QuickBench™

Disk benchmark utility which provides more than
70 different built-in disk performance measurements and apowerful, highly customizable self-directed test.

User’s Guide© 2000-2007 Intech Software Corporation

Document Revision: 4.0.1

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Table of Contents
1. Guide Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
About this Guide. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Conventions Used in this Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
User Registration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Technical Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

2. Using QuickBench . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
About QuickBench . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
About QuickBench Version 4.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Global Test Options: Asychronous I/O and Cache Settings . . . . . . 3
Per Test Option: Test Cycles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
The Standard Test Suite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Large & Extended Tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Custom Test. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Saving Test Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
QuickBench Benchmarking Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

1

Guide Introduction

About This Guide
The instructions and explanations in this guide assume that you understand how
to operate your Macintosh computer. You should, for example, know how tochoose, select, launch, and drag by using your mouse. In addition, you should also
understand how the desktop, windows, dialog boxes, buttons and file/folders workwithin the Macintosh environment. For more information about these items, pleaserefer to your Macintosh Userʼs Guide.

Conventions Used In This Guide
Note: This symbol calls your attention to important information about theadjacent text. A note will always appear in standard print.
Warning: This symbol calls your attention to procedures in the adjacent text
which can cause harm to you, your data or computer system. A warning will
always appear in bold print.

User Registration
Please take a moment to register your copy of the SpeedTools™ software on-line
via the Intech Software World Wide Web page at http://www.SpeedTools.com.
Technical Information
If you received this software with the purchase of a drive subsystem and you
require technical support, Intech as made special arrangements with your drive
manufacturer to support this software directly via their technical support
department. For customers who have purchased this software product as standalone, Intech provides technical information and other late-breaking information via
its web site at http://www.SpeedTools.com.

Chapter 1. Guide Introduction

Page 1

2

Using QuickBench

About QuickBenchThe QuickBench application is a simple yet very powerful disk drive performance evaluation
tool (a.k.a. Benchmarker) which has four main components: a "Standard" test suite whichmeasures relatively small random and sequential read and write speeds; a "Large" and"Extended" test suite which measure two larger test size sets, and, lastly, a "Custom"
test. The Custom Test allows you to design your own test according to your personalrequirements. QuickBench is extremely safe since all tests are performed by reading andwriting to temporary test files exclusively.
Note: QuickBench always presents byte sizes in powers of two. For example, aKilobyte is considered to be 1024 (2^10) Bytes, NOT 1000 (10^3) Bytes. A Megabyte
is considered to be 1024 Kilobytes, NOT 1000 Kilobytes, etc. Intech realizes that
this is no longer the preferred nomenclature according to the U.S. National Instituteof Standards and Technology. However, our rational to use this labeling system issimple: as long as Apple, Inc. continues to use this nomenclature, so will Intech.
Intech believes this strategy is the least confusing to our customers.

Important Changes to QuickBench Version 4 - Please Read!
QuickBench version 4.0, released March, 2007, is the first revision since the very first version(1.0 for classic MacOS released April, 2000) to actually change existing benchmarking
algorithms. All previous updates prior to 4.0 simply added new testing functions or options.
As a result, QuickBench 4 results are not directly comparable to any previous version. By
contrast, the results from all previous versions are directly comparable to one another, evenbetween MacOS classic (OS 9.2.2 and earlier) and MacOS X versions of QuickBench.
Intech decided with version 4 to modify the original testing routines for one major reason:
improve the test measurement consistency. We've improved both consistency of results
between test sizes within an individual test, as well as consistency between test sizes
from the different tests. We believe these changes were mandated by the amazing
improvements in the sizes and sophistication of hard disk drive caches along with thecorresponding improvements in bus interface speeds during the 7 years which haveelapsed since the testing algorithms for QuickBench 1.0 were first developed.
One of the more important consequences of these changes is a corresponding increasein the test file sizes and time required for testing. The Standard test now requires 153 MB
of free space (up from 20 MB). The Large test now requires 198 MB and the Extended
requires 594 MB of free space, up from 20 MB and 200 MB, respectively.
Chapter 2. Using QuickBench

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Additionally, Intech made two more important changes separate and apart from newfeatures: the 1K and 2K transfer sizes have been dropped from the Standard test andthe Custom Test now performs streaming reads and writes only. We felt these changes
reflect a more "real world" perspective and help keep QuickBench's interface as simple aspossible.

