14-Way SSD Hard Drive Roundup

PCMark Application Benchmarks

The Windows XP Startup benchmark of PCMark05 requires both high throughput and quick average access times in order to load multiple small files quickly. MLC-based flash SSD products like the ones from Crucial and Silicon Power lose a lot of ground in this discipline, meaning that they aren’t suitable for varying workloads. Sequential reads is what they do best. On the other hand, the powerful SLC-flash drives by Mtron, Hama, OCZ and Samsung do a great job, as do the MemoRight drives.

The PCMark05 file write benchmark characterizes a drive’s ability to sequentially write files of various sizes. Again, the professional drives do much better than the mainstream MLC armada by Crucial, Hama, Silicon Power and Super Talent.