Internals, Testing Methodology and System Setup
Internals:
Being mSATA, these are already mostly 'open', but there is still some disassembly that can be done. First we'll take a look at the rear of the SSD:
Here we see the Marvell controller and a pair of Toshiba flash packages.
Flipping the SSD over and peeking under the label, we see another pair of flash packages, some power handling circuitry, and a bit of DDR for use by the Marvell controller on the flip side.
Testing Methodology
**NOTE**: We used an mSATA interposer PCB to connect this SSD to our usual desktop testbed. This ensures the bottleneck remains the SSD under test.
Our tests are a mix of synthetic and real-world benchmarks. PCMark, 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
We currently employ a pair of testbeds. A newer ASUS P8Z77-V Pro/Thunderbolt and an ASUS Z87-PRO. Variance between both boards has been deemed negligible.
PC Perspective would like to thank ASUS, Corsair, and Kingston for supplying some of the components of our test rigs.
| Hard Drive Test System Setup | |
| CPU | Intel Core i7-4770K |
| Motherboard | ASUS P8Z77-V Pro/TB / ASUS Z87-PRO |
| Memory | Kingston HyperX 4GB DDR3-2133 CL9 |
| Hard Drive | G.Skill 32GB SLC SSD |
| Sound Card | N/A |
| Video Card | Intel® HD Graphics 4600 |
| Video Drivers | Intel |
| Power Supply | Corsair CMPSU-650TX |
| DirectX Version | DX9.0c |
| Operating System | Windows 8.1 X64 |
- PCMark05
- Yapt
- IOMeter
- HDTach
- HDTune
- PCPer File Copy Test
As always Allan, great
As always Allan, great review. In the day and age of multiple storage options, I do have a hard time differentiating results in the tests provided. For relevance sake, and this is only a question, try and reduce compared drives for easier understandability. As in top 2 direct corporation drives (by connection type and $/Gb) and one of the others; ie SATA, mSATA, PCIe, M.2. With the ever expanding storage market,It’s getting flooded,and just want easier to discern choices. In any case, you house at PCper rock! Keep up the excellent work and keep asking question as to what happens next.