Global Test Options: Asynchronous I/O and Cache Settings

Figure 1. The Global Test Options
In the group box at the top of the main window containing the test volume information andthe "Start" and "Cancel" buttons are two new check boxes: "Asynchronous I/O" and "Allow
Cache Effects."
Asynchronous I/O - QuickBench uses standard file system calls to perform read and write
speed measurements. Broadly speaking, there are two different modes in which theseroutines can be executed: synchronously and asynchronously. It is beyond the scope of thisguide to explain the details of these concepts, but it is worth noting that some improvementin write speeds can sometimes be achieved by transferring data asynchronously, especiallyon faster devices.
Allow Cache Effects - Running a test with this box checked will result in a very short pause(delineated in milliseconds) between each transfer size being tested. A millisecond is a
thousandth of a second.
Note that in the Standard Tests, these pauses will occur after every 1 MB of data transferred.
Also, this setting is ignored during random testing.
Setting Read and Write Delay Values - When the "Allow Cache Effects" feature is enabled,these short pauses can have a dramatic, positive effect on measured drive speeds.
Furthermore, optimizing these pause values can significantly improve measured peak
performance. It is recommended to begin changing these values using 5 millisecond
increments.
Read Ahead Delay - This setting controls how much time is provided to the drive between
read requests allow the drive to anticipate the next read request and pre-fill its cache during

Chapter 2. Using QuickBench

Page 3the pause. If the drive actually performs read ahead caching, some or all of the data will
be ready to transfer directly from the cache when the next read request actually occurs,significantly improving performance.
Write Cache Delay - This setting controls how much time is provided to the drive between
write requests. This allows the drive to commit data it may have stored in its write cache to
the physical storage medium. This, in turn, frees the drive's write cache to be fully available
for the next actual write request.
Only values between 1 and 1000 milliseconds are allowed for the read and write delays.

Per Test Option: Test Cycles
Test Cycles - A "Test Cycles" setting is available in every test mode. A new test cycle repeats
the exact same test for as many cycles as are specified and calculates the simple mean
average for each result. After 5 cycles, the low score for each transfer size is discarded. This
helps compensate for, but does not fully prevent, occasional random system activity frominterfering with the testing. See "Testing Tips" at the end of this document for a discussion
on this and other issues affecting benchmark testing.
Since there is often a great degree of variance in speeds for any given single read or write, theaddition of multiple test cycles can greatly assist in accurately and repeatability quantifying
a drive's performance at a given task. This, in turn, sheds a much more consistent light on
the comparison of the relative merits of one drive vs. another.
Test cycles are averaged by QuickBench on-the-fly, so each successive test cycle provides
an increasingly accurate and repeatable picture of a drive's capabilities. In general, toincrease the accuracy and repeatability of the test results choose a larger number of test
cycles. But, of course, the more cycles chosen, the longer the test will take to complete.

Chapter 2. Using QuickBench

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The Standard Test Suite

Figure 1. The QuickBench Standard Test (Graphical View)
The Standard Test suite measures nine different data transfer sizes under four different
scenarios for up to 100 cycles: Sequential Reads, Sequential Writes, Random Reads andRandom Writes. The test results reflect the following influences: the drive's internal media
transfer rate, seek time and cache efficiency, the efficiency of the various drivers controllingthe drive and, lastly, the speed of the bus interface connecting your drive to your Macintosh.
QuickBench makes every attempt to limit the influence of the MacOS file system cachebecause, in our view, the MacOS's cache makes it too difficult to determine the drive’s true
performance.
The Standard Test suite can be run while displaying the results in either a graphicalrepresentation or a sortable numeric representation (which shows measured speeds withmuch greater precision). Note that the graphical and numeric views perform exactly thesame tests, but just display the results differently. In graphical mode, one test option, "Test
Cycles," and one view option, "Line vs. Bar" chart, are available. In numeric mode, only
the "Test Cycles" option applies. The "Test Cycles" option applies to both the graphical andnumeric modes.
Chapter 2. Using QuickBench

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Large & Extended Tests

Figure 2. The QuickBench Extended Test (Graphical View)
The Large & Extended Tests are provided to measure the drive's ability to sustain large
amounts of data transferred to and from your Macintosh. The Large test measures transfer
sizes from 2 through 10 MB in size. The Extended test measures 20 through 100 MB
transfers. Note that, as opposed to the Standard Tests, both the Large and Extended tests
are not a series of sequential reads and writes averaged together. Each transfer size test
consists of only a single read or write of the test transfer size. However, each transfer size
is tested sequentially relative to the previous transfer size so that the same area of the disk
is not accessed more than once within a single read or write test set. This helps prevent
drives with very large caches from receiving an unfair advantage.

