"Ed Crismond" wrote in message
news:10uo9dibur0iv43@corp.supernews.com...
> Programs load slower than expected, so I ran Sisoft Sandra disk
> performance benchmark, and it usually comes up with about 14kB/s. Should I
> not get at least 26-27kB/s?
>

That should read, "...and it usually comes up with about 14,000kB/s. Should
I not get at
least 26000-27000kB/s?"

Ed Crismond wrote:
> "Ed Crismond" wrote in message
> news:10uo9dibur0iv43@corp.supernews.com...
>
>>Programs load slower than expected, so I ran Sisoft Sandra disk
>>performance benchmark, and it usually comes up with about 14kB/s. Should I
>>not get at least 26-27kB/s?
>>
>
>
> That should read, "...and it usually comes up with about 14,000kB/s. Should
> I not get at
> least 26000-27000kB/s?"
>
>
>

Sandra is suspect w.r.t. HD performance. Get HDtach and run it to see if the
HD and the path to memory are up to snuff. For HDtach, go to www.simplisoft.com;
and note that the new V3 is only for XP; you'll need a V2.x version of HDtach
if you run W9x.
--
Cheers, Bob

"Bob Willard" wrote in message
news:So6dnfpytLHd1nHcRVn-iA@comcast.com...
> Sandra is suspect w.r.t. HD performance. Get HDtach and run it to see if
> the
> HD and the path to memory are up to snuff. For HDtach, go to
> www.simplisoft.com;
> and note that the new V3 is only for XP; you'll need a V2.x version of
> HDtach
> if you run W9x.
> --

I downloaded, installed, and ran HDtach. The average read of the WD800BB was
36.5 MB/s. This is much closer to what I would expect, although it is a
little lower than the WD800BB benchmark comparison that came with HDtech.
Maybe the comparison bench was higher because of other components in that
system? Like the Athlon 3200+ on an Abit NF7-S?

Maybe all this Gateway system needs is a little more memory to make it
snappier.

Thanks.

Ed

Ed Crismond wrote:

> "Bob Willard" wrote in message
> news:So6dnfpytLHd1nHcRVn-iA@comcast.com...
>
>> Sandra is suspect w.r.t. HD performance. Get HDtach and run it to see if
>>the
>>HD and the path to memory are up to snuff. For HDtach, go to
>>www.simplisoft.com;
>>and note that the new V3 is only for XP; you'll need a V2.x version of
>>HDtach
>>if you run W9x.
>>--
>
>
> I downloaded, installed, and ran HDtach. The average read of the WD800BB was
> 36.5 MB/s. This is much closer to what I would expect, although it is a
> little lower than the WD800BB benchmark comparison that came with HDtech.
> Maybe the comparison bench was higher because of other components in that
> system? Like the Athlon 3200+ on an Abit NF7-S?
>
> Maybe all this Gateway system needs is a little more memory to make it
> snappier.
>
> Thanks.
>
> Ed
>

Storage Review measured read transfer rates on that HD at 36 MB/s on the
outer cylinders and 24 MB/s on the inner cylinders. You should get about
the same with HDtach if you run it nearly standalone; I'd count anything
in the range of -10% to +5% as the same.

You have plenty of RAM for HDtach. But, for non-benchmark use, 256MB on
a PC running XP is pretty minimal: OK for one app at a time, but likely to
bog down if you multi-task. For most XP use, 512MB is fine; more if you
edit photos or video or audio.
--
Cheers, Bob