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TSSDR TEST BENCH AND PROTOCOL
SSD Testing at TSSDR differs slightly depending on whether we are looking at consumer or enterprise SSDs. For consumer SSDs, our goal is to test in a system that has been optimized with our SSD Optimization Guide, although CPU C States have not been changed at all. Benchmarks for consumer testing are also benchmarks with a fresh drive so, not only can we verify that manufacturer specifications are in line but also, so the consumer can replicate our tests to confirm that they have an SSD that is top-notch. We even provide links to most of the benchmarks used in the report.
SYSTEM COMPONENTS
Our newest Test Bench build was the result of some great relationships and purchase; our appreciation goes to be quiet, Corsair, Crucial, Intel, EVGA and InWin for their support in our project. Our choice of components is very narrow, in that, we choose only what we believe to be among the best available and links are provided to each that will assist in hardware pricing and availability, should the reader be interested in purchase.
| PC CHASSIS: | InWin D-Frame Open Air Chassis |
| MOTHERBOARD: | ASUS Maximus VI Z87 MotherBoard |
| CPU: |
Intel Core i7-4770K CPU |
| CPU COOLER: | Corsair H100i CPU Cooler |
| POWER SUPPLY: | be quiet Dark Power Pro 10 1000W PSU |
| SYSTEM COOLING: | be quiet Silent Wings 2 PC Fans |
| GRAPHICS CARD: |
EVGA GTX 770 Superclocked with ACX Cooler |
| MEMORY: | Crucial Ballistix Tactical Tracer 1600Mhz Memory |
| KEYBOARD: | Corsair Vengeance K95 Mechanical Gaming Keyboard |
| MOUSE: | Corsair Vengeance M95 MMO/RTS Laser Mouse |
| ROUTER: | NetGear R6300 AC1750 Dual Band Gigabit WiFi Router |
| HBA | HighPoint RocketU 1144C 4 x USB 3.0 20Gb/s HBA |
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BENCHMARK SOFTWARE
The software we will be using for today’s analysis is typical of many of our reviews and consists of ATTO Disk Benchmark, Crystal Disk Info, Crystal DiskMark and AS SSD. In consumer reports, we prefer to test with easily accessible software that the consumer can obtain, and in many cases, we even provide links. Our selection of software allows each to build on the last , and also, to provide validation to results already obtained.
Crystal Disk Info provides some excellent information about the SSD itself to include its health, product information, ‘power on’ information as well as the characteristics of the SSD. We can see that the SSD is capable of TRIM as it is not grayed out as with AAM and APM
Looking at the Crystal DiskInfo result, we can tell that the SSD inside is the ADATA SX900 that we had reviewed previously and, as well, that this external SSD was capable of TRIM. What we found surprising, however, was the amount of host reads and writes on the drive before received. As this is a 128GB SSD, we can see that it has been filled almost 3 times in host writes alone.
USB ATTACHED SCSI PROTOCOL AND THE SE720
The latest and greatest in USB 3.0 is USB Attached SCSI Protocol (UASP), sometimes termed SuperSpeed, and it increases the speed of USB 3 significantly. We had a good look at this previously in our AngelBird SSD2Go External SSD Review where speeds of over 450MB/s for both read and write data transfer, were seen. SuperSpeed effective doubles USB 3.0 performance, whereas USB 3.0 was more than 4 times that of USB 2.0. If you are interested in reading up on the differences between USB 3.0 and that of UASP/Superspeed, the best article that I am aware of was written by Andrew Ku of Tom’s Hardware, but suffice it to say that SuperSpeed theoretically allows close to full SSD speeds to run through a USB 3.0 UASP port.
All is not perfect in the world of SuperSpeed USB 3.0 though. If you want it, not only does your storage device have to be UASP capable, but also, your system does as well. For instance, we can effective test the ADATA DashDrive Elite SE720 External SSD only because our system contains the newest ASUS Maximus VI Extreme motherboard with all USB 3.0 ports being SuperSpeed ports. If your system doesn’t support this, you might check out our report of the Highpoint RocketU 4-Port USB 3.0 HBA, each port capable of SuperSpeed 5Gbps transfer speeds.
does a UASP require a special cable to get full speed?
Any device that has UASP contained will include the cable. As for testing this to validate that question, we cannot as we haven’t a similar cable. There are no markings on the cable to differentiate it from any other…
Wait…let me correct myself. the answer is no, there is no special cable required and we confirmed that in our testing of the Angelbird external SSDs.