IO Meter Random Access Results

4 KB Random Read

The short-stroked Western Digital Caviar Black drive improved its 4 KB random read performance by 37.5%. This is the key advantage of short-stroking a drive - a greatly reduced random seek time. Even the remaining partition benefited from the short stroke, with a 9.4% boost in performance.

However, you will note that it still falls far short of the VelociRaptor's 4 KB random read speed. In fact, the short-stroked Caviar Black was 21.4% slower than the VelociRaptor.

4 KB Random Write

When it came to the 4 KB random write test, the short-stroked Caviar Black drive was faster than the non-modded Caviar Black drive by 37%. The slower 1.4 TB partition benefited a little from the short stroke - with a 4.8% boost in performance. Overall, the short-stroked Caviar Black was about 29.8% slower than the VelociRaptor.

512 KB Random Read

The short-stroked WD Caviar Black drive improved its 4 KB random read performance by 30-32%, coming within 5% of the VelociRaptor's performance. Most of the advantage in this test is due to the use of the fastest tracks. The reduced random seek time has a smaller effect in this test due to the large read size. That's why the slower 1.4 TB partition only showed a small 5.2% boost in performance.

512 KB Random Write

The short-stroked Caviar Black drive didn't do quite as well in the 512 KB random write test, improving on the unmodded Caviar Black by just 28%. However, it managed to beat the VelociRaptor in this test by 2.5%. The slower 1.4 TB partition benefited very little from the short stroke - with an insignificant 1.7% boost in performance.

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