Performance Test - Different Scores between runs

[magicmerlin]

Hello!
When i did a full test yesterday i got 877 points, and it´s just gotten lower and lower from there..One time i got a result of 100 points lower than before..The only thing i´ve done is to defragment my system with o.o-defrag & removed some spyware. I always use this test when i re-install windows to see how stable it is..Now, when the result change so much between every time i test...i dont know, it seems weird. Anyone with the same problem? Is it my computer that get´s tired very quickly after uninstallation?

I like this test alot, but when it´s like this i start to doubt it´s ability to test my comuter´s preformance.

Have a nice day!

/Mikael

[David (PassMark)]

You need to look at the individual results to determine which test is showing the variance.

[magicmerlin]

http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/236/perfresxe7.gif (http://www.passmark.com/forum/%5BURL=http://imageshack.us%5D%5BIMG%5Dhttp://img231.imageshack.us/img231/236/perfresxe7.gif%5B/IMG%5D%5B/URL%5D)

http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/7324/perfhresle6.gif (http://www.passmark.com/forum/%5BURL=http://imageshack.us%5D%5BIMG%5Dhttp://img231.imageshack.us/img231/7324/perfhresle6.gif%5B/IMG%5D%5B/URL%5D)

[David (PassMark)]

The difference between the two runs is 42. Which is 5%. Differences of a few percent from one run to the next are not unusual given the number of background processes running on the typical windows machine and caching effects.

Most of the difference was in the CD test. If might be that the drive was already fully spun up and cached when you did the faster run. Or you might have used different CD media between runs.

[magicmerlin]

How much better will my computer preform if i switch to windows 64 instead?

[David (PassMark)]

It depends on the software you run and if you are short of RAM in 32bit. See this old 64bit to 32bit comparision we did in 2005 for details (http://www.passmark.com/forum/showthread.php?t=261). PerformanceTest shows slightly better scores on 64bit if you use the native 64bit version of PerformanceTest.

[magicmerlin]

The difference of above is 42, but before i defragmented i got 877, after i got 766, was some important files moved by the program or something?

Im thinking of buying another 150 GB Raptor and do a raid-0 configuration, have you tested that? Some say it´s barely a difference at all, can that be true?

[BES]

Ok well the result on my test is slightly faster performance with 2 70gig raptors in raid 0 config...check it out:

http://groups.msn.com/BrianSp/drivestest.msnw?lc=1033

like a .7 increase compared to standard SATA drives...ill be getting the new Western Digital drive soon that is supposdily 30% faster than the raptor... 10,000rpm with a SATA 3.0gb/s connection.

The test was run on Vista home Premium 64bit
Phenom 2.3ghz quad core
790FX crossfire X motherboard
4 gigs DDR2 1066 Kingston ram
ATI HD3850 512 meg HIS stock overclocked vid cards in crossfire
the hard drives in the link above

[David (PassMark)]

..was some important files moved by the program or something?


Probably not. You need to look at the individual results to determine which test is showing the variance before jumping to the conclusion that the disk test was what caused the difference.

[magicmerlin]

I´ve got a Raptor Disc, as i said before.. People are always talking about how fast they are..and it´s supposed to start the system om 15 seconds & stuff like that. I think it´s fast, but not that fast! Installations goes way faster than before, but my startup takes about 25 seconds. I dont have many programs at all in the startup, antivirus & firewall & the necassary windows-things. a total of 7 programs in the startup. I´ve stopped about 3/4 of all the windows-services, the security-center & automatic updates are off, because i take care of my security manually. Is it something wrong with my Raptor or am i just expecting too much of it?

[David (PassMark)]

The Raptor is effectively obsolete now. Newer high data density 7200RPM drives and the new WD VelociRaptor have surpassed the older low capacity Raptor. The hasn't been a major change to the Raptor for over 2 years. You are probably expecting too much of it.

[magicmerlin]

Hello!

Then what´s the best? I´ve checked on different sites, and now there´s two options for me. This new Velociraptor or if i raid one of those faster Sata´s..whats best?

[SilverWS602]

Get the velociraptor when they become more available. I know I plan on it, should be a nice upgrade.

[David (PassMark)]

The 2nd best is the Memoright SSD MR25.2-032S solid state flash drive.

The best is dual Hyper OS HyperDrive4's in RAID 0 configuration. A drive made purely from DDR RAM. (DDR RAM is much much faster then Flash RAM).

Quote,
8000x faster at finding files than a 10,000 rpm SATA WD Raptor WD740ADFD
5500x faster at finding files than a 15,000 rpm SAS Seagate Savvio or Maxtor Atlas 15k II SAS drive
125x faster at serving files than a WD Raptor, certainly the fastest SATA drive on the market.
110x faster at serving files than any 15,000 rpm U320 SCSI or SAS drive.
700x faster at serving and receiving files than the latest Samsung laptop flash drives."

[SilverWS602]

What's the price on those solid state drives? They're rather pricey correct?

[David (PassMark)]

Yes, they are expensive drives. When you consider their low capacity, they appear extremely expensive on a GB per $ basis.

[SilverWS602]

Yes, they are expensive drives. When you consider their low capacity, they appear extremely expensive on a GB per $ basis.

Wow you aren't kidding. I never actually looked at the price, but a quick newegg glance:

16gb ~ $275/300
128gb ~ $3000!

Yea... no thank you!

[magicmerlin]

Hello!

If i configure Raid 0, does it get faster to raid 4 discs than 2? This question may be a bit strange..but i have never done a raid-configuration before.

[David (PassMark)]

If you are doing striping and have a good controller, RAID 5 (with 4 disks or more) should be slightly faster than RAID 0 (with 2 disks).

[magicmerlin]

Then, what wins in the end? 4 seagate barracuda 7200 32 mb sata 2´s raided or a velociraptor? the price is about the same anyway.

[magicmerlin]

I thought i had figured things out now...i was going to buy 2x Velociraptor in Raid 0-configuration...Now i found a drive Hitachi Ultrastar Drive 15.000 RPM. I know that it´s more expensive per-gig, but i dont care that much about the difference, i use regular disks for storage.

So.....

2 x Velociraptor - 300 GB - Raid 0

2 x Ultrastar 36 GB - Raid 0