Hard Disks

Processors and RAMs nowadays are getting extremely fast, an entry level computer has at least i3 processor and DDR3 RAM.

As hard disk drives (HDDs) operations involves mechanical movement of internal parts, the access speed causes significant delays. Thus, the bottleneck in computer performance is sometimes due to the limitations of the HDDs, especially during boot-up and starting of programs.

In contrast with HDDs, Solid State Drives (SSDs) operates differently and does not have mechanical parts, thus its access speeds are significantly faster than HDDs. I've always wanted to get a SSD, but the price is really really and i mean really outrageous. A 64gb SSD can easily cost like S$300. So, I went for the alternative: 7200 rpm.

I'm talking about laptop here (2.5" HDD), so it's 5400rpm vs 7200 rpm.

As a start, let's look at some data that I got:
WD Scorpio Blue: 5400rpm 320gb

WD Scorpio Black: 7200rpm 320gb

Seagate Momentus 7200.4: 7200rpm 320gb


What I've got here is only the READ benchmark, I didn't do the WRITE benchmark because I didn't wanted to format my disks.

7200pm HDDs are definitely faster than 5400rpm HDDs. As a personal experience, the boot time for a 7200rpm is around 10 seconds faster than a 5400rpm. Also, of the two brands of 7200 rpm drives, Seagate's drive is quite a bit faster than WD's.

Of course, the performance of 7200rpm drives are no where near that of a SSD. SSDs can acheive 10seconds boot up time. Holy Shit.

Here's the thing I want to talk about which affects hdd performance and not many people know: Automatic Acoustic Management
Automatic acoustic management (AAM) is a method for reducing acoustic emanations in AT Attachment (ATA) mass storage devices.

AAM controls the audible noise of the hard disk seek head. It has a value range from 128-254, most hdds have recommended value of 208. Basically lower = less noise, higher = higer performance.

My Seagate 7200.4 was set by default 208. I didn't know that before. Changing to 254 increased average read speed by 3-4mbps, and lowered seek timing by 2-3 ms.

Changing your hdd's AAM:


"... a Western Digital WD1001FALS-00J7B0 (1TB, SATA300, 3.5", 7200rpm, 32MB Cache) disk drive shows a decrease from 18ms to 12.5ms by changing the value from 128 to 254, with little to no increase in noise. This drive did appear to be slightly less quiet than the Samsumg in tests."
Wikipedia

Personally, I don't see/hear any difference in the vibration or sound when the hdd is running, but I think the speed is significant enough.

After all the tedious work done, my current boot up timing is 26 seconds, timing from press of power button, till all desktop gadgets load up.

P.S. The benchmarks and the AAM settings are done by HD Tune Pro 4.60