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

Test Procedure And Access Time Results

Test Setup Table

Test Procedure

We added AS SSD as a new benchmark, and we decided to test all devices right out of the box in a fresh state, as well as preconditioned. Here is the procedure:

1. AS SSD test run 1
2. Pre conditioning: Iometer random write run (128 KB block size, two hours)
3. Run full Iometer test suite
4. Run PCMark Vantage
5. AS SSD test run 2

Results: Access Time

We provide access time results for the sake of completeness, as these are hardly relevant in most environments. However, it is clear that the Fusion-io drives have advantages, as they do not have to work through SATA and hence show lower latencies. It is also obvious that heavily-used drives show a clear degradation in performance. And lastly, there is not a relevant difference in access time between a conventional SSD like the OCZ Vertex 2 and the PCI Express-based solutions.