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 |