Chapter 2. Using QuickBench

Page 6Custom Test

Figure 3. Custom Test
The Custom Test section of QuickBench provides a nearly unlimited range of sequential
read/write tests which can be performed. There are three test parameters which must be
chosen and one test option available. The three test parameters are Transfer Size, Transfer
Count, and Test Cycles.
Transfer Size
The transfer size is the amount of data to be read from and written to the drive for eachrequest. The popup menu allows the size you type in to be delimited as Kilobytes or
Megabytes. Valid values range from one Kilobyte to 1024 Megabytes and is further limitedby the amount of available physical RAM installed on your computer. For example, if you
have 512 MB of RAM in your computer you will not be able to use a Transfer Size above
512 MB. In fact, the amount of actual memory available for data transfers will likely be farless than 512 MB.

Chapter 2. Using QuickBench

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Transfer CountThe transfer count is the number of sequential reads or writes which will be performed withthe chosen transfer size for each test cycle.
Note: When using the Custom Test, you will need to be mindful of the amount of
free space available on the test volume. The size of the test file which needs to becreated is equal to the Transfer Size multiplied by the Transfer Count. For example,
a Transfer Size of 10 Megabytes and a Transfer Count of 100 will require 1000
Megabytes of free space on the test volume.
Test Cycles
Test cycles are explained on Page 2 of this guide, but notice in the Custom Test that test
cycles, like the other two parameters, are to be typed in instead of selecting a pre-definedvalue from a menu. Valid values for the number of cycles to be performed are 1 to 1,000,000(one million).
Test Option: "Allocate Contiguous Space Only for Test File"A file is considered contiguous when all of the blocks allocated for the file are arranged on
the volume in a single location. A file is considered fragmented when it is arranged in two
or more separate locations on the volume. Checking the "Allocate Contiguous Space Only
for Test File" box will force QuickBench to only allocate a contiguous test file. If there is notenough contiguous free space on the test volume, the test will NOT be performed. Notethat if you do not check this box, QuickBench will still try to allocate a contiguous test file,
but failing that allocation, QuickBench will attempt a new allocation allowing the test file tooccupy multiple fragments.

Saving Test Results
Test results can be saved into either a word processor friendly file or a spreadsheet friendly
file. The spreadsheet friendly file is specifically designed to facilitate the creation of quick
and easy graphical charts. To save any and all test results into a file, go to the File menu
and select one of the two data format options. (If you are running MacOS 10.3 or higher, youalso will be able to toggle file output formats from the Save File window.)
The word processor friendly file is formatted with spaces and designed to be viewed by
any word processing application. For best viewing, choose a monospaced font, such as
Monaco. The spreadsheet friendly file is formatted with tabs between the data which should
be assigned to columns and carriage returns for data to be displayed in rows.

Chapter 2. Using QuickBench

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QuickBench Benchmarking Tips
1) Quit all other non-essential programs. Due to the way MacOS X splits processor timeevenly among all running applications and other processes, it is strongly recommended thatyou close all unnecessary applications when using QuickBench. Competition for processor
time can significantly affect test results, especially during heavy CPU usage. Additionally,
many applications and other processes generate disk access which also can adversely
affect reliability of the QuickBench tests.
2) Fresh Format - If possible, you should re-format a volume prior to being tested. Because
QuickBench testing is file-based, other files on the test volume can effect the accuracy of
QuickBench with respect to other otherwise identical test configurations. Formatting as
HFS Extended without journaling is highly recommended since this is the native file system
of MacOS X, and journaling generates additional, unaccounted for disk access during
testing.
3) Smoother is better - Test with at least 5 cycles, if possible, especially in the Standard
Tests and the Large Tests. If your test results look similar to a saw blade (i.e. up, then down,then up again etc.), try increasing the cycle count until the pattern flattens out. If you are
testing with cache effects enabled, you may need to adjust the delay time up or down tosmooth out the results.
4) Re-test if necessary - sometimes an unrelated process will generate disk access on thedisk you are testing right in the middle of a QuickBench test set. This will produce a clear
anomalous result which shows up as an unexplained drop in performance at some arbitrary
point in the test. If this happens, please ignore it and retest. If it happens repeatedly, you may
need to track down which process is generating the I/O and terminate it before testing.
5) Do not put QuickBench into the background during testing - strictly speaking, thisshould have no effect on test results. But we assume that if you put QuickBench into thebackground, you did so in order to do something else. It is this "something else" action which
may adversely affect QuickBench's results.
6) Maximum accuracy - MacOS X regularly reads and writes data to the boot volume atfairly random intervals. When accesses occur during a QuickBench test set, it may adversely
affect the test results. This is true even if you are testing a different volume which belongs
to the same drive as the boot volume. For optimum results, do not test a drive which sharesa data bus (channel) with the boot drive (such as a master/slave ATA pair) since only one
drive will be able to send/receive data over the bus at one time which could then induce abottleneck.

System Requirements
MacOS X 10.2 or later
Read and Write permission to the root directory of the test volume.
Chapter 2. Using QuickBench

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