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PCMARK VANTAGE x64 HDD SUITE
The SSD Review uses benchmark software called PCMark Vantage x64 HDD Suite to create testing scenarios that might be used in the typical user experience. There are eight tests in all and the tests performed record the speed of data movement in MB/s to which they are then given a numerical score after all of the tests are complete. The simulations are as follows:
- Windows Defender In Use
- Streaming Data from storage in games such as Alan Wake which allows for massive worlds and riveting non-stop action
- Importing digital photos into Windows Photo Gallery
- Starting the Vista Operating System
- Home Video editing with Movie Maker which can be very time consuming
- Media Center which can handle video recording, time shifting and streaming from Windows media center to an extender such as XBox
- Cataloging a music library
- Starting applications
CRUCIAL M4 128GB 6 GBPS SSD RESULTS
The Crucial M4 128GB SSD flew across the plate with an unbelievable 61750 Total PCMark Vantage points, surpassing that of even its 256GB brother which we couldn’t believe. In fact, we ran both drives 3 time and the 128GB beat out the 256 GB each time, as narrow as the difference was. Lets see how it fares against the Intel 510 series SATA 6Gbps SSD:
Lets take a look now at the new SATA 3 roundup:
CONCLUSIONS
The Crucial M4 128GB SSD truly plays its part in demonstrating what an upper tier solid state drive is made of. Considering that 128GB SSDs that utilize 2Xnm NAND have a visible drop in write performance in most synthetic tests, the M4 128GB seems to have broken that barrier, not only with synthetic test results in HDTune Pro well above its specifications, but also, it wouldn’t seem logical that it could better the M4 256GB which has superior high sequential write benchmarks. This result could clearly be the aftermath of the 128GB having a monster low 4k random write result of 105MB/s compared to the 256GBs result of 98MB/s.
All in all, the 3 Crucial M4s that we have reviewed have all shown themselves as great products and we don’t think the consumer can go wrong with any of these!
I know that the 64 gig versions are going out of fashion, especially when you factor in sequential write performance and the drop in nand prices, but for comparison purposes it would be really good to include numbers for 64 gig drives, from Crucial and OCZ, so that we can make an honest comparison for real world usage situations.
I mean, you have the C300 in your tables / data, it would be good to continue the comparison from generation to generation.