PCMark05
For these tests, we use RankDisk, an application developed and copyrighted by Intel. In our testing, we found RankDisk to be suitable for a neutral benchmark. RankDisk is used to record a trace of disk activity during usage of typical applications. These traces can then be replayed to measure the performance of disk operations for that usage.
RankDisk records disk access events using the device drivers and bypasses the file system and the operating system’s cache. This makes the measurement independent of the file system overhead or the current state of the operating system. In replaying traces, RankDisk always creates and operates on a new dummy file. This file is created in the same (or closest possible) physical location of the target hard disk. This allows the replaying of traces to be safe (does not destroy any existing files) and comparable across different systems. Due to the natural fragmentation of hard disks over time, they should be defragmented before running these tests.
The traces used for each test were created from real usage. The traces contain different amount of writing and reading on the disk; total ratio in the HDD test suite disk operations is 53% reads and 47% of writes.
The following input traces are used:
Windows XP Startup: This is the Windows XP start trace, which contains disk activities occurring at operating system start-up. The test is 90% reading and 10% writes. This trace contains no user activity.
Application Loading: This is a trace containing disk activities from loading various applications. It includes opening and closing of the following applications:
Microsoft® Word
Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 5
Windows® Media Player
3DMark®2001SE
Leadtek® Winfast® DVD
Mozilla Internet Browser
The application loading trace is 83% reads and 17% writes.
General Hard Disk Drive Usage: This trace contains disk activities from using several common applications.
These are:
Opening a Microsoft® Word document, performing grammar check, saving and closing
Compression and decompression using Winzip
Encrypting and decrypting a file using PowerCrypt
Scanning files for viruses using F-Secure® Antivirus.
Playing an MP3 file with Winamp
Playing a WAV file with Winamp
Playing a DivX video using DivX codec and Windows® Media Player
Playing a WMV video file using Windows® Media Player
Viewing pictures using Windows® Picture Viewer
Browsing the internet using Microsoft® Internet Explorer
Loading, playing and exiting a game using Ubisoft Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon
The General Usage trace is 60% reads and 40% writes.
Virus Scanning: Virus scanning is a critical task in today’s PC usage. As the major bottleneck of scanning viruses is in hard disk activity, it is reasonable to include virus scanning as a HDD test. The test consists of HDD activity of scanning 600MB of files for viruses. The Virus Scanning test is mostly disk reading (99.5%).
File Write: This trace contains disk activities from writing 680MB files on the hard disk and no read operations are involved in this test.
The Pyro and Wildfire did well in PCMark, but fell a bit short of the OCZ-tweaked units.
Hi Allyn & crew,
Nice review,
Hi Allyn & crew,
Nice review, but have you ever tested any IDE (PATA) SSDs? I bought a RunCore SSD (Model 0900027140 32GB)and have tried almost everything (I get a BSOD) and can only get into the Safe Mode. I know IDE is old, but I was trying use one in an old SONY PCG-V505DC1 laptop and have never been able to boot into Windows XP. Whether I start with a fresh install or using Norton Ghost, Casper 6 or Acronis True Image, the results are the same (BSOD).
It seems to me that either the drivers are wrong or a firmware update is need. I’ve contacted RunCore, but so far no good answer. The funny thing is, I tried this SSD (via and IDE/USB cable) on my MacBook Pro (using Super Duper) and it works just fine.
Have you any suggestions?
Thanks,
Bernie
It’s likely that your aging
It’s likely that your aging Sony lacks the necessary compatibility to handle the RunCore SSD – or vice versa.
@Bernie
IDE SSDs are rare,
@Bernie
IDE SSDs are rare, slow, and expensive for the size/performance you get. Adding an IDE SSD to an old laptop is not a good idea because Windows XP does not support SSDs as well as Windows 7 and new operating systesms, and the value of the SSD is likely to be higher than the old IDE device you are installing it in. If you have a system that only takes IDE drives, then your first priority should be to update to a SATA based laptop or new motherboard/CPU for a desktop. You can then later add a SATA based SSD to the system to increase performance.
Even if your SONY PCG-V505DC1 could take a SATA SSD, it will suffer from other bottle necks that would diminish the value and advantage that an SSD would provide.
It would be nice if you could
It would be nice if you could remind us which of these tests use random data, so we can tell how much of the difference is due to compression by the Sandforce controller that won’t apply to previously compressed files.
Any reason server operators shouldn’t expect expect longer life (more write cycles) from 32nm than 25nm? Performance is not the only criterion.
Doesn’t the Pyro only get 60k
Doesn’t the Pyro only get 60k iops, and it’s the Pyro SE that gets 85k iops isn’t it? Great review, been looking at the different Pyro’s for my first SSD, might bite the bullet one day!