Corsair Neutron XTi SSD Review (480GB)

REAL WORLD FILE TRANSFER

We also wanted to see how performance was in a real world use when transferring large files to the SSD. For this test we are going to simply stress write performance by transferring over a 30GB folder of movies off of a 512GB Samsung 950 Pro to the test SSDs and time how long it takes. Once complete we can calculate the average speed. For reference we have included both a 2.5″ and 3.5″ WD Blue HDD.

The above result was expected considering our previous benchmarking results. Write speeds averaged around 549MB/s during the 30GB transfer. This result places it in line with many other mainstream and high-end SSDs. Let’s see how well it performs in our power testing.

POWER CONSUMPTION

For our power consumption testing, we have the drive connected to the system as a secondary drive. To record the wattage, we are now utilizing a Quarch Technology Programmable Power Module. It allows us to accurately measure power consumption over time and is flexible enough to allow us to test any SSD that comes our way.

Our power analysis may change as time goes on, but for now we are looking at just a few metrics with the main goal of measuring our results against the manufacturer’s ratings. Because most consumer systems are at idle for about 80% of the time, idle power consumption is an important measure to look at when understanding the efficiency of a drive.

In the chart above we can see that SSDs are magnitudes more efficient than standard HDDs. At 0.116W the Corsair is not that thirsty at idle, and the result is acceptable for a drive of its stature. Looking at a similar drive, the Zotac Premium Edition SSD on the other hand, we can see they were able to tweak their firmware just enough to consume about 40% less.

POWER EFFICIENCY

Finally, we wanted to post up a graph of the power efficiency of the SSDs in comparison. We are looking at MB/s per Watt in this graph. The higher the result, the better.

In the chart above shows us similar a result to that of the 30GB transfer speed chart, one we were anticipating. The Corsair Neutron XTi is not the best, nor is it the worst in terms of efficiency, but instead it is average. The PNY CS2211, Zotac Premium Edition, SanDisk Extreme Pro, Crucial MX200 and MX300, Kingston Hyper X Savage and Samsung 850 EVO are all a bit more efficient alternatives if you are looking for efficiency during writes.