Crucial m4 And Intel SSD 320: The Other SSD Competitors

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Two more SSDs recently landed in our lab. We cover the "Postville Refresh" Intel SSD 320 and Crucial’s new m4, and stack them up against Intel's SSD 510 and OCZ’s Vertex 3. If you're shopping for an SSD, read this comparison before you make your choice.

Test Setup And Benchmarks

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Test Hardware
ProcessorsIntel Core i5-2500K (Sandy Bridge), 3.3 GHz, LGA 1155, 6 MB Shared L3, Power-savings enabled
MotherboardAsus P8P67 Deluxe (LGA 1155) Intel P67/ICH10R, BIOS 1502
MemoryKingston 8 GB (4 x 2 GB) DDR3-1600, KHX1600C9D3K2/8GX
Hard DriveIntel X25-M 160 GB SSDSA2M160G2GC, SATA 3Gb/s (System Drive)
Row 4 - Cell 0 Intel SSD 510 250 GB SSDSC2MH250A2K5, SATA 6Gb/s
Row 5 - Cell 0 OCZ Vertex 3 Pro 200 GB Beta Sample, SATA 6Gb/s
Row 6 - Cell 0 OCZ Vertex 3 240 GB Beta Sample, SATA 6Gb/s
Row 7 - Cell 0 Crucial C300 256 GB CTFDDAC256MAG, SATA 6Gb/s
Row 8 - Cell 0 OCZ Vertex 2 120 GB OCZSSD2-2VTXE120G, SATA 3Gb/s, Firmware 1.32
Row 9 - Cell 0 OCZ Agility 2 120 GB OCZSSD2-2AGTE120G, SATA 3GB/s, Firmware 1.32
Row 10 - Cell 0 Crucial m4 256 GB MTFDDAC256MAM-1K1, SATA 6GB/s
Row 11 - Cell 0 Intel SSD 320 300 GB SSDSA2CW300G3
Row 12 - Cell 0 Intel X25-M G2 160 GB SSDSA2M160G2GC, SATA 3Gb/s
GraphicsAMD Radeon HD 4850
Power SupplySparkle 1250 W, 80 PLUS
System Software And Drivers
Operating SystemWindows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
DirectXDirectX 11
Graphics DriverAMD Catalyst 11.2
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Benchmarks
Performance MeasurementsCrystalDiskMark 3.0 x64, set to read and write random data to drivePCMark Vantage 1.0.2.0
I/O PerformanceIOMeter 2008.08.18, default configuration, not reading/writing random dataFile server Benchmark, Web server Benchmark, Database Benchmark, Workstation BenchmarkStreaming Reads, Streaming Writes4 KB Random Reads, 4 KB Random Writes

SSDs are secure erased prior to testing, and attached to the 6 Gb/s ports on our Asus P8P67 Deluxe motherboard. At the request of several readers, results from testing the 3 Gb/s ports have been added for comparison.