> Source: [sk180970](https://support.checkpoint.com/results/sk/sk180970)

# sk180970 - Cannot achieve theoretical performance benchmarks on systems with Solid State Drives (SSDs)

| Property | Value |
|----------|-------|
| Solution ID | sk180970 |
| Date Created | 2023-05-22 |
| Last Modified | 2023-05-23 |
| Technical Level | General |
| Products | Security Gateway, Security Management Server |
| Versions | R81.10 (EOS), R81 (EOS), R81.10 (EOS), R81 (EOS) |
| OS | Gaia |

## Symptoms

- * The user cannot achieve theoretical performance benchmarks on systems with SSDs.

* The "`fdisk -l`" command indicates that partition Start points are not at 1024-byte intervals.

## Cause

SSDs typically have physical sectors larger than those traditionally found in Hard Disk Drives, or HDDs (typically 4096- or 8192-byte for SSDs, versus 512-byte for HDDs).   

These larger physical sectors are the smallest unit that can be erased or written on an SSD. When logical sector boundaries do not align with physical sector boundaries, the result is inefficient read-modify-write operations.  

By aligning the partition to 1024-byte boundaries, the logical and physical sector boundaries match, reducing the necessity for read-modify-write operations and optimizing the performance of SSDs with larger physical sectors.

<br />

## Solution

This problem was fixed. The fix is included starting from:

* [Check Point R81.20](https://support.checkpoint.com/results/sk/sk173903)

For more information about the improved partition alignment for SSDs, refer to the "Software Changes" section in the [R81.20 (Titan) Release Notes](https://sc1.checkpoint.com/documents/R81.20/WebAdminGuides/EN/CP_R81.20_RN/Content/Topics-RN/Software-Changes.htm?TocPath=_____4 "R81.20 (Titan) Release Notes > Software Changes").
This section describes behavior changes from previous versions. The applicable change is:  

* New Gaia installer:
  * A new partition layout is introduced to accommodate the new Gaia installer changes.

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