Does Your SSD's File System Affect Performance?

Features
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SSDs serve up data quickly, and prices are low enough that some enthusiasts may want SSDs for data storage. Does the file system you use matter? We compare performance between FAT32, NTFS, and the newer exFAT file systems on two popular SSD architectures.

AS SSD: Access Time, Copy Benchmark, And Overall Score

FAT32 lags behind the other file systems in access times, while exFAT and NTFS are much closer to each other.

These benchmarks represent real-life copy/paste workloads, and the data confirms that NTFS seems to be the best choice, followed by exFAT. FAT32 really shows its age here, making it a very unattractive choice for SSDs.

Patrick Schmid
Patrick Schmid
Editor-in-Chief (2005-2006)

Patrick Schmid was the editor-in-chief for Tom's Hardware from 2005 to 2006. He wrote numerous articles on a wide range of hardware topics, including storage, CPUs, and system builds.