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How to find out the RPM of the hard drive on a laptop. HDD spindle speed

As you know, the performance of the computer directly depends on the speed of the hard drive. Sometimes it is this factor that becomes a bottleneck in system performance. Therefore, the optimal solution today is to replace the hard drive with an SSD (solid-state drive). They are fundamentally different from each other in structure and operating algorithm. But that's not what we're talking about now.

In this whole story, we are interested in the real speed of a hard drive or SSD. How to measure it and what to look for when switching to an SSD drive?

A program for testing the speed of drives - CrystalDiskMark

The most common and convenient program for testing speed is CrystalDiskMark. You can download it:

  • from the official website of the developer - ;
  • from our website site – .

It does not require installation, just archive and launch the desired version - 32 bit or 64 bit.

Version selection

Now let's look a little at the settings.

The main ones are focused on the main window:

Settings

In order:

  1. Number of checks. The default value is 5, but for ordinary tasks 3 is enough. The result is calculated as the average value of all checks.
  2. file size. This is the volume of the test file, by writing/reading which the results of the first test will be calculated. You can leave the default 1 GiB.
  3. Disc selection. We select the disk whose speed we want to test.

To get real performance indicators of the speed of a disk, especially an SSD, it is important that there is at least 15-20% volume. For example, if you have a 120 GB disk, you should have at least 18-24 GB free on it. Also close any programs that put a lot of disk use, such as booting.

The remaining settings do not play a fundamental role during testing.

Then select the disk whose speed you want to check and press the button ALL to run all tests.

Let's run the test

After finishing the disk speed test, the program will display results that we will analyze.

1 line – SeqQ32T1– writing and reading a file of 1 GB in size, with a depth of 32 using 1 thread, is checked.

2nd line – 4 KQ32T1– blocks of 4 KB in size are written in random order with a depth of 32 using 1 thread.

3 line – Seq– analogue of the first test (Seq Q32T1), only with a depth of 1.

4 line – 4 K– analogue of the second test (4K Q32T1), only with a depth of 1.

The left column shows the speed reading, on right - records. Unit - Megabytes per seconds u.

Here are the results for a typical 320GB hard drive:

What is important to pay attention to? On the second and fourth lines (tests 4 KQ32T1 And 4 K). It is files ranging in size from 4 to 8 KB that most often participate in the operation of the system. Most of the libraries that the operating system uses (dll libraries) have a similar size. Therefore, these parameters play a key role in the speed of the system.

First line (test value SeqQ32T1) shows the speed of copying large, integral files. For example, movies or disk images. But it does not fundamentally affect the speed of the system.

- This is one of the main components of any modern computer. Now they are beginning to be replaced, but in many cases there is practically no alternative to hard drives.

After purchasing and installing a new hard drive, many users are interested in its speed. Now we will tell you how to check the speed of your hard drive using special programs.

The first program we'll look at is HD Tune. Using this program you can test the speed of your hard drive.

The HD Tune program is distributed in two versions: a free version of HD Tune and a paid version of HD Tune Pro. HD Tune Pro can work for 15 days without registration, so you can .

Using the HD Tune program, you can check the writing and reading speed of your hard drive. To do this, launch the program, and on the “Benchmark” tab, select one of the testing modes “Read” or “Write”. If your computer has multiple hard drives, be sure to select the one you are going to scan. After this, you need to start using the “Start” button.

After checking the hard drive, the program will display the results. The data will be shown in digital and graphical representation.

Let's look at the main indicators that can be obtained when checking the speed of a hard drive using this program:

  • Minimum is the lowest data transfer speed that the hard drive showed during the entire testing period (MB/sec).
  • Maximum is the highest data transfer speed that the hard drive showed during the entire testing period (MB/sec). This is the value most often indicated by disk manufacturers. But, maximum speed is by far the most important indicator. It should also be noted that the minimum and maximum data transfer rates may differ significantly, but this does not always indicate technical problems.
  • Rate Average is the average data transfer speed that this hard drive showed over the entire test period (MB/sec). This indicator is already more useful, but it cannot be taken into account in isolation from other data.
  • Access Time is the time it takes to access files on the disk (ms). In theory, the lower the file access time, the better.
  • Burst Rate is the peak data transfer rate. This value is also quite often passed off as the real speed of the hard drive, but it is not always possible to achieve it in real conditions.
  • CPU Usage – this parameter indicates the CPU load (%) during testing.

CrystalDiskMark is another fairly popular program for checking the speed of hard drives. It has fewer features than HD Tune and has a much simpler interface, but it still gets the job done.

To check the speed of your hard drive using the CrystalDiskMark program and install it on your computer. After starting the program, you must select the disk partition that will be used to test the speed, as well as the test mode. To start the scan, click on the “All” button.

After the process is completed, the program will display the results. In order to save the disk test result, you can take a screenshot of the program or use the “Edit – Copy test result” menu, in this case you will receive a text report.

No matter what speed the manufacturer indicates in the characteristics of their SSDs, the user always wants to check everything in practice. But it is impossible to find out how close the drive speed is to the declared speed without the help of third-party programs. The most that can be done is to compare how quickly files are copied on a solid-state drive with similar results from a magnetic drive. In order to find out the real speed, you need to use a special utility.

SSD speed test

As a solution, we will choose a simple program called . It has a Russian interface and is very easy to use. So let's get started.

Immediately after launch, the main window will open in front of us, which contains all the necessary settings and information.

