HDTach 3.0.4.0
HD Tach will test the sequential read, random access and interface burst speeds of your attached storage device (hard drive, flash drive, removable drive, etc). All drive technologies such as SCSI, IDE/ATA, 1394, USB, SATA and RAID are supported. Test results from HD Tach can be used to confirm manufacturer specs, analyze your system for proper performance, and compare your performance with others. HD Tach is very easy to use, quick, and presents data in easy to read graphs, including the ability to compare two storage devices on screen at the same time for easy analysis.
While we’ve seen higher with PCIe solutions, HDTach’s burst throughput limit with SATA appears to be about ~360 MB/sec.
The higher access time here, when armed with the knowledge of how HDTune issues read commands (at QD=1), further backs the drop in reported read speed seen above. At this point we’re including HDTach results for informational purposes only, and they should not be used as an absolute indicator of performance by any means.