What steps will reproduce the problem? As described in http://git-annex.branchable.com/backends/#comment-3c1cd45d2a015b4fc412dd813293ad7d , sha512 is faster. On my 64-bit system, the speed difference is about 1.5times. What is the expected output? What do you see instead? What version of git-annex are you using? On what operating system? Please provide any additional information below.