Ubuntu Linux - SATA 3.0 SSD - AHCI vs. IDE
Benchmarking an OCZ Serial ATA 3.0 (SATA3) Solid-State Drive (SSD) on Ubuntu 12.10 development snapshot with the Linux 3.5 kernel when comparing the AHCI and IDE modes for the SATA drive as controlled from the BIOS/UEFI. Benchmarking by Michael Larabel for a future article on Phoronix.com.


IDE Mode: 

	Processor: Intel Core i7-3770K @ 3.50GHz (8 Cores), Motherboard: ECS Z77H2-A2X v1.0, Chipset: Intel Xeon E3-1200 v2/3rd, Memory: 8192MB, Disk: 240GB OCZ VERTEX3, Graphics: AMD Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB, Audio: Realtek ALC892, Monitor: DELL P2210H, Network: Realtek RTL8111/8168B + Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6205

	OS: Ubuntu 12.10, Kernel: 3.5.0-030500-generic (x86_64), Desktop: Unity 2D 6.0.0, Display Server: X Server 1.12.1.902 (1.12.2 RC 2), Display Driver: radeon 6.14.4, OpenGL: 2.1 Mesa 8.1-devel (git-8592933) Gallium 0.4, Compiler: GCC 4.7 + LLVM 3.0, File-System: ext4, Screen Resolution: 1920x1080

AHCI Mode: 

	Processor: Intel Core i7-3770K @ 3.50GHz (8 Cores), Motherboard: ECS Z77H2-A2X v1.0, Chipset: Intel Xeon E3-1200 v2/3rd, Memory: 8192MB, Disk: 240GB OCZ VERTEX3, Graphics: AMD Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB, Audio: Realtek ALC892, Monitor: DELL P2210H, Network: Realtek RTL8111/8168B + Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6205

	OS: Ubuntu 12.10, Kernel: 3.5.0-030500-generic (x86_64), Desktop: Unity 2D 6.0.0, Display Server: X Server 1.12.1.902 (1.12.2 RC 2), Display Driver: radeon 6.14.4, OpenGL: 2.1 Mesa 8.1-devel (git-8592933) Gallium 0.4, Compiler: GCC 4.7 + LLVM 3.0, File-System: ext4, Screen Resolution: 1920x1080


Flexible IO Tester 1.57
Test: Intel IOMeter File Server Access Pattern
Seconds (Run Time) < Lower Is Better
IDE Mode .. 325.44 |===========================================================
AHCI Mode . 57.94  |===========


FS-Mark 3.3
Test: 1000 Files, 1MB Size
Files/s > Higher Is Better
IDE Mode .. 158.57 |=======================================================
AHCI Mode . 169.50 |===========================================================


FS-Mark 3.3
Test: 5000 Files, 1MB Size, 4 Threads
Files/s > Higher Is Better
IDE Mode .. 217.17 |=======================================================
AHCI Mode . 230.93 |===========================================================


FS-Mark 3.3
Test: 4000 Files, 32 Sub Dirs, 1MB Size
Files/s > Higher Is Better
IDE Mode .. 156.50 |======================================================
AHCI Mode . 171.00 |===========================================================


FS-Mark 3.3
Test: 1000 Files, 1MB Size, No Sync/FSync
Files/s > Higher Is Better
IDE Mode .. 547.48 |=======================================================
AHCI Mode . 583.68 |===========================================================


BlogBench 1.0
Test: Read
Final Score > Higher Is Better
IDE Mode .. 1326449 |==========================================================
AHCI Mode . 865810  |======================================


Dbench 4.0
Client Count: 1
MB/s > Higher Is Better
IDE Mode .. 266.16 |=======================================================
AHCI Mode . 284.30 |===========================================================


IOzone 3.405
Record Size: 1MB - File Size: 8GB - Disk Test: Read Performance
MB/s > Higher Is Better
IDE Mode .. 215.10 |===================================================
AHCI Mode . 247.19 |===========================================================


IOzone 3.405
Record Size: 1MB - File Size: 8GB - Disk Test: Write Performance
MB/s > Higher Is Better
IDE Mode .. 234.80 |=======================================================
AHCI Mode . 253.29 |===========================================================


IOzone 3.405
Record Size: 64Kb - File Size: 8GB - Disk Test: Read Performance
MB/s > Higher Is Better
IDE Mode .. 213.52 |===================================================
AHCI Mode . 247.39 |===========================================================


IOzone 3.405
Record Size: 64Kb - File Size: 8GB - Disk Test: Write Performance
MB/s > Higher Is Better
IDE Mode .. 234.28 |=======================================================
AHCI Mode . 253.36 |===========================================================


Threaded I/O Tester 0.3.3
Test: Random Write - Size Per Thread: 64MB - Thread Count: 4
MB/s > Higher Is Better
IDE Mode .. 45.71  |==============
AHCI Mode . 194.42 |===========================================================


Threaded I/O Tester 0.3.3
Test: Random Write - Size Per Thread: 64MB - Thread Count: 8
MB/s > Higher Is Better
IDE Mode .. 46.40  |===============
AHCI Mode . 179.68 |===========================================================


Compile Bench 0.6
Test: Compile
MB/s > Higher Is Better
IDE Mode .. 305.73 |======================================================
AHCI Mode . 333.96 |===========================================================


Compile Bench 0.6
Test: Initial Create
MB/s > Higher Is Better
IDE Mode .. 235.75 |========================================================
AHCI Mode . 250.58 |===========================================================


Compile Bench 0.6
Test: Read Compiled Tree
MB/s > Higher Is Better
IDE Mode .. 962.93 |=========================================================
AHCI Mode . 988.07 |===========================================================


Unpacking The Linux Kernel
linux-2.6.32.tar.bz2
Seconds < Lower Is Better
IDE Mode .. 7.89 |=============================================================
AHCI Mode . 7.89 |=============================================================


PostgreSQL pgbench 8.4.11
TPC-B Transactions Per Second
TPS > Higher Is Better
IDE Mode .. 2858.45 |=====================================================
AHCI Mode . 3110.55 |==========================================================