Ultra DMA133 true speed with Windows XP

[wooly.bully]

I have just tested my harddrive using the Windows XP drive speed test
and wonder if I'm getting my money's worth.

For those that don't know where the speed test it's at.

My Computer/Properties/Hardware/Device Manager/IDE ATA/ATAPI
Controllers/NVIDIA nForce3 Parallel ATA Controller (v2.6)/Primary
Channel/Speed Test

Results were

Theoretical Speed 133.3Meg
Burst Speed 106.5Meg
Substained Speed 59.6Meg

I have one (Maxtor) 6Y080P0 on the Primary Master (PM) side of the
controller and the Primary Slave (PS) is empty. OS is Windows XP with
latest updates. System says the drive is in Ultra DMA 6 - Ultra133
transfer mode and write cache is enabled. Motherboard is Shuttle AN50R
with a AMD 3000+ 64 processor.

Are these typical speeds? Seems like the substained speed ought to be
much more.

 

[Kenny S]

You have that drive test functionality because you have that nvidia
controler driver.
Not everyone has that test... I dont.

 

[Bob Willard]

I have just tested my harddrive using the Windows XP drive speed test
and wonder if I'm getting my money's worth.

For those that don't know where the speed test it's at.

My Computer/Properties/Hardware/Device Manager/IDE ATA/ATAPI
Controllers/NVIDIA nForce3 Parallel ATA Controller (v2.6)/Primary
Channel/Speed Test

Results were

Theoretical Speed 133.3Meg
Burst Speed 106.5Meg
Substained Speed 59.6Meg

I have one (Maxtor) 6Y080P0 on the Primary Master (PM) side of the
controller and the Primary Slave (PS) is empty. OS is Windows XP with
latest updates. System says the drive is in Ultra DMA 6 - Ultra133
transfer mode and write cache is enabled. Motherboard is Shuttle AN50R
with a AMD 3000+ 64 processor.

Are these typical speeds? Seems like the substained speed ought to be
much more.

That's great. 133 MB/s is the peak data rate on the bus, as determined
by the time between two successive (16-bit) transfers on the IDE. 100+
MB/s is what you are getting for a transfer of a KB or so between your
PC's RAM and the cache in the HD; anything >100 MB/s shows that your IDE
is running at U/133 speed. 60 MB/s is the STR (Sustained Transfer Rate)
when you are doing a long transfer to uncached data; actually involving
the magnetic portion of your HD -- sound OK to me, but you can look up
the specs on that HD on its vendor's website to be sure.

 

[Bob I]

Sustained Speed is determined by the drive hardware data transfer, Burst
is form the drive memory cache.

http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/maxtor-6y080p0/