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Review: Corsair P256 256GB Solid State Drive: designed for performance junkies

by Tarinder Sandhu on 18 May 2009, 05:00 4.0

Tags: X25-M, Samsung Spinpoint F1-DT 750GB, Corsair P256 256GB, Intel (NASDAQ:INTC), Samsung (005935.KS), Corsair

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qasbe

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Iometer write-performance analysis

Reading is only one facet of performance. Let's turn our attention to writing speed.

IOMeter - 64KB sequential write speed
Samsung Spinpoint F1-DT 750GBIntel X25-M SSD 80GBCorsair P256 SSD 256GB
66.6370.52156.58


Going back to the 64KB block size, the sequential write speed of the Corsair P256 is excellent, easily beating both comparison drives'.

IOMeter - 4KB random write
Samsung Spinpoint F1-DT 750GBIntel X25-M SSD 80GBCorsair P256 SSD 256GB
0.7849.125.91


But what most drives find difficult is in writing small files on a random basis. Intel has tuned the X25-M for excellent small-file performance, clearly shown by the results, but the Corsair's performance is reasonably good for an SSD. Older solid-state drives equipped with JMicron controllers often benchmark at 0.1MB/s in this test, and any drive is only as good as its slowest speed.

IOMeter - IOPS (write)
Samsung Spinpoint F1-DT 750GBIntel X25-M SSD 80GBCorsair P256 SSD 256GB
198.54125751511.93


No surprises here, either.

IOMeter - average write latency
Samsung Spinpoint F1-DT 750GBIntel X25-M SSD 80GBCorsair P256 SSD 256GB
15.10.241.98


IOMeter - maximum write latency
Samsung Spinpoint F1-DT 750GBIntel X25-M SSD 80GBCorsair P256 SSD 256GB
1034.6193.3627.94


Latency - or lack of - is very good on the SSDs.