File systems performance test on Linux

In this project, I wanted to measure the performance of different file systems on Linux.

Test results and charts are available in results_ssd and results_hdd.

Tested file systems

• NTFS
• FAT32
• EXFAT
• EXT4
• EXT3
• EXT2
• BTRFS
• HFS+
• XFS
• JFS
• ReiserFS

Test platform

• Lenovo Legion 5 15ARH05H
• My personal home server

Drives

Test partition size: 25 GB

• Laptop
  • SSD NVMe Toshiba KBG40ZNT512G 0.5 TB
  • SSD NVMe Kingston A2000 0,5 TB
• Server
  • SSD SATA Patriot Burst 120 GB
  • WD (Red) WDC WD10EFRX-68F 1 TB

The SSD was tested on a laptop and the HDD on a server.

Operating system

• Laptop
  • Manjaro Linux x86_64
  • Kernel 6.6.8-2-MANJARO
• Server
  • Ubuntu 22.04.3 LTS x86_64
  • Kernel 5.15.0-91-generic

Specs

• Laptop
  • CPU AMD Ryzen 7 4800H 2.9 GHz
  • GPU NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Mobile
  • GPU AMD ATI Radeon RX Vega 6
  • RAM Kingston FURY DDR4 2 X 16 GB 3200 MHz CL20
• Server
  • CPU AMD Ryzen 5 2600X 3.6 GHz
  • GPU NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050
  • RAM HyperX DDR4 8 GB 2666 MHz CL16

Testing methods

• Read speed using hdparm (MB/s)
• Data write time using time and cp (seconds)
  • 1 file 3.8 GB
  • 100 files, each 10 MB
  • 30000 files, each 8 KB
• Compression time for created files using zip command (seconds)
• Decompression time for created archives using unzip command (seconds)

For testing the Kingston A2000 SSD, data is copied to it from the Toshiba SSD, formated with the EXT4 file system.

For testing the WD Red HDD, data is copied to it from the Patriot Burst SSD, formated with the EXT4 file system.

In summary, the Toshiba and Patriot Burst SSD plays a supporting role and doesn't directly participate in the tests.

For the server and laptop I used the same test data, I didn't generate it again!

Scripts

I wrote two scripts. One to generate test data and one to test all the file systems one by one.

• scripts/create_test_data.sh
• scripts/test_file_systems.sh

Remember to edit the contents of the variables before running the scripts! If you don't, you may lose important data on your disk!

I am not responsible for the operation of the scripts on your computer!

Tools used

• hdparm
• cp
• time
• dd
• zip
• unzip
• Microsoft Excel

LICENSE

The content of this project itself is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license, and the source code of bash scripts is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0.