Anvil's Storage Utilities

[2f_tfe]

some other visual suggestions :

- IOPS results and scores with rounded values
- MB/s results with only 1 decimal digit
- bigger total score's label (best viewable with thumbnail)
- bigger drive's name (on top)

i think you can even change the labels of partial scores (read and write),
improve the contrast of all text (i have a little background with
web accessibility) and use different colors for other results (acc.time,
MB written, ..)

Example of modified screenshot (big):



Small original screenshot :



Small modified screenshot :
(drive's name and score are viewable)




my little bench with Crucial m4 64GB (2x RAID-0 , stripe 4K, Intel Z68 SATA 6G)

[Anvil]

Luke

I'll have a look at them, some of the suggestions might end up in the "Free Edition" and some might end up as settings.

[2f_tfe]

ok, sorry if i talked too much

one question about random IOPS, why did you decide to test only at low/mid queue depth ?

i know that QD=4 is a typical desktop scenario, but there are a lot of SSD
(or RAID configurations) that require a higher queue depth to obtain the
best performance

[Christopher]

Luke, you can test random IOPS (read/write/mixed) at different transfer sizes (4K,8K,16K etc.) at any queue depth you want. Under Benchmarks just select Threaded IO read/write/mixed. You can select the block size and queue depth with the drop down box and the slider, respectively.

[2f_tfe]

yes, i did a lot of benchmark with your application (previous graphs with V2 60GB
and next one with m4, i will post them if needed)

my question is about the standard SSD benchmark, i think the read/write
scores are calculated with the "weighted sum" of the single tests
(the total score is the simple sum of read/write scores)

during the test of my rig , i noticed that RAID needs a high queue depth
to obtain the best performance, i think it's the same for most of the
enthusiast users with their high-end SSD or RAID configuration
(such as the M3P in this thread)

this is not a critique but rather a question (or curiosity)

[jcool]

Very nice Utility
4x Plextor M3 128GB @ Areca 1882i looks like this:

4xM3_128K_Anvil.jpg

[Nizzen]

jcool : Retest with bigger testfile. Areca is the cache king :p

[DooRules]

Two 128 gb Plextor m3p's with Windows 8

[Anvil]

I'm working on a quick update, most likely tomorrow, just to fix detection of Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012.

Windows Server 2012

VMware, VMware Virtual S SCSI Disk Device_119GB_1GB-20120602-1221.png

Top right display of the drive is experimental...

Windows 8

VMware, VMware Virtual S SCSI Disk Device_119GB_1GB-20120602-1233.png

VMware, VMware Virtual S SCSI Disk Device_119GB_1GB-20120602-1239.png
(minor tweaks to the gradient filling, saves a few KB)

[AMD_Freak]

Two 128 gb Plextor m3p's with Windows 8

how much better in W8 is it from W7

[DooRules]

Not at all as far as I can see. W8 just doesn't bring nearly enough to the table imho. Not for all the grief.

[2f_tfe]

@Anvil, i like the new gradient filling

i don't know how ASU draws each element (text, label, filling, etc..)
and i'm wondering if there's a way to bypass any color scheme , such as
CDM does (IMHO is the right way), from left to right the screenshot
with Aero and CDN's default theme, Aero with blue theme, and W7 high contrast:




AS-SSD it's not optimized and the viewing is poor, but it's an old application
(i don't blame it) from left to right the screenshot with Aero and with high contrast theme :



thank you
luke

[Ao1]

Anvil, I had an unintended reboot, so ASU (Endurance) had to be restarted. If I recall correctly there is a way to cover the write history, but I can't remember how to go about it.

[B.A.T]

Dobbel click on the GiB written box and then restart the program.

[Ao1]

Thanks B.A.T. Tried it but it did not work. I'm using RC1 if that makes a difference.

[B.A.T]

When you dobbel click on the GiB written box a new dialogbox should appear that says you have to restart the program to get the fixed log.
Haven't had any problem so far with this. Maybe Anvil can sheed some light upon this.

[Ao1]

I managed to get the dialog box up, but it did not reset on restart. Maybe its because its a USB (?) Its not the end of the world as I caught it straight after it happened and the write speed has been stable so its easy calculate.

[Anvil]

Make sure that "Keep running totals" is checked in settings, it should work on any storage device

[Ao1]

Make sure that "Keep running totals" is checked in settings, it should work on any storage device

Thanks Anvil, that explains it. Neat little feature. Maybe better set as default for the mishap phone like me? (I had disabled updates and the wireless so there must have been some updates pending that caused a reboot. I also had to reset the power settings for the USB).

[Anvil]

RC2 is now available.

Download link

Fixes

- It now detects OS's using WMI. (it wasn't handling new OS's properly)
- Drive-name is now being displayed top right.
- Changes to colors, more theme friendly.

The color/theme changes might still need adjustments so feedback is welcome!

[2f_tfe]

another step forward

IMHO the SSD benchmark's layout looks better now, i think you could do
the same with the threaded I/O benchmark, i also noticed that in Mixed I/O
window the "screenshot button" is missing

one last thing about international settings and the numbers representation,
in some countries the decimal point and thousands mark are inverted ,
for example in Italy we have "4.574,77" rather than "4,574.77" , in ASU i have
two point "4.574.77" (wrong)

i also noticed that in your screenshots there's a blank space without any separation mark
for the thousands , i think "4 574.77" could looks better for all

great job as usual

bye
luke

[DooRules]

thanks again Anvil

[Anvil]

Thanks!

Main focus now is getting ready for release. (finishing new functionality)

There is support for special Themes but it wont make it until the new functionality is ready.

[DooRules]

I forgot to setup the array partition before install of W7 so after install I got rid of the 100 mb partition through diskpart. I now have a 32 k offset, RC2 shows it as a bad alignment, as ssd says it's good. The scores tell me it is good, doesn't mean much just thought I would make you aware of it.

[Anvil]

I check for alignment of the "Erase Block", having the partition "page aligned" is not sufficient as data is not written on a page basis but as a block.
(current page sizes are 4KB or 8KB)

Typical Erase block sizes are 512KB and 1MB, to be on the safe side you should go for something divisible by 1MB or 2MB. (will work on all current SSDs)