Testing Methodology and System Setup
Testing Methods

I have migrated from Windows XP to Windows Vista x64 with the SP1 service pack installed.  We are still using a P35 motherboard with the ICH9 south bridge (still used on X48 motherboards and unchanged) but upgraded to 2GB of memory in alleviate any issues with Vista as the new operating system of choice.  We are still using a Core 2 Duo E6400 dual-core processor that is more than capable of pushing our storage options to the limits.  Other components are listed in the table below.

Our tests are a good mix of synthetic and real-world benchmarks.  The two PCMark suites offer a good combination of both worlds while the IOMeter, HDTach, HDTune, Yapt and our custom File Copy test round out the selection to cover just about all bases.  If you have any questions about our tests just drop into the Storage Forum and we’ll help you out!

Test System Setup

Testing solid state drives is no longer a new process to us and we have a wider array of comparison results to share.  The Super Talent Master MX 60GB drive will be compared to two recent OCZ SSDs, a Western Digital 2.5″ standard notebook drive and the fastest standard desktop drive you can buy, the WD VelociRaptor 300GB. 

Hard Drive Test System Setup

CPU

Intel Core 2 Duo E6400

Motherboard

Gigabyte P35-DS3R

Memory 

OCZ Technology 2 x 2GB DDR2-800

Hard Drive

Super Talent Master MX 60GB SSD
OCZ 64GB SSD SATA-II
OCZ 64GB SSD SATA-I
Western Digital Scorpio 250GB
Western Digital VelociRaptor 300GB WD3000GLFS
 

Sound Card

none

Video Card

ATI Radeon X800 XL

Video Drivers

Catalyst 8.3

Power Supply Antec TruePower 480 watt

DirectX Version

DX10

Operating System

Windows Vista x64 SP1

  • PCMark05
  • PCMark Vantage
  • Yapt
  • IOMeter
  • HDTach
  • HDTune
  • PCPer File Copy Test

« PreviousNext »