# Windows Experience Index Score for Hard Disk



## xiang (Nov 12, 2010)

Hi guys, what's your windows experience index score for your hard drive? My desktop has a 1T WD black, 6GB/s, 64 MB cache hard drive, but only gets 5.9. I searched for a while, and it seems only SSD can get higher score...


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## philaaay (Nov 12, 2010)

As far as I'm concerned, they say that the HDD is the biggest bottleneck in your system, mainly because it cannot process things as fast as RAM, CPU, etc. can.

SSDs will def. get higher scores, especially PCI-Express-based SSDs since they rule out the bottleneck that can occur from SATA... but I'm not too familiar with all the details and I still don't find it just to spend $200+ for an 80 GB SSD...


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## bomberboysk (Nov 13, 2010)

5.9 is the highest scores that you will find from mechanical hard drives.

With a 30Gb vertex i get a 7.1, but TBH the WEI scores don't mean much.


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## Laudanum (Nov 13, 2010)

Dumb me, I used a Sata 3 board but didnt think and bought a sata 2 drive.  Regardless, the sata 2 HDD still shows same as your's in the WEI.  It's a WD 1TB Caviar Blue (7200 rpm, 32mb cache).  So, guess it doesnt matter if the WEI has any merit.


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## xiang (Nov 13, 2010)

Laudanum said:


> Dumb me, I used a Sata 3 board but didnt think and bought a sata 2 drive.  Regardless, the sata 2 HDD still shows same as your's in the WEI.  It's a WD 1TB Caviar Blue (7200 rpm, 32mb cache).  So, guess it doesnt matter if the WEI has any merit.



It seems there is no much difference between SATA2 and SATA3 hard drives..


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## jgoff14 (Nov 13, 2010)

I had a 500gb WD 7200rpm 32mb that was also 5.9 put the SSD in and it jumped to 7.3. I gotta remember to change the sata port it is in. Crucial lists a significant change when using sata 3 vs sata 2. I just plugged it in and forgot about it till the other day when I was looking inside the case. I wonder if it will make a difference. I'm sure performance will they have a declared value for both sata 2 and 3 but I don't know if windows will pick up the change...


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## Laudanum (Nov 13, 2010)

xiang said:


> It seems there is no much difference between SATA2 and SATA3 hard drives..



Well, as far as the WEI score goes that would be true.  But like bomberboysk stated,  there probably isnt all that much merit to the WEI scores.  If 5.9 is the highest rating for a mechanical HDD then the 10000 RPM drives wouldnt score any higher, regardless of whether they are sata 2 or 3.  And the Raptor drives and similiar arent popular for no reason.  There is definitely a performance increase despite what the WEI may indicate.  

Same probably goes for Ram.  My 6 GB of basic Kingston DDR3 1333 scores a 7.2  Out of 7.9 thats pretty good for basic RAM.  Where does the expensive, faster, heat sink equipped RAM score relative to the basic RAM? ...

 Anyone running faster, more expensive RAM want to chime in with the WEI score?  I'd be curious to see how they rate in the WEI.


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## jgoff14 (Nov 13, 2010)

12 gb DDR3 @ 1333 7.7


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## Laudanum (Nov 13, 2010)

jgoff14 said:


> 12 gb DDR3 @ 1333 7.7



So maybe it goes by amount of Ram, not type.  Im getting another 2 GB stick, I'll see if it comes up a couple points.  But that sounds like how the WEI works.  A full 16GB would probably rate 7.9 regardless brand, speed, etc.


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## bomberboysk (Nov 13, 2010)

WEI scores for memory are not based upon amount. CAS latencies and speed also come into play for the memory scores.

SATA3 is more or less geared towards SSD's. No mechanical hard drive is capable of pushing more than SATA 3.0Gb/s offers, let alone Sata 6.0Gb/s.


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## Laudanum (Nov 14, 2010)

bomberboysk said:


> WEI scores for memory are not based upon amount. CAS latencies and speed also come into play for the memory scores.
> 
> SATA3 is more or less geared towards SSD's. No mechanical hard drive is capable of pushing more than SATA 3.0Gb/s offers, let alone Sata 6.0Gb/s.



So going from 6gb to 8 gb shouldnt raise the score then, right?


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## Drenlin (Nov 14, 2010)

^ Depends on how you have it set up. If it was asymmetrical before, and that balances things out and enables dual-channel, then it will definitely bring the score up.

however, if that sets things off-balance, and takes the system form dual-channel to single-channel, then it'll go down.


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## bomberboysk (Nov 14, 2010)

Drenlin said:


> ^ Depends on how you have it set up. If it was asymmetrical before, and that balances things out and enables dual-channel, then it will definitely bring the score up.
> 
> however, if that sets things off-balance, and takes the system form dual-channel to single-channel, then it'll go down.



