Results: Enterprise Workload Performance
Our next set of tests simulates different enterprise-oriented workloads, including database, file server, Web server, and workstation configurations.
Because LSI's SAS 9300-8e and Intel's native SATA controller treats the SSD DC S3700 so similarly, we're only showing the X79 chipset's results as reference at 6 Gb/s.
The database workload (also categorized as transaction processing) involves purely random I/O. Its profile consists of 67% reads and 33% writes using 8 KB transfers.
The file server workload consists of 80% reads at varying transfer sizes.
The Web server test generates 100% reads at varying transfer sizes.
Our workstation test is 80% reads that are 80% random.
With the SSD800MM capable of generating nearly two times the performance of Intel's SSD DC S3700, you might have guessed the gains that'd show up in our enterprise workloads. Transferring over a 12 Gb/s link, the SSD800MM is consistently 50-100% faster than Intel's 6 Gb/s enterprise drive. Even limited to 6 Gb/s, the SSD800MM is at least 30% faster.
We usually only see results like these from PCI Express-based add-in cards. In fact, HGST's SSD800MM is only a little slower than Intel's SSD 910. When you consider that $2000 (for a comparable 400 GB model) card came out almost a year ago, it's amazing that a single 2.5" SSD can already come close to catching up.