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- Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
- Path: sparky!uunet!mcsun!sun4nl!ruuinf!hhanemaa
- From: hhanemaa@cs.ruu.nl (Harm Hanemaaijer)
- Subject: Slow data transfer with IDE drive (WD 2170)
- Message-ID: <1992Dec18.151231.28194@cs.ruu.nl>
- Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1992 15:12:31 GMT
- References: <1992Dec14.140022.18752@cs.ruu.nl>
- Organization: Utrecht University, Dept. of Computer Science
- Keywords: WD 170M drive, even lower troughput
- Lines: 30
-
- In <1992Dec14.140022.18752@cs.ruu.nl> I write:
-
- >A friend of mine recently picked up a 170M Western Digital Caviar 2170 hard
- >drive (which seems to be a fairly new model). Testing its speed with
- >Norton SI (assuming it produces realistic figures), the average access time
- >is indeed very small (11ms as advertised) but the data transfer speed is only
- >~470K/s, as opposed to ~980K/s for a Seagate ST3144a (15ms access), when tested
- >in the same system as a single drive. Even an old Seagate 40M MFM drive seems
- >to have a higher data transfer speed.
- >
- >The data transfer figure is not commonly advertised, the access time is.
- >Does the WD just have a low transfer speed (compensated for many purposes by
- >its small access time), or is there something wrong here?
-
- I've not received any replies except for forwarding requests.
-
- In the system in which the drive is actually used (generic AT with noname,
- no-jumper IDE controller), the data transfer speed is only 270K/s, which is
- considerably less than the old MFM controller and drive (now dead) that were
- previously present.
-
- Does anyone have a clue as to what is going on? Can it be because of the IDE
- controller, or a combination of controller and drive (WD Caviar 2170)? The
- fact remains that the WD is twice as slow when tested in the same system, as
- described above.
-
- Any replies are greatly appreciated (if you post, please mail a copy also)
-
- --
- hhanemaa@cs.ruu.nl
-