Three PCI Express-Based SSDs: When SATA 6 Gb/s Is Too Slow

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When it comes time to hunt down the ultimate in storage performance, you simply cannot settle for standard SSDs. Instead, look to PCI Express-based drives that circumvent the limitations of SATA. We have products from Fusion-io, LSI, and OCZ on the bench.

Benchmark Results: PCMark Vantage

We add PCMark Vantage results to show what PCI Express-based SSDs could do to your systems if they were used as operating system or application drives on enthusiast machines or workstations.

With only few exceptions, the LSI and OCZ drives do not manage to clearly outperfom an individual SSD like OCZ's Vertex 2, and as a result, both make very little sense as application drives.

This is entirely different for the Fusion-io offerings, as these double or triple the effective storage performance level in popular application scenarions. If only they were bootable. Thus, those victories mean nothing at all.

Patrick Schmid and Achim Roos