Hands-On With Silicon Motion's New SSD Controller
Silicon Motion already makes flash storage controllers in all shapes and sizes. Now, with a new SATA 6Gb/s processor ready for action, the Taiwanese firm is hoping to make a dent in the market share currently enjoyed by SandForce and Marvell.
Test Setup And Benchmarks
Our consumer storage test bench is based on Intel's Z77 Platform Controller Hub paired with an Intel Core i5-2400 CPU. Intel's 6- and 7-series chipsets are virtually identical from a storage perspective. We're standardizing on older RST 10.6.1002 drivers for the foreseeable future.
Changes in RST's driver packages occasionally result in subtle performance changes. They can also lead to some truly profound variance in scores and results as well, depending on the driver revision. Some versions flush writes more or less frequently. Others work better in RAID situations. In fact, builds 11.2 and newer support TRIM in RAID as well. Regardless, results obtained with one revision may or may not be comparable to results obtained with another, so sticking with one version across all testing is mandatory.
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 G1.Sniper M3 |
Memory | G.Skill Ripjaws 8 GB (2 x 4 GB) DDR3-1866 @ DDR3-1333, 1.5 V |
System Drive | Kingston HyperX 3K 240 GB, Firmware 5.02 |
Drive(s) Under Test | Silicon Motion SM226EN 128 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: M0709A |
Comparison Drives | Crucial M500 120 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: MU02 |
Row 6 - Cell 0 | Crucial M500 240 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: MU02 |
Row 7 - Cell 0 | Crucial M500 480 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: MU02 |
Row 8 - Cell 0 | Crucial M500 960 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: MU02 |
Row 9 - Cell 0 | Samsung 840 EVO 120 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: EXT0AB0Q |
Row 10 - Cell 0 | Samsung 840 EVO 240 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: EXT0AB0Q |
Row 11 - Cell 0 | Samsung 840 EVO 480 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: EXT0AB0Q |
Row 12 - Cell 0 | Samsung 840 EVO 1 TB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: EXT0AB0Q |
Row 13 - Cell 0 | SanDisk Ultra Plus 64 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: X211200 |
Row 14 - Cell 0 | SanDisk Ultra Plus 128 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware X211200 |
Row 15 - Cell 0 | SanDisk Ultra Plus 256 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware X211200 |
Row 16 - Cell 0 | Samsung 840 Pro 256 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware DXM04B0Q |
Row 17 - Cell 0 | Samsung 840 Pro 128 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware DXM04B0Q |
Row 18 - Cell 0 | SanDisk Extreme II 120 GB, Firmware: R1311 |
Row 19 - Cell 0 | SanDisk Extreme II 240 GB, Firmware: R1311 |
Row 20 - Cell 0 | SanDisk Extreme II 480 GB, Firmware: R1311 |
Row 21 - Cell 0 | Seagate 600 SSD 240 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: B660 |
Row 22 - Cell 0 | Intel SSD 525 30 GB mSATA 6Gb/s, Firmware LLKi |
Row 23 - Cell 0 | Intel SSD 525 60 GB mSATA 6Gb/s, Firmware LLKi |
Row 24 - Cell 0 | Intel SSD 525 120 GB mSATA 6Gb/s, Firmware LLKi |
Row 25 - Cell 0 | Intel SSD 525 180 GB mSATA 6Gb/s, Firmware LLKi |
Row 26 - Cell 0 | Intel SSD 525 240 GB mSATA 6Gb/s, Firmware LLKi |
Row 27 - Cell 0 | Intel SSD 335 240 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 335s |
Row 28 - Cell 0 | Intel SSD 510 250 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: PWG2 |
Row 29 - Cell 0 | OCZ Vertex 3.20 240 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 2.25 |
Row 30 - Cell 0 | OCZ Vector 256 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 2.0 |
Row 31 - Cell 0 | Samsung 830 512 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: CXMO3B1Q |
Row 32 - Cell 0 | Crucial m4 256 GB SATA 6Gb/s Firmware: 000F |
Row 33 - Cell 0 | Plextor M5 Pro 256 GB SATA 6Gb/s Firmware: 1.02 |
Row 34 - Cell 0 | Corsair Neutron GTX 240 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: M206 |
Graphics | MSI Cyclone GTX 460 1 GB |
Power Supply | Seasonic X-650, 650 W 80 PLUS Gold |
Chassis | Lian Li Pitstop |
RAID | LSI 9266-8i PCIe x8, FastPath and CacheCade AFK |
System Software and Drivers | |
OperatingSystem | Windows 7 x64 Ultimate |
DirectX | DirectX 11 |
Drivers | Graphics: Nvidia 314.07RST: 10.6.1002IMEI: 7.1.21.1124 |
Benchmarks | |
---|---|
Tom's Hardware Storage Bench v1.0 | Trace-Based |
Iometer 1.1.0 | # Workers = 1, 4 KB Random: LBA=16 GB, varying QDs, 128 KB Sequential, 8 GB LBA Precondition, Exponential QD Scaling |
PCMark 7 | Secondary Storage Suite |
PCM Vantage | Storage Suite |
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Current page: Test Setup And Benchmarks
Prev Page Ready For Something New In Solid-State Storage? Next Page Results: Sequential Performance-
rolli59 Performance looks good, the question is with a new player on the market if it will affect market price to the benefit of users that have SSD boot/program drives up to 256GB.Reply -
4745454b While performance wasn't the best, it was more then acceptable. And then the power numbers looked great. Overall it's a great start. I'm interested in long term results as some controllers have had bugs in the past that have done bad things to people's data.Reply
And yes, great to see someone else enter in. While more players means you'll need to look harder at what SSD you are buying, at least we'll have the options. Which is always good, even if the options aren't as good as what you were hoping for. -
shin0bi272 Not that this isnt kinda cool but Taiwan is now part of China so its proper to call it China.Reply -
UmeNNis 11339051 said:Not that this isnt kinda cool but Taiwan is now part of China so its proper to call it China.
Ummm..... how exactly is "Taiwan now part of China"...?:sarcastic: -
mayankleoboy1 During the benchmarks, did you ensure that the Samsung EVO is not throttling due to high temps ?Reply
Maybe add a max temperature graph as well. -
e-z e Given time to mature this could be a real contender. Would love to see a follow-up once it hits the market.Reply -
zads
If only this were the case, my job would be so much easier.11337088 said:Meanwhile, SandForce is the opposite. It'll sell you a turnkey solution, but you don't really get many knobs or dials in terms of customization.