SAMSUNG HD103SJ Disk Mark vs. Online results

[mathesar]

I recently installed a Samsung 1TB drive (HD103SJ) and when I run Passmark it scores a 620 Disk Mark, When searching passmarks online results it shows the same drive with a 879 "Disk Rating", does this mean the drive had a 879 Disk Mark score? Thanks.

(i7 920 @ 3.36ghz / 6gb / Win7 64 / Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R rev 1.6 motherboard)

[David (PassMark)]

Yes, it means that other people got better results that you with this drive.

Might be related to your motherboard and SATA device drivers, background tasks running on your PC, disk fragmentation, position of the test files on the disk, etc..

[mathesar]

Yes, it means that other people got better results that you with this drive.

Might be related to your motherboard and SATA device drivers, background tasks running on your PC, disk fragmentation, position of the test files on the disk, etc..

This motherboard has 2 Gigabyte SATA ports and 6 Intel ICH10R SATA ports (both types rated 3gb/s according to the manual).

The Samsung is currently plugged into a Gigabyte port, I wonder if moving it to an Intel SATA port would do anything, Guess I can try that later.

Thanks I just wanted to be sure I had the scoring correct before I attempted anything.

[David (PassMark)]

You should run the test a few times to get a feel for the range. HDD's aren't totally consistent in benchmarks.

[wonderwrench]

This motherboard has 2 Gigabyte SATA ports and 6 Intel ICH10R SATA ports (both types rated 3gb/s according to the manual).

The Samsung is currently plugged into a Gigabyte port, I wonder if moving it to an Intel SATA port would do anything, Guess I can try that later.

Thanks I just wanted to be sure I had the scoring correct before I attempted anything.

I think you hit the nail right on the head. Use the Intel ports when possible as they will out perform the Gigabyte ports. If you have more than 6 SATA devices place only optical drives in the Gigabyte ports when possible. It would also be preferable to run the Intel controller in AHCI mode and use the Intel RST driver. If the Intel controller is not already in AHCI mode (bios setting) you can't just change to AHCI mode or the PC could be unbootable. Best bet would be to leave the drive connected to the Gigabyte controller temporarily. Change the Intel controller to AHCI mode in the bios then boot windows and allow windows to install AHCI device drivers included in windows 7. Once complete shut down, change the SATA cabling so the drive is connected to port 0 on the Intel controller. Boot to the bios and make sure the boot order is set correctly to boot from the Samsung drive, save and exit the bios. Once in windows install the Intel RST drivers.

Bill

[mathesar]

I think you hit the nail right on the head. Use the Intel ports when possible as they will out perform the Gigabyte ports. If you have more than 6 SATA devices place only optical drives in the Gigabyte ports when possible. It would also be preferable to run the Intel controller in AHCI mode and use the Intel RST driver. If the Intel controller is not already in AHCI mode (bios setting) you can't just change to AHCI mode or the PC could be unbootable. Best bet would be to leave the drive connected to the Gigabyte controller temporarily. Change the Intel controller to AHCI mode in the bios then boot windows and allow windows to install AHCI device drivers included in windows 7. Once complete shut down, change the SATA cabling so the drive is connected to port 0 on the Intel controller. Boot to the bios and make sure the boot order is set correctly to boot from the Samsung drive, save and exit the bios. Once in windows install the Intel RST drivers.

Bill

Thanks for the info Ill have to try that, I switched the drive to an Intel sata port and my disk mark went up to 784.4 so it was definately an improvement, Ill have to try again with AHCI enabled.

[mathesar]

I enabled AHCI and my disk mark is now 819.6, I also noticed when running HD Tune my CPU usage is lower, I had ran it several times before and it was always 2.1% CPU usage but now its 1.4% since enabling AHCI.

Thanks again.

Edit: Thought these results were interesting, further shows AHCI definitely helped:

HD Tune file benchmark using Gigabyte SATA port & AHCI disabled:



Same test using Intel SATA ICH port & ACHI enabled: