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 (in many cases they don't cache reads at all), so burst testing typically results in figures that are lower than the sequential throughput figures, regardless of controller used.
HDTach 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 lower the QD=1 latency of the controller pipeline, the better the numbers we see from this test. It doesn't equate to real-world maximum throughput, but it does mean something for analysis, which is why we include these results.
More realistic sequential figures are present on the next page (HDTune).
Good to see that OCZ is
Good to see that OCZ is staying competitive in both price and performance/reliability.
I wonder if SATA 4 is in the works. Its just the SATA 3 interface holding SSDs back and PCI-E is the enthusiasts interface, while Thunderbolt isn’t enticing in terms of cost.
Sorry, but with SSDs like the
Sorry, but with SSDs like the M500 on the market you are seriously saying this is a good SSD? wow. It is terrible, a huge step backwards.
…so should I just quote
…so should I just quote other reviewers that openly state the M500 is a "middle-of-the-pack" drive? The only thing it has on the competition is its availability in a high capacity (960GB), and at that price, supply is so constained that in nearly a month there are only 7 newegg reviews. Oh, and it's still out of stock. Bonus.
That quote is from the same review site you claim to be superior further down in the posts here. Perhaps you should actually read their reviews instead of randomly fluffing and bashing.
LOL you are using PCMark 5?
LOL you are using PCMark 5? wow. and Iometer from 2007? Someone tell Marty to get back in the Delorean and come to the present time! Cmon Mcfly!
Iometer 2007 writes data that
Iometer 2007 writes data that is less compressible compared to newer builds. We stuck with 2007 because newer versions were giving an excessively unfair advantage to SandForce controllers. The most recent 1.1.0 RC1 added a selection box for data compressibility, but the results have proven inconsistent in my testing and I believe it's not ready for production use (it's an RC after all). This is the result of weeks / months of my own research covering several platforms and dozens of different SSD models.
Newer versions of PCMark are running similar / slightly tweaked traces and add a bunch of extra results that tend to confuse people more than the necessary result of just figuring out which drives perform better than others. Alternatively, some sites will just publish the "storage suite" figure of the newer PCMark versions (a *single number*), to avoid such confusion. I feel that dumbs down the results too far to be meaningful. PCMark 05 gives us a few *good* results of sufficient granularity to evaluate drive performance. We use Vantage for SSD caching tests mainly because it hits the drive with IO's over a larger test file, which is more representative of OS / application launches which would need to be cached.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it. I do not subscribe to the megapixel race of benchmarks. Graphics benches must be updated to support newer technology. The only new tech beyond AHCI for SSDs is TRIM, which *no* benchmarks support as it occurs on the kernel level, meaning that all of those shiney new benchmarks you see out there do nothing more than use different IO patterns that are not necessarily better or more representative of real world usage.
…and for the record, Mcfly ran circles around Biff.
The 2010 versions of IOmeter
The 2010 versions of IOmeter are perfectly fine and used by all manufacturers and validation houses for testing purposes. Let me help you a bit here since your month of discovery didn’t figure it out…it is only the Psuedo random that provides inconsistent results, and for a purpose. It is meant to test varying compressibility workloads.
The incompressible and fully compressible settings are just fine. The 100% compressible data is the exact same as the version that you are using. 2007 writes the same 100% compressible data, so claiming that the other versions give unrealistic results is ludicrous, you are using the very version that leans most favorably to SF controllers. Iometer 2010 has other architectural changes that also allow it to interface with modern drivers and operating systems in a more efficient manner. To claim that there ‘no new tech other than ACHI’ only illustrates your lack of complete knowledge of this subject. Disappointing.
PCM05 is outdated, period. There is a reason that benchmarking technology advances and improves, and that is to be more representative of the ‘new normal’. How much uncompressed high definition (1080P, 4K) do you think they were doing in 2005? Has anyone even heard of F-Secure, the program used for virus testing in that bench? Do you really feel that this is representative of today’s enhanced, newer, more efficient virus programs? It is a defunct program.
It also uses traces from 3dmark 2001. what were they testing back then, DOOM? Go back and read the blurb above your own results, and then tell us that those tests really have anything to do with today’s usage. You are almost ten years behind. This is why your test results have lost relevance, and also why these reviews arent held in as high esteem as they were even a few years ago.
Leadtek® Winfast® DVD??? are you kidding me? This isn’t about racing to get new benchmarks, or trying to keep up with the Joneses. This is about presenting relevant data to your readers to further their purchasing decisions, and this isn’t doing it. Not even close.
Lazyness is what it is.
“Alternatively, some sites
“Alternatively, some sites will just publish the “storage suite” figure of the newer PCMark versions (a *single number*), to avoid such confusion.”
What a ridiculous statement. There are a total of 6 traces in the HDD test for PCMark Vantage and PCMark 7. It outputs results in all of those categories. Have you even bothered to run these programs?
You are testing fresh out of box results on unconditioned SSDs, it is the most unrealistic results that you can possibly provide. This is like some joke from thessdreview.
Here, let me give you an example of real testing…
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2013/06/05/sandisk_240_gb_extreme_ii_ssd_review/6#.UbPPI5wST5U
Ok, so you showed me a page
Ok, so you showed me a page that takes a similar round of results and just spreads them out over 6 charts instead of my spreading those same results over two charts. More != better.
I've run PCMark Vantage and PCMark 7 on all SSDs tested since those benches were released. Vantage is good for demonstrating the effects of caching under Intel RST and SSHD configs, but that difference comes from the way the different benchmark lays down the test file.
All samples are preconditioned prior to testing, and conditioned again after operations that might TRIM areas of the drive. This is common sense. I had the long term conditioning and evaluation of SSDs figured out a long time ago: https://pcper.com/reviews/Storage/Long-term-performance-analysis-Intel-Mainstream-SSDs
P.S. I know who you are. Go astroturf elsewhere.
I’d give the Crucial M500 the
I’d give the Crucial M500 the nod too,….
I’d like to buy a 960GB model (~$600) some time soon. Definitely by the holiday season unless something faster, bigger and cheaper comes out.
The OCZ Vertex 450 specs look food though,..
SSD’S in general……I have
SSD’S in general……I have both types of drives. I do video editing. Not that big of a differance in performance by the way.. The biggest let down was when ( no lectures about backing up please) One drive failed. The very expensive data salvage co. said everything was lost. “If it was a HDD, we could have retrieved the data off the platters”. Make sure you back up everything if you want to use one of these drives. These drives, at this point, are a disapointment. Maybe after a few years I will check back.
And if you used only HDDs,
And if you used only HDDs, you wouldn’t have bothered with any backups? You sir, are asking for trouble.