Second-Gen SandForce: Seven 120 GB SSDs Rounded Up

Features
By published

The popularity of SandForce's first-gen controller is translating to a lot of traction with its 6 Gb/s offering. Five SSD vendors sent us seven 120 GB models based on the second-gen logic. What makes them different? An extensive benchmark suite tells all.

Test Setup And Firmware Notes

Swipe to scroll horizontally
Test Hardware
ProcessorIntel Core i5-2500K (Sandy Bridge), 32 nm, 3.3 GHz, LGA 1155, 6 MB Shared L3, Turbo Boost Enabled
MotherboardASRock Z68 Extreme4, BIOS v1.4
MemoryKingston Hyper-X 8 GB (2 x 4 GB) DDR3-1333 @ DDR3-1333, 1.5 V
System DriveOCZ Vertex 3 240 GB SATA 6Gb/s
Tested DrivesCrucial m4 64 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 0001
Row 5 - Cell 0 Intel SSD 510 250 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 1.7
Row 6 - Cell 0 Intel SSD 320 300 GB SATA 3Gb/s, Firmware: 1.7
Row 7 - Cell 0 Crucial m4 128 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 0001
Row 8 - Cell 0 Crucial m4 256 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 0001
Row 9 - Cell 0 Crucial m4 512 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 0001
Row 10 - Cell 0 Crucial RealSSD 256 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 0006
Row 11 - Cell 0 OCZ Vertex 3 240 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 2.06
Row 12 - Cell 0 OCZ Vertex 3 120 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 2.06
Row 13 - Cell 0 OCZ Agility 3 120 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 2.06
Row 14 - Cell 0 OCZ Solid 3 120 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 2.06
Row 15 - Cell 0 Corsair Force 3 120 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 1.2
Row 16 - Cell 0 Corsair Force 120 GB SATA 3Gb/s, Firmware: 2.0
Row 17 - Cell 0 Adata S511 120 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 311A
Row 18 - Cell 0 Mushkin Chronos Deluxe 120 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 319A
Row 19 - Cell 0 Patriot Wildfire 120 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 319A
Row 20 - Cell 0 Kingston SSDNow V+100 128 GB SATA 3Gb/s, Firmware: CJRA
Row 21 - Cell 0 Western Digital VelociRaptor 300 GB (WD3000HLFS) SATA 3Gb/s
Row 22 - Cell 0 G.Skill FM-25S2S 64 GB SATA 3Gb/s, Firmware: 02.1
Row 23 - Cell 0 Seagate Momentus 5400.6 500 GB SATA 3Gb/s
GraphicsPalit GeForce GTX 460 1 GB
Power SupplySeasonic 760 W, 80 PLUS
System Software and Drivers
Operating SystemWindows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
DirectXDirectX 11
DriverGraphics: Nvidia 270.61 RST: 10.5.0.1022Virtu: 1.1.101
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Benchmarks
Tom's Hardware Storage Bench v1.0Trace-Based
Iometer 1.1.0# Workers = # Logical CPUs, 4 KB Random: LBA=16 GB, varying QDs, 128 KB Sequential: QD=1
ATTO BenchmarkLBA=2 GB, QD=2 & 4, varying transfer sizes
PCMark 7Storage Suite

Firmware Notes

Performance can change noticeably with a firmware update. We'll try to update our benchmark library when a new firmware version is released.

You'll notice that our Vertex 3 scores are different than what was posted in The OCZ RevoDrive 3 X2 Preview: Second-Gen SandForce Goes PCIe because we're rolling back to firmware v2.06. While v2.09 is the latest from OCZ, it's a stability update for those experiencing BSOD problems. If you're not running into any issues, OCZ recommends that you do not update to 2.09.