ADATA Premier Pro SP300 24GB mSATA Cache Solid State Drive Review

1. Introduction2. ADATA Premier Pro SP300 mSATA SSD3. Testing Methodology 4. Synthetic: ATTO Disk Benchmark5. Synthetic: CrystalDiskMark6. Synthetic: IOMeter7. Synthetic: PCMark 78. Real World Testing: Windows 7 Boot Time9. Real World Testing: Program Launching 10. Real World Testing: File Opening11. Real World Testing: Game Load Time12. Closing Thoughts13. View All Pages

For testing, the drives are all wiped and reset to factory settings by HDDerase V4. We try to use free or easily available programs and some real world testing so you can compare our findings against your own system.

The test system was shut down between each test. This ensures that a drive's built-in cache doesn't have an effect on the results.

According to Intel, Smart Response Technology works by caching data I/O blocks to the SSD that benefit the most from acceleration—for example, your most frequently used applications, games, and OS data.

Intel's SRT technology requires more than 1 run of any task to offer its best performance. We accounted for this by measuring the initial performance (Run 1) and final performance (Run 3).

Test System:

• Processor: Intel Core i7 2600k.
• Motherboard: Asus P8Z77-V.
• Memory: Patriot Viper 3 IEM Limited Edition 2133MHz 8GB
• CPU Cooler: Prolimatech Megahalems.
• Graphics card: Radeon HD 4870 1GB with Arctic Cooling Accelero Twin Turbo Pro.
• Power supply: Corsair TX650.
• OS: Windows 7 Professional 64-bit.

Comparison Drives (synthetic benchmarks):

• 128GB Kingston V100 (Clean & empty).
• 320GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 (Clean & empty).
• 24GB ADATA Premier Pro SP300 (Clean & empty).
• 320GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 & 24GB ADATA Premier Pro SP300 (OS installed & Intel SRT caching enabled).

Comparison Drives (real world tests):

• 128GB Kingston V100 (OS installed).
• 320GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 (OS installed).
• 320GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 & 24GB ADATA Premier Pro SP300 (OS installed & Intel SRT caching enabled).

Software used:

• ATTO
• CrystalDiskMark
• IOMeter
• PCMark 7
• Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
• 2x custom .BAT files
• Battlefield 3

We used a 320GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 HDD as the OS drive for testing the ADATA Premier Pro SP300 SSD in an Intel SRT caching configuration. This modern hard drive offers competitive speeds and represents good value for money – something that this review's readers will crave.

For testing, we benchmarked the performance of our Seagate Barracuda HDD alone. We then configured the system for use with the ADATA Premier Pro SP300 SSD and Intel SRT (SSD Caching), before repeating the tests. This will allow us to accurately measure the performance differentials between a stand-alone hard drive and the HDD & SSD caching configuration.

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