HDTune 4.01
HDTune tests a similar level of features that HDTach does, but with a slightly different access pattern and thus can provide us with an additional set of benchmark numbers to compare between storage configurations. Here we can get the minimum, maximum and average transfer rates as well as the burst rates and access times. CPU utilization has proven negligible with modern processing horsepower, and is no longer included.
This test shows just how inconsistent burst testing an SSD can be, and here’s as good of an example as any. We know octane does way better than 160MB/sec on reads, yet here HDTune gives poor results. For now we’ll just use these as a qualitative cross check between the 520 and other SandForce units. In that respect, it passes muster.
No surprises here, as the 520 goes, well, 520MB/sec – just like the other SandForce driven units.
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.