HDTach 3.0.4.0
HD Tach will test the sequential read, random access and interface burst speeds of your attached storage device (hard drive, flash drive, removable drive, etc). All drive technologies such as SCSI, IDE/ATA, 1394, USB, SATA and RAID are supported. Test results from HD Tach can be used to confirm manufacturer specs, analyze your system for proper performance, and compare your performance with others. HD Tach is very easy to use, quick, and presents data in easy to read graphs, including the ability to compare two storage devices on screen at the same time for easy analysis.
Bursts are provided only for your review. SSD’s don’t cache the same way HDD’s do, so burst testing typically results in figures that are lower than the sequential throughput figures.
HDTach also tends to turn in lower than expected figures for its sequential transfer test. This would typically mean you should discard them, but they become relevant when you consider how HDTach performs this particular test. It feeds the tested drive a continuous string of small sequential read requests. This is a single threaded operation, which means the SSD doesn’t get to see what’s coming next. The SSD has to quickly service rapid-fire requests one at a time, and this is why we see most SSD’s unable to reach full rated speed.
Random access times are presented for your persual, but this metric is more accurately evaluated by our IOMeter Transaction Time tests (later in this review).
They command a 20% Price
They command a 20% Price premium vs competitor’s products. not a good buy in my opinion. I just upgraded my system with a 64GB OCZ synapse cache drive. And I am happy and set. BF3 level load fast!
Is it worth upgrading from my
Is it worth upgrading from my 160GB X-25M?
hmm, i dunno. IMO, a SSD
hmm, i dunno. IMO, a SSD upgrade from an SSD is kind of a hard sell 😛 If you have the money and don’t know what else to spend it on, sure it’ll be faster but won’t be as large of a jump in performance as the jump from a hard drive to that X-25M was.
There is a fatal flaw in
There is a fatal flaw in these drives.
If the ATA password is lost there is NO way to reset the drive and it is bricked with no hope!
Unlike other FDE drives, you CANNOT secure erase or reset the password or drive to the factory null state. Worse yet, if you do try to secure erase these drives, the ATA password will be lost and again the drive is dead.
Nobody knows why Intel made this fatal mistake, but they did.