ATTO Benchmarking

Hi,
I wonder if anybody can give me some guidance on using the ATTO tool for measuring my SSD performance.
By default it is set to read and write between 0.5 and 8192.0 KB with a total length of write of 256 MB.
If I set it only to write from 0.5 to 64.0 KB will that reduce the total write in proportion or will I have to set the Total Length manually (which you can do) and if so by how much in order to make the results comparable ?
The thing is I don't think it is a good idea to write 256 MB just to do a benchmark.
Thanks in anticipation.
Alex.

 

Alex, I decided not to bother with benchmarking my SSDs after the initial checkups/controller tests again until I feel that they're slowing down, or something related in the system changes.

If the SSD is on a AHCI-enabled Intel controller and the SSD has plenty of free space for GC and TRIM operations plus the system has some regular idle/logged off time, I'd only run checks at, say, 6 monthly intervals at default settings. I don't think it's worth fretting over.

 

Hi satrow,
I think you are spot on, we can spend longer messing with our rigs than actually using them. The reason I was doing the benchmarks was that I have recently had a new machine which was Win 8 (can't say I like it much) and because it had two 1TB drives I decided to put an SSD in as the OS.
I really should have waited until I had got the machine running as I wanted it to before I installed the SSD but I guess that I was a tad impatient . So I ended up with a situation where I was configuring the OS as well as the new SSD and ran the checks to satisfy myself that all was OK.
It then seemed that after the 64MB run there was never a lot of variation so I reasoned that only testing up to that point would cut down a lot of writes. I think I have now reached the point where I should only do very infrequent tests but even so wonder if it a good policy to do just the shorter files - they are the most often used anyway.
Thanks for your input.

 

I think the main benefit of using the default settings is ease of comparison to similar systems as a cross-check (obviously a 'ball-park' comparison, there's no accounting for individual 'tweaks' when looking at 3rd party logs/data).

 

Hi,
That seems logical.
What I would like to decide is if I should leave the total length set at 256MB or cut it back some. Any ideas ?
Alex.

 

Given that average writes per day are said to be in the 4-10GB range for most users (mine run to ~4GB on the System SSD; many tweaks + it's a 3x drive system), 256MB on an occasional basis looks ok - if it that's what it's actually referring to.

 

Hi,
Yes it doesn't look excessive in that context. I was tending to write an awful lot in the set up stages but that has calmed down now.
Again thanks for your well reasoned input.
Alex

 

No worries and thanks Alex.

For occasional checks on current session performance, Smart status and long-term drive data etc. (yes, it does involve disk writes for logging ... ), I use Hard Disk Sentinel (I was using the trial but subsequently hit on a freebie for one of the full versions on a site that I may not be able to mention here).

If you have a reasonable level of disposable income, and you like the trial version, I'd suggest you consider buying it - and I almost never suggest paying for software when there are free alternatives!

 

Thanks satrow,
I'll have a look at that software .Like you I always try to get a freebie but there are rare occasions when only a paid version will do exactly what you want.
Alex.