# What hdparm settings for sata2 drives? SOLVED

## andrewwalker27

I'm using Gentoo on a nforce4 chipset and my hard disk is a SAMSUNG SP2504C which I believe is a sata2 drive. I've previously on had experience with ata drives and hdparm so I'm not sure how  to get the best out of it.

I'm assuming this is a reasonable level of performance?

athlon64 fred # hdparm -tT /dev/sda

/dev/sda:

 Timing cached reads:   3720 MB in  2.00 seconds = 1860.51 MB/sec

 Timing buffered disk reads:  196 MB in  3.01 seconds =  65.20 MB/sec

athlon64 fred #    

Here's some info about the drive. 

athlon64 fred # hdparm -iI /dev/sda

/dev/sda:

 HDIO_GET_IDENTITY failed: Inappropriate ioctl for device

ATA device, with non-removable media

        Model Number:       SAMSUNG SP2504C

        Serial Number:      S09QJ1UYC23510

        Firmware Revision:  VT100-33

Standards:

        Supported: 7 6 5 4

        Likely used: 7

Configuration:

        Logical         max     current

        cylinders       16383   16383

        heads           16      16

        sectors/track   63      63

        --

        CHS current addressable sectors:   16514064

        LBA    user addressable sectors:  268435455

        LBA48  user addressable sectors:  488397168

        device size with M = 1024*1024:      238475 MBytes

        device size with M = 1000*1000:      250059 MBytes (250 GB)

Capabilities:

        LBA, IORDY(can be disabled)

        Queue depth: 32

        Standby timer values: spec'd by Standard, no device specific minimum

        R/W multiple sector transfer: Max = 16  Current = 16

        Recommended acoustic management value: 254, current value: 0

        DMA: mdma0 mdma1 mdma2 udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 udma5 *udma6 udma7

             Cycle time: min=120ns recommended=120ns

        PIO: pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4

             Cycle time: no flow control=120ns  IORDY flow control=120ns

Commands/features:

        Enabled Supported:

           *    NOP cmd

           *    READ BUFFER cmd

           *    WRITE BUFFER cmd

           *    Host Protected Area feature set

           *    Look-ahead

           *    Write cache

           *    Power Management feature set

                Security Mode feature set

           *    SMART feature set

           *    FLUSH CACHE EXT command

           *    Mandatory FLUSH CACHE command

           *    Device Configuration Overlay feature set

           *    48-bit Address feature set

                Automatic Acoustic Management feature set

                SET MAX security extension

           *    DOWNLOAD MICROCODE cmd

           *    General Purpose Logging feature set

           *    SMART self-test

           *    SMART error logging

Security:

        Master password revision code = 65534

                supported

        not     enabled

        not     locked

                frozen

        not     expired: security count

                supported: enhanced erase

        120min for SECURITY ERASE UNIT. 120min for ENHANCED SECURITY ERASE UNIT.

Checksum: correct

athlon64 fred #

Many thanks for any help you can give me.Last edited by andrewwalker27 on Fri Jun 23, 2006 7:19 pm; edited 1 time in total

----------

## Keruskerfuerst

You don´t need hdparm for SATA drives.

DMA is always on for SATA (=serial SCSI).

----------

## andrewwalker27

Thanks for the info, are there any performance tweaks at all for sata?

----------

## Strowi

hi,

none that i know of, but maybe you want to read this thread: http://freshmeat.net/projects/hdparm/

----------

## nixnut

Moved from Installing Gentoo to Kernel & Hardware.

----------

## linuxtuxhellsinki

 *Keruskerfuerst wrote:*   

> You don´t need hdparm for SATA drives.
> 
> DMA is always on for SATA (=serial SCSI).

 

You meant SATA (=serial ATA)   :Question:     Cause SAS (=serial attached SCSI)   :Rolling Eyes: 

----------

## andrewwalker27

Thanks for the response, looks like I'll just have to have a bit of patience!

----------

