Disk Response Time

In this test IOMeter is sending a stream of requests to read and write 512-byte data blocks with a request queue of 1 for 10 minutes. The total number of requests processed by the HDD is over 60 thousand, so we get a sustained response time that doesn’t depend on the HDD’s buffer size. The results are sorted by read response time.

The HDDs are ranked according to the spindle rotation speed of their disks. The Teac is somewhat worse than the other 250GB models at both reading and writing. It is obviously based on a Fujitsu MHX2 BT series drive that has a spindle rotation speed of 4200rpm as opposed to 5400rpm of the other 250GB models. Judging by the characteristic response time, the 250GB HandyDrive from Fujitsu is based on a 5400rpm MHY2 BH series disk, too. The somewhat higher response time of the Transcend HDD at writing can be explained easily. It is based on a Samsung disk, and Samsung’s HDDs have low efficiency of deferred writing.

Interestingly, it is the no-name HDD that wins this test, even though by a very small margin.