What exactly does the HD Tests show me?

[mike_da_min]

I am trying to optimize my laptop. I've searched the forums and see all the numbers....and yes I do understand an external is faster than my internal...just trying to figure out what is my speeds as I have an older USB HD. Vs a new internal drive. I don't even know how to figure out what the speeds are of each drive....thanks for answering my "simple" question.

[Bob L]

The actual transfer rate is the number you want to notice... it gives you an idea of what kind of SAWStudio performance you can expect.

The examples at the bottom of the screen show what rate you need to do 12 mono or stereo tracks... compaing that to your actual transfer rate will give you an idea of what your setup can expect.

Bob L

[mike_da_min]

so does that mean from the above that my computer can handle 12 mono tracks?

[Carl G.]

so does that mean from the above that my computer can handle 12 mono tracks?

If I read that right... you should be able to handle far more than 12 track stereo with a lot of room to spare.
Stereo 24 bit, 12 tracks wants about 3,200 KB/s
and your transfer is FIVE times that at 15,000 KB/s

[mike_da_min]

So I ran the TEST again on my i5 quad core chip powered laptop and got to 22000. Then I ran the test on an older 1.8GHZ core 2 duo laptop with half the memory and got 35000 on the HD.....speechless....my new laptop sux.....

[905shmick]

So I ran the TEST again on my i5 quad core chip powered laptop and got to 22000. Then I ran the test on an older 1.8GHZ core 2 duo laptop with half the memory and got 35000 on the HD.....speechless....my new laptop sux.....

Your processor has nothing to do with the speed of your drive.

[mike_da_min]

i know just shocked that a 350 laptop just ran circles around my 700 gateway....

[905shmick]

i know just shocked that a 350 laptop just ran circles around my 700 gateway....

The slower drive in your newer computer is designed to prolong your battery life.

[Carl G.]

i know just shocked that a 350 laptop just ran circles around my 700 gateway....

Ah! So, there was a 'gate' in your way.
Thanks for sharing the lesson.

[DominicPerry]

22MB/s doesn't suck. I want to see you using anything which hits that kind of sustained transfer rate. 72 tracks of stereo 24/44.1 files is still only 19MB/s.

One thing you need to be careful with is to run the test with a good number of tracks. You will get a very different figure when you test with 1 track versus 24 or more. If you want to be writing/reading 72 tracks with SAW, then you should test with that number. Test reading and writing too - one of my drives writes twice as fast as reading.

Dominic