4k sector disk drive and linux

Read this article: http://lwn.net/Articles/377895/

I just want to add my performance measures here. Drive is a WDC WD20EARS:

Misaligned partition 10GB ext2 results with bonnie++:

Version 1.03d       ------Sequential Output------ --Sequential Input- --Random-
                    -Per Chr- --Block-- -Rewrite- -Per Chr- --Block-- --Seeks--
Machine        Size K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP  /sec %CP
server           5G 61962  41 59906   6 26673   1 91696  58 125708   2 170.9   0
                    ------Sequential Create------ --------Random Create--------
                    -Create-- --Read--- -Delete-- -Create-- --Read--- -Delete--
              files  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP
                 16  6384  95 +++++ +++ +++++ +++  6649  98 +++++ +++ 19556  99
server,5G,61962,41,59906,6,26673,1,91696,58,125708,2,170.9,0,16,6384,95,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,6649,98,+++++,+++,19556,99

Aligned partition with fdisk expert ("x") menu: Type "b" and move start of partition to sector 64. Attention: You loose all data in the partition!

Results with bonnie++:

Version 1.03d       ------Sequential Output------ --Sequential Input- --Random-
                    -Per Chr- --Block-- -Rewrite- -Per Chr- --Block-- --Seeks--
Machine        Size K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP  /sec %CP
server           5G 107161  71 106024  12 45917   1 101213  64 125729   2 217.6   0
                    ------Sequential Create------ --------Random Create--------
                    -Create-- --Read--- -Delete-- -Create-- --Read--- -Delete--
              files  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP
                 16  6316  98 +++++ +++ +++++ +++  6680  99 +++++ +++ 19471  99
server,5G,107161,71,106024,12,45917,1,101213,64,125729,2,217.6,0,16,6316,98,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,6680,99,+++++,+++,19471,99

So you can see: the alignment has a significant impact on the performance.