Test Methodology
            
  
    
      HEXUS SSD Test Bench | 
    
    
      | Hardware Components | 
      Product Page | 
    
    
      | Processor | 
      Intel Core i7-8700K (overclocked to 4.8GHz) | 
      intel.com | 
    
    
      | Motherboard | 
      Asus ROG Maximus X Hero | 
      asus.com | 
    
    
      | Graphics Card | 
      MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Gaming X Trio | 
      msi.com | 
    
    
      | Memory | 
      G.Skill Trident Z 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4-3200 | 
      gskill.com | 
    
    
      | Power Supply | 
      be quiet! Dark Power Pro 11 1,000W | 
      bequiet.com | 
    
    
      | Primary Storage | 
      256GB WD Black PCIe SSD | 
      wdc.com | 
    
    
      | Secondary Storage | 
      1TB Crucial MX300 SATA SSD | 
      crucial.com | 
    
    
      | Chassis | 
      be quiet! Dark Base 700 | 
      bequiet.com | 
    
    
      | Monitor | 
      iiyama ProLite X4071UHSU-B1 | 
      iiyama.com | 
    
    
      | Operating system | 
      Windows 10 Pro | 
      microsoft.com | 
    
  
  
    Comparison Drive Configurations | 
  
  
    | Model | 
     Capacity | 
    Form Factor | 
    Controller | 
    Firmware | 
    Protocol / Interface | 
    Reviewed 
Price | 
    HEXUS Review | 
  
  
  | Corsair Force Series MP510 | 
    960GB | 
    M.2 2280 | 
    Phison-E12 | 
    ECFM11.0 | 
    NVMe / PCIe x4 | 
    £220 | 
    Dec 2018 | 
  
  
    | Crucial MX300 | 
    1TB | 
    2.5in | 
    Marvell 88SS1074 | 
    M0CR060 | 
    AHCI / SATA 3.0 | 
    N/A | 
    N/A | 
  
  
    | HyperX Fury RGB | 
    480GB | 
    2.5in | 
    Marvell 88SS1074 | 
    000056R8 | 
    AHCI / SATA 3.0 | 
    £115 | 
    Dec 2018 | 
  
  
    | Samsung 950 Pro | 
    256GB | 
    M.2 2280 | 
    Samsung UBX | 
    2B0QBXX7 | 
    NVMe / PCIe x4 | 
    N/A | 
    N/A | 
  
  
    | WD Black NVMe | 
    1TB | 
    M.2 2280 | 
    WD | 
    B35590WD | 
    NVMe / PCIe x4 | 
    £375 | 
    Apr 2018 | 
  
  
    | WD Black SN750 NVMe | 
    1TB | 
    M.2 2280 | 
    WD | 
    B35590WD | 
    NVMe / PCIe x4 | 
    £230 | 
    Jan 2019 | 
  
  
    | WD Blue SN500 NVMe | 
    500GB | 
    M.2 2280 | 
    WD | 
    201000WD | 
    NVMe / PCIe x2 | 
    £67 | 
    Mar 2019 | 
  
  
    Benchmarks | 
  
  
    | CrystalDiskMark | 
    CrystalDiskMark provides various storage benchmarks, but we're interested in the returned 32-thread 4K performance numbers to see how well the drives fare when tasked with numerous small transfers. | 
  
  
    | DiskBench | 
    A small program that accurately measures the time taken to read and write folders on to the same drive. | 
  
    PCMark 8 | 
    PCMark 8's storage test is a collection of workloads that isolate the performance of the PC's storage system.  | 
  
  
    | Final Fantasy XIV  Stormblood | 
    An alternative storage benchmark used to gauge game load time. |