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ANVIL STORAGE UTILITIES PROFESSIONAL (BETA)
You may not see this for long (and its definitely not common) but you get a freebee simply for reading! Over the last little while, we have been assisting with beta besting new benchmark software called Anvil Storage Utilities which is an absolutely amazing SSD benchmarking utility. Not only does it have a preset SSD benchmark, but also, it has included such things as endurance testing and threaded I/O read, write and mixed tests, all of which are very simple to understand and utilize in our benchmark testing. Recently, we published the exclusive public release here and, if you happen to check it out, there is a FREE download of the software! Lets see how the Sandisk Ultra fares on the Anvil Pro:
Things we particularly like about this software include system identification at the bottom left, storage identification at the bottom right as well as response time, total file size read, IOPS and tansfer speed for each disk access method. Something we particularly liked about this test was that the IOPS score of 45000 was well above the advertised specifications. Lets see if we can push it a bit higher:
The Anvil Pro has opened the door to adjusting the block size and queue depth with the click of a mouse and by simply moving the QD to 32, we were able to stretch IOPS to 46356 at 4k random write aligned disk access.
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
If you are new to testing and considering benchmark software, this is the best you can get because the program goes well beyond the results of simulated testing as we have already done. In comparing SATA 2.0 SSDs, we have reached the bandwidth limit and the performance of most new SATA 2 SSDs is as high as it can get with typical high sequential access speeds in the area of 280MB/s read and 270MB/s write.
We needed a way to differentiate these drives and to find a method that can actually put one drive above another and this is exactly what Vantage testing does. Its tests combined can provide an accurate comparison between drives and its tests individually can assist a smart shopper in finding the best SSD for their needs. Next to actual true to life testing which can take an insurmountable length of time, PCMark Vantage is the only program that can compare any SSD, side by side, regardless of SATA interface or controller in use.
SANDISK ULTRA SATA 2 240GB SSD
The Sandisk Ultra came through Vantage testing with a total of 42124 points which places it in the realm of upper tier SATA 2 SSDs. Although we have seen higher Vantage scores with the Runcore Pro V which placed over 5000 points higher with the same SF-1222 processor, the Sandisk placed above such popular solid state drives as the Samsung 470 series and Intel 310 that we reviewed previously. Lets check out the official SATA 2 SSD Hierachy chart!
INDEX
TEST PROTOCOL AND INITIAL TESTING
ANVIL PRO AND PCMARK VANTAGE PERFORMANCE