Test Setup And Benchmarks
Testing mSATA drives alongside 2.5" models poses a few issues. There are plenty of desktop motherboards with mSATA slots, but for continuity of testing, we have to use the platform you've seen in our stories for months. To that end, Intel smartly armed us with its Dale Crest mSATA Adapter to facilitate our benchmarking endeavors.
mSATA-based drives are powered using 3.3 V DC. SATA drives are predominantly powered via 5 V DC (and sometimes 12 V). The adapter allows our samples to connect like any other SATA drive, but could result in slightly skewed power numbers in the conversion process. Intel's mSATA adapters aren't publicly available, though a cursory search turns up several Asian-sourced units of varying quality and price. If nothing else, Intel's Dale Crest mSATA adapter is a fetching shade of blue.
Test Hardware | |
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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 |
Tested Drives | Intel SSD 525 30 GB mSATA 6Gb/s, Firmware LLKi |
Intel SSD 525 60 GB mSATA 6Gb/s, Firmware LLKi | |
Intel SSD 525 120 GB mSATA 6Gb/s, Firmware LLKi | |
Intel SSD 525 180 GB mSATA 6Gb/s, Firmware LLKi | |
Intel SSD 525 240 GB mSATA 6Gb/s, Firmware LLKi | |
Intel SSD 320 300 GB SATA 3Gb/s, Firmware: 1.92 | |
Intel SSD 320 80 GB SATA 3Gb/s, Firmware: 1.92 | |
Intel SSD 330 180 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 300i | |
Intel SSD 330 120 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 300i | |
Samsung 830 256 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: CXMO | |
Samsung 830 64 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: CXMO | |
Crucial m4 256 GB SATA 6Gb/s Firmware: 0309 | |
Crucial m4 64 GB SATA 6Gb/s Firmware: 0009 | |
OCZ Vertex 3 240 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 2.15 | |
OCZ Vertex 3 120 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 2.22 | |
OCZ Vertex 3 60 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 2.15 | |
OCZ Agility 3 240 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 2.22 | |
OCZ Agility 3 120 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 2.22 | |
OCZ Agility 3 60 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 2.22 | |
OCZ Vertex 4 256 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 1.5 | |
OCZ Agility 4 256 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 1.5 | |
OCZ Agility 4 128 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 1.5 | |
OCZ Vertex 4 64 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 1.5 | |
Samsung 840 Pro 512 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: DMX02B0Q | |
Corsair Neutron GTX 240 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: M206 | |
Graphics | MSI Cyclone GTX 460 1024 MB |
Power Supply | Seasonic X-650, 650 W 80 PLUS Gold |
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 | |
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Tom's Hardware StorageBench v1.0 | Trace-Based |
IOmeter 1.1.0 | # Workers = 1, 4 KB Random: LBA=8 GB, varying QDs, 128 KB Sequential, 8 GB LBA Precondition, Exponential QD Scaling |
PCMark 7 | Secondary Storage Suite |