Sequential Performance – HDTach, HDTune, File Copy, YAPT (sequential)
We are trying something different here. Folks tend to not like to click through pages and pages of benchmarks, so I'm going to weed out those that show little to no delta across different units (PCMark). I'm also going to group results by performance trait tested. We'll start with sequential performance:
HDTach:
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. HDTach tests sequential performance by issuing reads in a manner that was optimized more for HDD access, but this unique method has proven useful in evaluating the sequential response time of SSDs. The accesses are relatively small in size (2k), and are issued with a single working thread (QD=1). The end result is that devices with relatively IO high latency will not reach their ultimate rated speed.
Well that was unexpected – the Neutron XT turned in the fastest sequential write speed we've seen to date (from a SATA device). That is particularly impressive given that HDTune's access pattern is tough on many SSDs. Such was not the case with reads though, as the XT did not fare much better than its LAMD-driven predecessors.
HDTune:
HDTune tests a similar level of features as compared with HDTach, but with a different access pattern. Thus provides us with an additional set of benchmark numbers to compare between storage configurations. CPU utilization has proven negligible with modern processing horsepower, and is no longer included. Additionally, we do not include write performance due to HDTune's write access pattern not playing nicely with most SSDs we have tested it on.
HDTune uses much larger block transfer sizes (when configured to do so). The XT did well here, though the throughput had a bit more variance than we've seen in competing units.
PCPer File Copy Test
Our custom PCPer-FC test does some fairly simple file creation and copy routines in order to test the storage system for speed. The script creates a set of files of varying sizes, times the creation process, then copies the same files to another partition on the same hard drive and times the copy process. There are four file sizes that we used to try and find any strong or weak points in the hardware: 10 files @ 1000 MB each, 100 files @ 100 MB each, 500 files @ 10 MB each and 1000 files at 1 MB each.
The tool that does the file creation does so in a single threaded manner, and that doesn't seem to bother the Neutron XT one bit, as it sits among the best of the pack.
The Neutron XT *loves* sequential transfers, reading or writing, and that shows in the file copy test, where it actually bested the 850 Pro in a few tests. Impressive showing here.
YAPT:
YAPT (yet another performance test) is a benchmark recommended by a pair of drive manufacturers and was incredibly difficult to locate as it hasn't been updated or used in quite some time. That doesn't make it irrelevant by any means though, as the benchmark is quite useful. It creates a test file of about 100 MB in size and runs both random and sequential read and write tests with it while changing the data I/O size in the process. The misaligned nature of this test exposes the read-modify-write performance of SSDs and Advanced Format HDDs.
Despite its age, YAPT is able to give is fairly accurate throughput figures for multi-GB/sec transfers. The Neutron XT continues to impress here, turning in numbers near the top of the pack. This is impressive especially as this is the lowest capacity model, and we usually see at least some performance penalty with relatively lower die counts.
Thanks for the excellent
Thanks for the excellent review. It is probably me, but I find it hard to read confidently the io charts. Maybe you can make it so we can click the device on the right to turn on and off its curve. Then we could put one or more of them on the chart at a time.
“My inclination is to say that this is a great drive for the money, but without the actual pricing, the jury will remain out on that verdict until the drive actually launches,” you stated at the end. How can you make a qualitative statement about something you have no idea about? That is very misleading no matter the qualifications.
Allyn, do you have any
Allyn, do you have any thoughts on the suggestion in the first paragraph about the charts?
My ‘inclination’ is based on
My 'inclination' is based on the fact that it's a Neutron series SSD, and those have been cost-effective in the past.
On the charts, we're looking into better ways to display more data (dynamically even), but for now we're doing static images. I'll see if I can get a bit more distinction among the charted lines.
Maybe you could make each
Maybe you could make each name a js button that displays or hides the associated curve on the chart, or displays or hides different variations of the chart, but the latter is not practical.
At first I thought that the
At first I thought that the S3110 choking on certain file sizes was bizarre. However, after seeing the benchmarks around the web for the initial prototype the same dips were there. There’s been some tuning since then obviously.
I like the fact that they took at crack at accelerating compressed samples while maintaining competent speeds with incompressible files. Sandforce has had trouble in that area.
This is just another SATA 3 drive, and an oddly inconsistent one at that. It just comes out to be seemingly generic to me.
Yeah, their ‘acceleration’
Yeah, their 'acceleration' seems inconsistent, and is only effective on very compressible data (i.e. repeating patterns). This doesn't come up very often on an active system, as the majority of the repeating patterns would be 0's from TRIMmed areas, but those wouldn't be tracked in flash regardless.
ive had nothing but bad luck
ive had nothing but bad luck with Corsair Neutron drives in the past. Here’s hoping these new ones are more reliable.
I just don’t know how you can
I just don’t know how you can put up an SSD review without knowing pricing?
Well, the other option was to
Well, the other option was to not publish a review, but then we would not be covering an SSD that other review sites have covered…
I wonder how relative the
I wonder how relative the performance of this controller is to the Phison controller in the “Amazon Exclusive” Patriot Torch SSD that IS currently available for purchase…