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Crystalmark is a useful benchmark to measure theoretical performance levels of hard drives and SSD’s. We are using V3.0 x64. We use this program to test the storage options in the system.
The 5,400 rpm 2.5 inch mechanical drive isn't a great performer, peaking between 85 Mb/s and 95 Mb/s in the sequential tests. Obviously this drive was chosen to lower the cost of the Gladiator build, but it is a major bottleneck for overall system performance.
ATTO results mirror the CrystalDiskMark findings. the drive is limited in speed. Maximum sequential performance in this test is around 100 MB/s in both the read and write tests.
How does this affect real world performance? The system takes around 50 seconds to boot up and become responsive and overall performance is very weak. We would try and swap this out for a small, expensive Solid State Drive, and use this mechanical drive for storage duties only.
How much extra would it have cost to include a 64GB SSD? including a 2.5 inch 5,400 rpm laptop drive seems weird.
getting a system out at £500 quid with everything ‘cool’ in it, is difficult. I think this is quite good. Maybe dropping the LE to a HD7850 and putting in an SSD would have worked out the same price, but overall a better all round performance?
@ Davis. I dont agree. its easy to upgrade with an SSD later, for say £60, and you dont have to bin the 500gb mechniacal drive in the system. the hD7850 is much weaker than a HD7870 Tahiti LE and you would have to bin the HD7850 for an upgrade later.
But if you had an SSD in the system then you could save that £60, and get another HD7850 for crossfire, they are cheap right now, that would buy half of one. and you would be faster than a single HD7870.
The CX500 can’t handle 4 PCI E connectors, it only has 2, so Crsossfire is out of the question, unless its low end hardware.
Have just received one of these systems for my son. Nicely put together. The 7870 Tahiti LE was by far the better choice as they have used a micro ATX mobo that does no support Crossfire. Installing an SSD later will be the way we go.
Also to let folk know, the system comes in the case box with the mobo box taped to the top with all the driver CD’s etc. That then comes in a bigger box with more than enough protection for a sate journey. Our one arrived with the mobo box looking like new. Looking forward to giving it a run later.