Hi,

I have just installed Debian testing on my new desktop and I am not very happy with performance - when I perform a disk intensive operation, e.g. upgrade packages in the system, everything seems to freeze, e.g. changing tabs in Iceweasel takes 3 seconds. I run the Debian on my 3 year old Thinkpad X60 ultra-portable, and I don't have these issues. (every single parameter of the laptop is much worse than the desktop).

I am using the default packaged kernel and scripts.

I run

hdparm -t /dev/sda1

And I got around 96GB/s, which is expected. What else can I try to make it work better?

EDIT:

grzes:/home/ga# hdparm -i /dev/sda

/dev/sda:

 Model=WDC WD15EARS-00Z5B1, FwRev=80.00A80, SerialNo=WD-WMAVU1362357
 Config={ HardSect NotMFM HdSw>15uSec SpinMotCtl Fixed DTR>5Mbs FmtGapReq }
 RawCHS=16383/16/63, TrkSize=0, SectSize=0, ECCbytes=50
 BuffType=unknown, BuffSize=unknown, MaxMultSect=16, MultSect=16
 CurCHS=16383/16/63, CurSects=16514064, LBA=yes, LBAsects=2930277168
 IORDY=on/off, tPIO={min:120,w/IORDY:120}, tDMA={min:120,rec:120}
 PIO modes:  pio0 pio3 pio4
 DMA modes:  mdma0 mdma1 mdma2
 UDMA modes: udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 udma5 *udma6
 AdvancedPM=no WriteCache=enabled
 Drive conforms to: Unspecified:  ATA/ATAPI-1,2,3,4,5,6,7

 * signifies the current active mode

EDIT2: Even my wife said "on this new computer I can't do anything when I copy the photos from the camera and its much worse than on the old one". So it must be serious.

EDIT3: Updated to 2.6.32, but still no improvement

EDIT4: I forgot to mention that the new disk is ext4, the old was ext3.

EDIT5: Still not solved. I have a P43 ASUS P5QL-E board. Lines from dmesg that seem relevant:

[    0.370850] Block layer SCSI generic (bsg) driver version 0.4 loaded (major 253)                              
[    0.370852] io scheduler noop registered                                                                      
[    0.370853] io scheduler anticipatory registered                                                              
[    0.370854] io scheduler deadline registered                                                                  
[    0.370876] io scheduler cfq registered (default)
...
[    0.908233] ata_piix 0000:00:1f.2: version 2.13                                                               
[    0.908243] ata_piix 0000:00:1f.2: PCI INT B -> GSI 19 (level, low) -> IRQ 19                                 
[    0.908246] ata_piix 0000:00:1f.2: MAP [ P0 P2 P1 P3 ]                                                        
[    0.908275] ata_piix 0000:00:1f.2: setting latency timer to 64                                                
[    0.908316] scsi0 : ata_piix                                                                                  
[    0.908374] scsi1 : ata_piix                                                                                  
[    0.909180] ata1: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xa000 ctl 0x9c00 bmdma 0x9480 irq 19                                 
[    0.909183] ata2: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0x9880 ctl 0x9800 bmdma 0x9488 irq 19                                 
[    0.909199] ata_piix 0000:00:1f.5: PCI INT B -> GSI 19 (level, low) -> IRQ 19                                 
[    0.909202] ata_piix 0000:00:1f.5: MAP [ P0 -- P1 -- ]                                                        
[    0.909228] ata_piix 0000:00:1f.5: setting latency timer to 64                                                
[    0.909279] scsi2 : ata_piix                                                                                  
[    0.909326] scsi3 : ata_piix                                                                                  
[    0.910021] ata3: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xb000 ctl 0xac00 bmdma 0xa480 irq 19                                 
[    0.910024] ata4: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xa880 ctl 0xa800 bmdma 0xa488 irq 19                                 
[    0.915575] FDC 0 is a post-1991 82077 
...
[    1.716062] ata1.00: SATA link up 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 SControl 300)                                         
[    1.716074] ata1.01: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 300)                                                  
[    1.724318] ata1.00: ATA-8: WDC WD15EARS-00Z5B1, 80.00A80, max UDMA/133                                       
[    1.724322] ata1.00: 2930277168 sectors, multi 16: LBA48 NCQ (depth 0/32)                                     
[    1.740339] ata1.00: configured for UDMA/133                                                                  
[    1.740428] scsi 0:0:0:0: Direct-Access     ATA      WDC WD15EARS-00Z 80.0 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5                      
[    1.746788] scsi 6:0:0:0: CD-ROM            ASUS     DRW-1608P        1.17 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5 
...
[    1.925981] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 2930277168 512-byte logical blocks: (1.50 TB/1.36 TiB)                          
[    1.926005] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off                                                            
[    1.926007] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00                                                         
[    1.926020] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA           
[    1.926092]  sda:sr0: scsi3-mmc drive: 40x/40x writer cd/rw xa/form2 cdda tray                                
[    1.931106] Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.20                                                              
[    1.931191] sr 6:0:0:0: Attached scsi CD-ROM sr0                                                        
...
[    1.941936]  sda1 sda2 sda3 sda4 < sda5 sda6 >                                                                
[    1.967691] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI disk                                                              
[    1.970938] sd 0:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg0 type 0                                                      
[    1.970959] sr 6:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg1 type 5 
...
[    2.500086] EXT4-fs (sda3): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode 
...
[    7.150468] EXT4-fs (sda6): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode