Test Setup And Firmware Notes
We are using the same testing protocol outlined in our earlier 60 GB SandForce round-up, which focuses on out-of-box performance. If TRIM and garbage collection are working, the performance of a desktop-oriented SSD should remain fairly consistent. We will also cover the other end of the spectrum, and measure the performance during reads and from a “dirty” drive. Performance will always fall between those two extremes.
Firmware Notes:
Since we updated our m4 SSDs to the latest 0309 firmware, we noticed a small benchmark change. Performance in 4K random reads tends to be a little slower at low queue depths. Otherwise, everything is the same as before. This validates Crucial's change log, which suggests that moving from 0009 would have little effect on performance.
| Test Hardware | |
|---|---|
| Processor | Intel Core i5-2400 (Sandy Bridge), 32 nm, 3.1 GHz, LGA 1155, 6 MB Shared L3, Turbo Boost Enabled |
| Motherboard | Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD7-B3 |
| Memory | Kingston Hyper-X 8 GB (2 x 4 GB) DDR3-1333 @ DDR3-1333, 1.5 V |
| System Drive | Crucial m4 256 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 0309 |
| Tested Drives | Crucial m4 64 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 0309 |
| Row 5 - Cell 0 | Crucial m4 128 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 0309 |
| Row 6 - Cell 0 | Corsair Performance Pro 128 GB SATA 6Gb/s Firmware: 1.0 |
| Row 7 - Cell 0 | Plextor M3 64 GB SATA 6Gb/s Firmware: 1.01 |
| Row 8 - Cell 0 | Plextor M3 128 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 1.02 |
| Row 9 - Cell 0 | Plextor M3 Pro 128 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 1.01 |
| Row 10 - Cell 0 | OCZ Vertex 3 120 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 2.15 |
| Row 11 - Cell 0 | OCZ Octane 128 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 1.13 |
| Graphics | Palit GeForce GTX 460 1 GB |
| Power Supply | Seasonic 760 W, 80 PLUS Gold |
| System Software and Drivers | |
| Operating System | Windows 7 x64 Ultimate |
| DirectX | DirectX 11 |
| Driver | Graphics: Nvidia 270.61 RST: 10.6.0.1002 Virtu: 1.1.101 |
| Benchmarks | |
|---|---|
| Iometer 1.1.0 | # Workers = 1, 4 KB Random: LBA=16 GB, varying QDs, 128 KB Sequential |
| PCMark 7 | Storage Suite |
| HD Tune Pro | v5.0, LBA= Full Span |