Drive Performance in my HP ProLiant Gen8 MicroServer

By: John Stutsman

Not long ago I installed Windows Server Technical Preview (“WSTP” or “Server10”) on my HP ProLiant Gen8 MicroServer (i.e. Machine) and set it up so that I could do some testing of Hyper-V machines. As I was setting my Gen8 up I measured the performance of my logical drives using HDTune, ATTO, and CrystalDiskMark (“CDM”).

I decided that for my current testing of machines in Hyper-V on my Gen8 (Machine) I would load it under Windows Server 2012 R2 (S2012R2) so I wiped WSTP and loaded S2012R2 (see References) for the third or fourth time using Intelligent Provisioning (“IP”) version 1.60.217 (see Current As-Built configuration below). As I again measured the performance of my logical drives, under a slightly different configuration from previous OS installs, I thought this might be a great opportunity to pull together the performance measurements I took previously on my Gen8 using HDTune, ATTO, and CDM under: 1) Window Server 2012 R2 Essentials, 2) Windows 8.1 Pro, 3) Windows Server Technical Preview, and 4) Windows Server 2012 R2.

1) Window Server 2012 R2 Essentials (see References)

2) Windows 8.1 Pro (see References)

3) Windows Server Technical Preview (see References)

4) Windows Server 2012 R2 (see current As-Built below)

Current As-Built: Machine

HP ProLiant Gen8 MicroServer w/Xeon E3-1265L-V2
16GB RAM – ECC KVR1333D3E9SK2/16G
OS Drive C: B120i Logical Drive made from 2 Corsair GT 240GB SSD’s in RAID0 on SDM. Using Forward SFF-8087 Cable for B120i: StarTech Model SAS8087S450 19” (50cm) Serial Attached SCSI SAS Cable – SFF-8087 to 4x Latching SATA
OS: Windows Server 2012 R2
iLO Advanced License
Data Drive D: P222/512 FBWC – Logical Drive made from 4 Samsung 840 Pro 256GB SSD’s in RAID0 in Main 4 Drive Bay (drives are mounted in Icy Dock EZConvertor’s)
Cooling the P222: EverCOOL FAN-EC3007M12CA; Noctua A-Series NF-A4x10 40mm; Delta Electronics BFB0512LD
EnzoTech BMR-C1 to Cool Broadcom Chip (Location 13-LOM)
Data Drive E: USB 3.0 – USB 3.0 Seagate External case containing ST3000DM001