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 environments. In fact, builds 11.2 and newer even support the TRIM command in RAID. Regardless, results obtained with one revision may or may not be comparable to results obtained with another, so sticking with one build across all tests is mandatory.
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| 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 | SanDisk X210 256 GB, Firmware X210400 |
| Row 5 - Cell 0 | SanDisk X210 512 GB, Firmware X210400 |
| Comparison Drives | Intel SSD 530 180 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: DC12 |
| Row 7 - Cell 0 | Intel SSD 520 180 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 400i |
| Row 8 - Cell 0 | Intel SSD 525 180 GB mSATA, Firmware: LLKi |
| Row 9 - Cell 0 | SanDisk A110 256 GB M.2 PCIe x2, Firmware: A200100 |
| Row 10 - Cell 0 | Silicon Motion SM226EN 128 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: M0709A |
| Row 11 - Cell 0 | Crucial M500 120 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: MU02 |
| Row 12 - Cell 0 | Crucial M500 240 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: MU02 |
| Row 13 - Cell 0 | Crucial M500 480 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: MU02 |
| Row 14 - Cell 0 | Crucial M500 960 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: MU02 |
| Row 15 - Cell 0 | Samsung 840 EVO 120 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: EXT0AB0Q |
| Row 16 - Cell 0 | Samsung 840 EVO 240 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: EXT0AB0Q |
| Row 17 - Cell 0 | Samsung 840 EVO 480 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: EXT0AB0Q |
| Row 18 - Cell 0 | Samsung 840 EVO 1 TB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: EXT0AB0Q |
| Row 19 - Cell 0 | SanDisk Ultra Plus 64 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: X211200 |
| Row 20 - Cell 0 | SanDisk Ultra Plus 128 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware X211200 |
| Row 21 - Cell 0 | SanDisk Ultra Plus 256 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware X211200 |
| Row 22 - Cell 0 | Samsung 840 Pro 256 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware DXM04B0Q |
| Row 23 - Cell 0 | Samsung 840 Pro 128 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware DXM04B0Q |
| Row 24 - Cell 0 | SanDisk Extreme II 120 GB, Firmware: R1311 |
| Row 25 - Cell 0 | SanDisk Extreme II 240 GB, Firmware: R1311 |
| Row 26 - Cell 0 | SanDisk Extreme II 480 GB, Firmware: R1311 |
| Row 27 - Cell 0 | Seagate 600 SSD 240 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: B660 |
| Row 28 - Cell 0 | Intel SSD 525 30 GB mSATA 6Gb/s, Firmware LLKi |
| Row 29 - Cell 0 | Intel SSD 525 60 GB mSATA 6Gb/s, Firmware LLKi |
| Row 30 - Cell 0 | Intel SSD 525 120 GB mSATA 6Gb/s, Firmware LLKi |
| Row 31 - Cell 0 | Intel SSD 525 180 GB mSATA 6Gb/s, Firmware LLKi |
| Row 32 - Cell 0 | Intel SSD 525 240 GB mSATA 6Gb/s, Firmware LLKi |
| Row 33 - Cell 0 | Intel SSD 335 240 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 335s |
| Row 34 - Cell 0 | Intel SSD 510 250 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: PWG2 |
| Row 35 - Cell 0 | OCZ Vertex 3.20 240 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 2.25 |
| Row 36 - Cell 0 | OCZ Vector 256 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 2.0 |
| Row 37 - Cell 0 | Samsung 830 512 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: CXMO3B1Q |
| Row 38 - Cell 0 | Crucial m4 256 GB SATA 6Gb/s Firmware: 000F |
| Row 39 - Cell 0 | Plextor M5 Pro 256 GB SATA 6Gb/s Firmware: 1.02 |
| Row 40 - 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: 7.1.21.1124Generic AHCI: MSAHCI.SYS |
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| 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 |
