DRAMeXchange - 1H2010 SSD compared and analyzed - 128GB

SSD Evaluation Report

The following are results of each testing item:

128 GB Class

Most SSDs of 128 GB class are 128 GB in size but there are also 120 GB and 200 GB products for evaluation this time. The storage capacity class can be used as the main hard disk as well as the boot disk or main disk.

Boot up time of Windows System

The most generally used operating systems in ordinary PCs are Microsoft's Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows7 launched in the 2nd half of 2009. The startup process of the operating system is an important testing item for hard disk and SSDs, for the complex startup file reading is a good parameter of comprehensive evaluation as its speed is directly reflected.

We installed Windows 7 and observed the startup file transfer speed via the PCMark Vantage Start UP test, monitored and analyzed the startup process of PC. The core program loading time can be seen in the analysis data sheet.

SSD performance differences are more distinct under heavily-loaded environment under the pressure of the complex startup process and the fragmentary reading process.

In this testing item, it can be seen that HugeTech RS25MLC200G 200GB SSD scored highest at a speed of 202MB/s, followed by OCZ Vertex PRO 120GB SSD and Intel X25-M SSDSA2M160G2GC 160GB.

In addition, Micron REALSSD C300 128GB and Apacer A7 Turbo SSD A7202 128GB also performed well.

ATTO Disk Benchmark v2.4.3

The writing and reading test was carried out on the basis of the well-known ATTO Disk Benchmark, used to test the writing and reading rate of large- and small-size files for the major evaluation of the continuous reading and writing performance test. The fastest SSD writing rate was 258732KB/s(OCZ Vertex PRO 120GB SSD) and the fastest SSD reading rate was 263689KB/s(Micron REALSSD C300 128GB) in the case of the file size set at 8MB. At the file size of 4MB, the fastest reading rate came from Intel X25-M SSDSA2M160G2GC 160GB，and the fastest writing rate from OCZ Vertex PRO 120GB SSD. The reading and writing rates of SSD would be slower with smaller set file size of the testing software.

h2benchw v3.6

This test clearly shows the performances of SSDs of varying specifications under different applications, with the specific model information and firmware version numbers listed in the results. In the overall performance test, the top five with highest continuous writing and reading rate are Micron REALSSD C300 128GB, Intel X25-M SSDSA2M160G2GC 160GB, Transcend TS120GSSD25D-M SSD 120GB, STAREX 128GB SSD, Apogee Mars FlashSSD 128GB respectively.

This test clearly shows the efficiency of SSDs of varying specifications under different applications including test scores of hard disk swap file, starting execution efficiency and comprehensive file copy. 

HDTune Pro v3.50

In the HDTune Pro test, we evaluated the items by average reading. This testing software is commonly seen. AS shown in the chart, SSDs featuring high-speed Cache and better design outperform the others.

The top ones are Micron REALSSD C300 128GB, A-Data SSD S592 128GB, RiDATA X-series NSSD-X25-128-C07M-PN 128GB SSD, CORSAIR CMFSSD-128GD1 X128 SSD, STAREX 128GB SSD.

Among them, RiDATA product uses JMicron controller, ranked as the best SSD adopting JMicron chip in the test. A-Data SSD S592 uses Indilinx controller chip and Micron REALSSD C300 SSD is based on Marvell chip.
 

IOMeter 2006.07.27

The significant part of this test is to measure the highest input/output performance of SSDs under big volume of IO, which reflects the design level of the SSD controllers. HugeTech RS25MLC200G 200GB SSD took the lead in this test, with OCZ Vertex PRO 120GB SSD、Intel X25-M SSDSA2M160G2GC 160GB、Micron REALSSD C300 128GB、Apacer A7 Turbo SSD A7202 128GB SSD following behind, all of which were products with high performance. 

As for the input/output performance, the SSD controllers will reveal performance differences if Flash chip discrepancies are considered.
HugeTech 200GB product utilizes SandForce chip. The design does not have DRAM Cache and will use more NAND Flash chip storage for reserved use. However, the 128 GB HugeTech product did not perform as well as the 200GB one, which indicates that the SandForce chip excels in processing with good performance in a great many IO tests, but it sells at a high price.

PCMark05 / PCMark Vantage

In this test, we used PCMARK 05 as well as PCMARK05 Vantage, which supports Windows Vista and Windows 7.

As the HDD score in PCMark05 test is an overall measurement, it can be concluded that the products with best overall performance are OCZ Vertex PRO 120GB SSD, Intel X25-M SSDSA2M160G2GC 160GB, HugeTech RS25MLC200G 200GB SSD. STAREX 128GB SSD and Micron REALSSD C300 128GB SSD are also ranked in the top 5.

In light of the PCMark Vantage  HDD comprehensive scores supporting Windows 7, the best products are Intel X25-M SSDSA2M160G2GC 160GB, OCZ Vertex PRO 120GB SSD, Micron REALSSD C300 128GB, HugeTech RS25MLC200G 200GB SSD, SUPER Sspeed SSD 128GB respectively.

In Vista Start Up test of start-up time, the efficiency per second outperformed XP Start Up. SSD products are excellent in reading efficiency due to the near-zero search time. Unlike the hard disk, which require rotation from the motor rotation and the movement of the optical pickup, the near-zero search time increases the input/output per second which enhances random reading efficiency, reflected in SSD product performances.

SSD controller and the final analysis of test results to be continued.