How we test
Test bench |
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| CPU | Intel Core i5 2500K (3.3GHz, 6MB L3 cache, quad-core, LGA1155) | ||||||||
| Motherboard | Intel DP67BG | ||||||||
| Memory | 8GB Corsair Vengeance (9-9-9-24-2T @ 1,600MHz) | ||||||||
| Host hard drive | Crucial 256GB RealSSD C300 (SATA 6Gbps) | ||||||||
| Storage controllers | Intel P67 PCH (SATA 6Gbps, AHCI) | ||||||||
| Graphics card | AMD Radeon HD 6850 1GB | ||||||||
| Power supply | Corsair AX750 | ||||||||
| Operating system | Windows 7 Ultimate SP1, 64-bit | ||||||||
Comparison Drives |
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| Capacity | Controller | Firmware | Interface | RAID mode | TRIM support | Price* | Price per GB | |
| G.Skill Phoenix Pro | 40GB | SandForce SF-1222 | 2.1 | SATA 3Gbps | - | Yes | £80** | £2.0 |
| ADATA S511 | 60GB | SandForce SF-2281 | 319ABBF0 | SATA 6Gbps | - | Yes | £105 | £1.7 |
| Crucial Real SSD C300 | 64GB | Marvell 88SS9174-BJP2 | 002 | SATA 6Gbps | - | Yes | £90 | £1.4 |
| Corsair Force Series F80 | 80GB | SandForce SF-1222 | 1.1 | SATA 3Gbps | - | Yes | £145** | £1.8 |
| G.Skill Phoenix Pro (x2) | 80GB | SandForce SF-1222 | 2.1 | SATA 3Gbps | RAID 0 | No | £160** | £2.0 |
| Kingston SSDNow V+100 | 96GB | Toshiba T6UG1XBG | CJR10202 | SATA 3Gbps | - | Yes | £105 | £1.1 |
| ADATA S511 (x2) | 120GB | SandForce SF-2281 | 319ABBF0 | SATA 6Gbps | - | Yes | £210 | £1.7 |
| OCZ Vertex 2 | 120GB | SandForce SF-1222 | 1.11 | SATA 3Gbps | - | Yes | £155 | £1.3 |
| Patriot Inferno | 120GB | SandForce SF-1222 | 320A13F0 | SATA 3Gbps | - | Yes | £160 | £1.3 |
| Intel 510 Series | 120GB | Marvell 88SS9174-BKK2 | PPG2 | SATA 6Gbps | - | Yes | £220 | £1.8 |
| Corsair Force Series 3 | 120GB | SandForce SF-2281 | 1.2 | SATA 6Gbps | - | Yes | £170 | £1.4 |
| Patriot Wildfire | 120GB | SandForce SF-2281 | 319ABBF0 | SATA 6Gbps | - | Yes | £240 | £2.0 |
| OCZ RevoDrive | 120GB | SandForce SF-1222 (x2) | 1.20 | PCIe x4 | RAID 0 (internal) | No | £250 | £2.1 |
| Patriot Torqx 2 | 128GB | Phison PS3105-S5 | S5FAM005 | SATA 3Gbps | - | Yes | £160 | £1.3 |
| Crucial m4 | 128GB | Marvell 88SS9174-BKK2 | 0001 | SATA 6Gbps | - | Yes | £170 | £1.3 |
| Intel X25-M | 160GB | Intel PC29AS21BA0 | 2CV102M3 | SATA 3Gbps | - | Yes | £295 | £1.8 |
| Corsair Force Series F80 (x2) | 160GB | SandForce SF-1222 | 1.1 | SATA 3Gbps | RAID 0 | No | £190 | £1.8 |
| OCZ Vertex 3 | 240GB | SandForce SF-2281 | 1.11 | SATA 6Gbps | - | Yes | £425 | £1.8 |
| OCZ RevoDrive X2 | 240GB | SandForce SF-1222 (x4) | 1.20 | PCIe x4 | RAID 0 (internal) | No | £480 | £2.0 |
| Crucial RealSSD C300 | 256GB | Marvell 88SS9174-BJP2 | 0006 | SATA 3Gbps | - | Yes | £335 | £1.3 |
| Crucial m4 (x2) | 256GB | Marvell 88SS9174-BKK2 | 0001 | SATA 6Gbps | RAID 0 | No | £340 | £1.3 |
| Intel 320 Series | 300GB | Intel PC29AS21BA0 | 4PC10302 | SATA 3Gbps | - | Yes | £415 | £1.4 |
| Samsung HD103SJ HDD | 1TB | N/A, hard-disk | 1AJ100E4 | SATA 3Gbps | - | N/A | £40 | £0.04 |
| Samsung HD103SJ HDD (x2) | 2TB | N/A, hard-disk | 1AJ100E4 | SATA 3Gbps | RAID 0 | N/A | £80 | £0.04 |
| *Approximate price at time of writing **Discontinued model, no longer available |
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Benchmarks |
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| ATTO Disk Benchmark | The freeware ATTO benchmark provides basic sequential speed results for both read and write operations. Using the default queue depth of four, we record read and write speeds during 1MB transfers. |
| 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. |
| AS SSD | Another freeware benchmark, AS SSD is designed primarily for testing solid-state storage. We run the benchmark and record the drive's overall read and write scores. The final numbers take into account sequential speeds, input/output performance and access time. |
| Iometer | Iometer is an I/O subsystem measurement tool originally developed by Intel. To measure a drive's I/O performance, we set the benchmark to utilise 4KB transfers in a random spread. Read and write distribution is set to 50 per cent, and queue depth at 32. The test is run for two minutes and we record the total I/Os per second. |
| PCMark Vantage | Emulating real-world use, PCMark Vantage spits out a bunch of data on the relative speed of the drives when undertaking common tasks. We record Windows startup, application load time and gaming performance. |
Heck, we were debating throwing the kitchen sink in the comparison line-up. A total of 23 other storage setups will determine where two small-capacity SandForce SF-2281 drives sit in the pecking order.
The drives to watch out for are the Corsair Force 3 Series 120 and the Patriot Wildfire, which also uses the SF-2281 controller but with some nifty Toggle Mode NAND.
We test the drives with the benchmark run in a preset order after each SSD has been scrubbed clean using HDD Erase 4, minimising the chance of reporting anomalous numbers.
