[mythtv-users] hard drive read benchmarks

[Henry A Harper III]

> Could you guys post some read benchmarks for your drives while
> mythfrontend is and is not running, and also if your drive is SATA or
> not? Here are mine, on a Western Digital 500GB SATA:
>
> this is the command:
> sudo hdparm -Tt /path/to/device
>
>
>
> without mythfrontend:
> jesse at dionysis:~> sudo hdparm -Tt /dev/sda
> /dev/sda:
>  Timing cached reads:   2500 MB in  2.00 seconds = 1250.10 MB/sec
>  Timing buffered disk reads:  210 MB in  3.02 seconds =  69.63 MB/sec
>
> with mythfrontend:
> /dev/sda:
>  Timing cached reads:   328 MB in  2.04 seconds = 161.00 MB/sec
>  Timing buffered disk reads:   48 MB in  3.14 seconds =  15.28 MB/sec
>
>
> The reason I am asking is because I am trying to add a second frontend
> to a machine that is front and backend combined. Whenever the second
> machine is connected, one of them will get choppy video and messages
> about ringbuffer taking too long to read, regardless of trying to watch
> HD or SD content.


Mythfrontend showing NBC SNF HD @1.5x speed, no recordings active:
/dev/sda:
 Timing cached reads:   2604 MB in  2.00 seconds = 1302.30 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:  214 MB in  3.01 seconds =  71.15 MB/sec

Mythfrontend idle in root menu (Iulius theme):
/dev/sda:
 Timing cached reads:   3480 MB in  2.00 seconds = 1740.60 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:  230 MB in  3.02 seconds =  76.11 MB/sec

Box is mythtv 0.20 (svn 11166) FE+BE, FC5 smp, Athlon 4600+ x2 (65W), 1GB
RAM, 2x SATA2 Seagate 750GB (SW RAID1, LVM), 3x hd5500 set up for OTA ATSC
only, 7600gs w/8774. Mobo is a Gigabyte GA-M55plus-S3G.