do RAID you could have a 2tb RAID 0 drive pushing 500mb/s read and write easily for under $250 ( individually they fluctuate between $55 and $60 depending on the mood newegg is in )
Besides using iPeak suite to record usage and IOMeter to playback as sub mesa mentioned, the next best benchmark to gauge real-world desktop usage patterns is probably PCMark Vantage's HDD tests (pre-recorded).
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Reply to wuzy