For testing, the drives are all wiped and reset to factory settings by HDDerase V4. We try to use free programs and some real world testing so you can compare our findings against your own system.
This is a good way to measure potential upgrade benefits.
CPU: Intel Core i7 980x @ 4.4ghz
Cooler: Noctua NH D14 (3 fan setup)
Motherboard: Sapphire Pure Black X58
System Hard Drives: C300 Crucial 256GB, 2x2TB Western Digital
Memory: Kingston PC3-10700@ 2000mhz 6GB 9-10-8-9-28 timings
Sata Interface: Highpoint RocketRAID 620 SATA Controller
PSU: Corsair AX1200W
Graphics: Sapphire HD6870 Flex Edition
Chassis: Silverstone Raven 2
Operating System: Windows 7 64 bit Ultimate
Monitor: Dell U2410
Other Drives for comparisons:
Corsair F100 100GB
OCZ Vertex 2 120GB
Crucial Real SSD C300 64GB
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB
Software:
Atto Disk Benchmark
HD Tach
CrystalMark
AS-SSD Benchmark
IOMeter
STALKER: Call Of Pripyat
All our results were achieved by running each test five times with every configuration. Median averages were extrapolated from the results – this ensures that any glitches are removed from the results. Trim is confirmed as running by typing fsutil behavior query disabledeletenotify into the command line. A response of disabledeletenotify =0 confirms TRIM is active.
Read about this elsewhere and was disappointed then, even more so now. Not what we expected from intel. they should be making their own controllers.
Yeah, pretty much what I thought. Marvell controller was great with crucial used it a long time ago and the tuning has helped with read performance. Its just too little to late imo from intel. the timing is all against them
Looks good for a boot drive, which I would think a lot of people want/need.
Shame about the I.O performance on small files, it was always a weakness of the marvell controller. I feel a bit annoyed Intel didnt make their own drive, like they did before. it feels more like a ‘placeholder’ drive until their next one. I hope so anyway.
The 250GB drive is much better, but its 450 quid. You can get an OCZ revo drive for that. I know which I would take.
Im glad you did the real world tests, I was about to give up on this. but it seems very good for a boot drive. tempted tbh, as I know Intel have the best warranty system on the planet.
Please don’t just post the score of AS SSD as most of it comes out of one part of the bench (4k QD64). The score is really bad for comparing SSDs.
Otherwise great review.