Or triple channel to single channel, as happens in the case of many 6gb to 8gb "upgrades", since many users running 6Gb are on the 1366 platform.


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## Laudanum (Nov 16, 2010)

Drenlin said:


> ^ Depends on how you have it set up. If it was asymmetrical before, and that balances things out and enables dual-channel, then it will definitely bring the score up.
> 
> however, if that sets things off-balance, and takes the system form dual-channel to single-channel, then it'll go down.



I have 3 sticks now and If I understand it correctly, I believe that I have two modules running as dual channel and the 3rd runs as single channel.   So Ill be adding a 4th which will allow for 2 x dual channel.

Assuming I have the jist of it, I guess the WEI will go up a point or two when I get that 3rd module a mate


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## jgoff14 (Nov 16, 2010)

You should be in just single channel now until you get the 4th dimm


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## Laudanum (Nov 16, 2010)

jgoff14 said:


> You should be in just single channel now until you get the 4th dimm



I think it sees the 2 dimms in the one set of paired slots as dual channel now and the 1 dimm in the one slot of the other pair of slots as single channel, if I read the MB manual right.  So it will be two sets of dual channel when I add the 4th dimm.  Im pretty sure thats how the MB manual described it.  It's an ASUS board.


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## Kitsune (Nov 16, 2010)

My primary harddrive score is sitting at 5.4, it is a 40GB that came with the P4 when I bought it.

So running Dual channel memory is better than running single channel ram then?
Which for my new system the final upgrade I want is 16GB of ram.


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## Bodaggit23 (Nov 16, 2010)

Kitsune said:


> So running Dual channel memory is better than running single channel ram then?



Absolutely. 



Laudanum said:


> I have 3 sticks now and If I understand it correctly, I believe that I have two modules running as dual channel and the 3rd runs as single channel.



Incorrect, it doesn't work that way. Your memory is running in Single Channel. 

Dual Channel RAM is meant to use 2 or 4 sticks, and Triple Channel RAM is meant to use 3 or 6 sticks.

If you do not populate the slots in pairs (Dual) or a set of three (Triple),
ALL of your RAM will run in Single Channel.

Download and install CPU-Z and it will show you...
http://www.cpuid.com/


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## Laudanum (Nov 17, 2010)

Bodaggit23 said:


> Absolutely.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



So then triple channel would mean a MB with 6 memory slots, 2 pairs of 3 slots?


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## Bodaggit23 (Nov 17, 2010)

Laudanum said:


> So then triple channel would mean a MB with 6 memory slots, 2 pairs of 3 slots?



Almost all motherboards setup for Triple Channel RAM have 6 slots, yes.

Currently, only motherboards with the Intel X58 chipset have triple channel RAM. (Core i7 9XX series)

Some X58 boards have less or more slots, run in a slightly different configuration. I've seen Intel and Gigabyte brand X58 boards that have only 4 slots, but they still run in Triple Channel.


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## Laudanum (Nov 17, 2010)

Bodaggit23 said:


> Almost all motherboards setup for Triple Channel RAM have 6 slots, yes.
> 
> Currently, only motherboards with the Intel X58 chipset have triple channel RAM. (Core i7 9XX series)
> 
> Some X58 boards have less or more slots, run in a slightly different configuration. I've seen Intel and Gigabyte brand X58 boards that have only 4 slots, but they still run in Triple Channel.



Ok, thanks for helping me understand some of this stuff.  If I have the basics down ... the machine cannot run in single channel and dual channel at the same time.  So for most systems, it either runs in single or dual depending on the memory configuration.  But it cant run in both at the same time.  Right?
I have read that dual is faster but it is probably not noticeable for most applications.  Is that also right?   And finally ... Is it better to have a little more memory running single channel or a little less running dual?  For example, 4 gigs running dual or 6 gigs running single?  I asssume that, generally speaking, more memory running single channel usually would be an advantage over less memory running dual.   But what is actually better?


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## Bodaggit23 (Nov 17, 2010)

Memory will only run in single, dual, or triple. 
The memory controller will not pick and choose which sticks to run at which rate.

I would recommend running the board at optimum conditions. 
Meaning, if it's meant to run in Dual Channel, I would run it in Dual Channel.

Most people will never use 4GB of RAM anyway, so why anyone would run 6GB of RAM in Single Channel escapes me.

Unless you're running memory intensive tasks, you may not notice a difference between single channel mode or dual, or triple.


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## Laudanum (Nov 19, 2010)

In case anyone is interested, installing the 4th dimm kicked the WEI up to 7.5 from 7.2.   That's all 4 slots occupied, 8gb total, of Kingston value series RAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600).


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