Before starting the test, we will set a couple of parameters: the number of checks and the file size. The accuracy of the measurements will depend on the first parameter. By and large, the five checks that are installed by default are quite enough to obtain correct measurements. But if you want to get more accurate information, you can set the maximum value.

The second parameter is the size of the file that will be read and written during tests. The value of this parameter will also affect both the measurement accuracy and the test execution time. However, in order not to reduce the service life of the SSD, you can set the value of this parameter to 100 Megabytes.

After setting all the parameters, we proceed to selecting a disk. Everything is simple here, open the list and select our solid-state drive.

Now you can proceed directly to testing. CrystalDiskMark offers five tests:

  • Seq Q32T1– testing sequential writing/reading of a file with a depth of 32 per thread;
  • 4K Q32T1– testing random writing/reading of blocks of size 4 Kilobytes with a depth of 32 per thread;
  • Seq– testing sequential write/read with depth 1;
  • 4K– testing random write/read with depth 1.

Each of the tests can be run separately; to do this, just click on the green button of the desired test and wait for the result.

You can also do a full test by clicking on the All button.

In order to get more accurate results, it is necessary to close all (if possible) active programs (especially torrents), and it is also desirable that the disk is no more than half full.

Since in everyday use of a personal computer the random method of reading/writing data is most often used (80%), we will be more interested in the results of the second (4K Q32t1) and fourth (4K) tests.

Now let's analyze the results of our test. An ADATA SP900 disk with a capacity of 128 GB was used as an “experimental” disk. As a result, we got the following:

  • With the sequential method, the drive reads data at a speed 210-219 Mbit/s;
  • recording with the same method is slower - only 118 Mbit/s;
  • reading with a random method with a depth of 1 occurs at speed 20 Mbit/s;
  • recording using a similar method - 50 Mbit/s;
  • read and write with depth 32 - 118 Mbit/s and 99 Mbit/s, respectively.

It is worth paying attention to the fact that reading/writing is performed at high speeds only with files whose volume is equal to the buffer size. Those with larger buffers will be read and copied more slowly.

So, with the help of a small program we can easily estimate the speed of the SSD and compare it with what the manufacturers indicate. By the way, this speed is usually overestimated, and using CrystalDiskMark you can find out exactly how much.

A more or less advanced computer user should know that the speed of the operating system depends on the speed of the hard drive. PC performance is largely determined by the performance level of the HDD.

How to Check Hard Drive Speed ​​with CrystalDiskMark

A popular and very convenient program designed for comparative analysis (testing) of the performance of computer hard drives. Allows you to measure the speed of reading and writing data. According to http://www.softportal.com from 01/14/2018: the last update was 11/05/2017.

How to download CrystalDiskMark?

http://www.softportal.com/get-6473-crystaldiskmark.html

And on this site you can choose where you will download from the developer’s website or directly from the soft portal.

The exe file will download and you must double-click on it with the left mouse button.

Allow the program to run with administrative rights. It will launch and begin the standard installation process. In my case, and maybe in yours too, the installation was done in Japanese.

After I clicked “Finish” it started automatically.

CrystalDiskMark Settings

The main CrystalDiskMark parameters are located in the main window:

So, in order:

  1. Number of checks. By default there will be 5 checks. In fact, three are enough, and the maximum can be set to 9. As a result, you will see the average value of all checks.
  2. file size. This is the volume of the test file, by writing/reading which the results of the first test will be calculated. Leave the default value.
  3. Disc selection. Select the drive whose speed test you want to run. In my case, this is the C:/ drive and in yours, perhaps, too.

Remember! To calculate the real speed of a disk, in particular an SSD, it is required that the drive has at least 15-20% of its capacity free. When the disk size For example, if you have a 500 GB disk, then there should be at least 75-100 GB of free space. It would be right to close all programs that load the disk, the same torrent, Photoshop and others.

There are other settings, which we will discuss below. But, I’ll say right away, they don’t play a special role.

The next step is to click on the button ALL to run all tests.

Tests started

After the process is completed, the program will display the results.

1 line – SeqQ32T1– writing and reading a file of 1 GB in size, with a depth of 32 using 1 thread, is checked.

2nd line – 4 KiBQ8T8– blocks of 4 KB in size are written in random order with a depth of 8, using 8 threads.

3 line – 4 KiBQ32T1– blocks of 4 KB in size are written in random order with a depth of 32, using 8 threads.

4 line – 4 KiB Q1T1– blocks of 4 KB in size are written in random order with a depth of 1 using 1 thread.

The left column shows the speed reading, right column – recording. In the title of each column you can see the unit of measurement - Megabytes per seconds u.

Here are the results for a typical 500GB hard drive:

What is important to pay attention to? On the third and fourth lines (tests 4 KiBQ32T1 And 4 KiB Q1T1). A significant number of files involved in the operation of the system range in size from 4 to 8 KB. That is why these parameters play a key role in the speed of the system.

Line with test parameters SeqQ32T1 shows the speed of copying large, integral files. For example, movies or disk images. This indicator does not particularly affect the speed of the system, if we evaluate the speed as a whole.

As you already understand, the operating system works much faster if you use an SSD drive. Try to carry out this test with a hdd drive, and then with an ssd drive, and you will find out for yourself.

The speed of reading/writing random data from 4 KB to 8 KB will increase tenfold. Surely, you use a hdd with Windows OS and even after reinstalling Windows, performance drops over time. With sdd everything is different.