Testing Samsung's XP941 On Z97 Express
In most of the stories we write, it doesn't matter where Windows is installed. Storage testing is a bit different though, particularly when we need to turn off the PCH's SATA ports. Thus, utilizing Windows to Go makes a lot of sense. A fully-functioning image can be ported from one machine to another over USB 3.0. It's just as quick as an installation to a SATA-attached SSD, and it enables testing methodologies otherwise considered impractical.
Note also that we're using Intel's new Rapid Storage Technology 13-series driver. It doesn't have much bearing on today's story; the fancier features will get rolled into a version of the RST software later this year. But it was time to upgrade, and so I have.
Test Hardware | |
---|---|
Processor | Intel Core i5-4670K (Haswell), 22 nm, 3.3 GHz, LGA 1150, 6 MB Shared L3, Turbo Boost Enabled |
Motherboard | ASRock Z97 Extreme6 |
Memory | G.Skill Ripjaws 8 GB (2 x 4 GB) DDR3-1866 @ DDR3-1333, 1.5 V |
System Drive | Muskin Ventura Ultra 240 GB USB 3.0 UASP |
Drive(s) Under Test | Samsung MZHPU512HCGL-00000 512 GB M.2 Gen 2 x4 PCIe, AHCI |
Power Supply | Seasonic X400 FL2, 80+ Platinum |
Chassis | Lian Li A01-NB ATX |
HSF | Noctua NH-L9i |
Graphics | Intel HD Graphics 4600 |
OS | Windows 8.1 Enterprise, Windows to Go |
Drivers | STORAHCI.SYS (Generic AHCI), Intel RST 13.1 (SATA) |
Comparison Drives | Plextor M6e 256 GB M.2 PCIe x2, Firmware: 1.00 |
Row 12 - Cell 0 | Plextor M6S 256 GB SATA 6 Gb/s, Firmware: 1.00 |
Row 13 - Cell 0 | Plextor M6M 256 GB mSATA 6 Gb/s, Firmware: 1.00 |
Row 14 - Cell 0 | Adata SP920 256 GB SATA 6 Gb/s, Firmware: MU01 |
Row 15 - Cell 0 | Crucial M550 512 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: MU01 |
Row 16 - Cell 0 | Intel SSD 730 480 GB SATA 6 Gb/s, Firmware: L2010400 |
Row 17 - Cell 0 | SanDisk X210 512 GB, Firmware X210400 |
Row 18 - Cell 0 | Crucial M500 240 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: MU02 |
Row 19 - Cell 0 | Samsung 840 EVO 250 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: EXT0AB0Q |
Row 20 - Cell 0 | Samsung 840 Pro 256 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware DXM04B0Q |
Row 21 - Cell 0 | Seagate 600 SSD 240 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: B660 |
Row 22 - Cell 0 | OCZ Vector 256 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 2.0 |
Row 23 - Cell 0 | Plextor M5 Pro 256 GB SATA 6Gb/s Firmware: 1.02 |
Benchmarks | |
---|---|
ULINK DriveMaster 2012 | DM2012 v980, JEDEC 218A-based TRIM Test, Protocol Test Suite |
Test Specific Hardware | SAS/SATA Power Hub, DevSlp Platform, PCIe SSD Power Adapter |
Tom's Hardware Storage Bench v1.0 | Intel iPeak Storage Toolkit 5.2.1, Tom's Storage Bench 1.0 Trace Recording |
Iometer 1.1.0 | # Workers = 1, 4 KB Random: LBA=16 GB, varying QDs, 128 KB Sequential, 16 GB LBA Precondition, Exponential QD Scaling |
PCMark 8 | PCMark 8 2.0.228, Storage Consistency Test |