Back a few weeks during the IDE vs. SCSI and hacking for a slimmer World
threads I was experimenting with SCSI in my G4 MDD DP. I had found
using Disk Speed Bench X that one of my IDE drives was faster so I made
that one the start up drive. I then got a used U320 15k RPM SCSI drive
set up as an alternative start up drive and cloned the original start up
drive onto it. The computer definitely feels faster when booted from
the SCSI disk, which belies the results Disk Speed Bench X provided. So
I decided to install Xbench and do a more comprehensive comparison
test. The results show a definite advantage from running a SCSI drive.
More than double the speed for read and write throughput compared to the
IDE drive. The memory test was a smidge faster under the SCSI boot but
as well but I don't know if that is just statistical anomaly or real.
Disk Speed Bench X reported the following this morning:
ATA 100 drive mounted as /Volumes/MDD HD1 77 MB/sec
SCSI drive mounted as / 76MB/sec
No difference between IDE and SCSI speeds according to this test.
Xbench results when the MDD was booted from the faster ATA100 drive:
Memory Test 37.05
System 34.46
Allocate 94.16 345.79 Kalloc/sec
Fill 41.24 2005.23 MB/sec
Copy 19.16 395.79 MB/sec
Stream 40.06
Copy 42.44 876.52 MB/sec [altivec]
Scale 44.32 915.64 MB/sec [altivec]
Add 37.79 804.99 MB/sec [altivec]
Triad 36.68 784.61 MB/sec [altivec]
Quartz Graphics Test 71.52
Line 59.54 3.96 Klines/sec [50% alpha]
Rectangle 60.70 18.12 Krects/sec [50% alpha]
Circle 60.33 4.92 Kcircles/sec [50% alpha]
Bezier 65.67 1.66 Kbeziers/sec [50% alpha]
Text 206.71 12.93 Kchars/sec
OpenGL Graphics Test 74.34
Spinning Squares 74.34 94.30 frames/sec
User Interface Test 70.30
Elements 70.30 322.63 refresh/sec
Disk Test 35.85
Sequential 42.27
Uncached Write 28.13 17.27 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 38.70 21.90 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 63.51 18.59 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 57.17 28.73 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 31.12
Uncached Write 12.93 1.37 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 61.01 19.53 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 88.75 0.63 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 42.47 7.88 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Xbench results when the MDD was booted from the SCSI drive running on a
UL3D card:
Memory Test 40.85
System 40.53
Allocate 111.12 408.06 Kalloc/sec
Fill 50.22 2441.64 MB/sec
Copy 22.17 457.83 MB/sec
Stream 41.17
Copy 43.56 899.73 MB/sec [altivec]
Scale 44.59 921.31 MB/sec [altivec]
Add 40.17 855.80 MB/sec [altivec]
Triad 37.20 795.85 MB/sec [altivec]
Quartz Graphics Test 68.00
Line 61.29 4.08 Klines/sec [50% alpha]
Rectangle 63.47 18.95 Krects/sec [50% alpha]
Circle 63.54 5.18 Kcircles/sec [50% alpha]
Bezier 71.87 1.81 Kbeziers/sec [50% alpha]
Text 84.68 5.30 Kchars/sec
OpenGL Graphics Test 75.49
Spinning Squares 75.49 95.77 frames/sec
User Interface Test 70.57
Elements 70.57 323.86 refresh/sec
Disk Test 89.00
Sequential 105.76
Uncached Write 107.18 65.81 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 130.19 73.66 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 71.19 20.83 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 147.85 74.31 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 76.82
Uncached Write 30.12 3.19 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 123.60 39.57 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 186.95 1.32 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 184.28 34.19 MB/sec [256K blocks]
I'll be sticking with the SCSI boot drive. I might even get a custom
cable kit so I can put another one in that front drive bay, as long as a
cable is wrapping over there anyway.
Bruce
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