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TEST BENCH AND PROTOCOL
Our analysis today will be conducted with our new Asus Z77 Premium Test Bench.
In testing, our main objective is to obtain results as pure and as accurate as possible and we want to ensure that no anomalies slip through. Simply put, we want to provide you with the absolute best results the tested hardware can provide. Repetition in testing is standard and, if necessary, we may conduct specific tests in Windows 7 safe mode to ensure the OS has little to no influence on the end result.
In order to validate and confirm our findings, testing is supported by industry accepted benchmark programs. All results are displayed through capture of the actual benchmark for better understanding of the testing process by the reader.
We would like to thank ASUS (P8Z77-V Premium
), Intel (Core i7-3770K), Crucial (Ballistix), Corsair (H100) and Be Quiet (PSU/Fans) for supporting the build of our Z77 Premium Test Bench.
BENCHMARK SOFTWARE
The software we will be using for todays analysis is typical of many of our reviews and consists of ATTO Disk Benchmark, Crystal DiskMark, AS SSD, Anvil Storage Utilities and PCMark Vantage. We rely on these as they each have a way of supporting one another yet, at the same time, adding a new performance benchmark to the total picture. Much of the software is free and can be downloaded simply by clicking on the linked title.
PHISON PS3105-S5 CONTROLLER
This is the first time we have seen any controller, other than Marvell, in a Crucial/Micron product and we will be the first to say that this controller does what it is supposed to and nothing more. It is not going to be voted top of the class anytime soon and has been around for awhile.
We have reviewed both the Patriot Torqx 2 and Silicon Power E25 SSDs previously which alsomake use of the Phison PS3105S5.
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 both SSDs are capable of TRIM as it is not greyed out as with AAM.
They sold a Indilinx barefoot controlled M225 had similar performance to this drive even at sata2, can’t understand the thinking behind this drive at all. Phison ere great controllers anyway. Have a good day Les.
Missed a few letters there, meant to say Phison weren’t great controllers anyway. Where’s the edit button.
How about doing a summary of the best SATA2 SSDs, if one needed one today?
In the time of SATA 3, we do so very few SATA 2 SSDs as SATA 3 is just as compatible. Will consider such but most SSDs listed on the chart would be last gen SSDs…or rather… older release.
I’m afraid I’ve gotten a little lost in the technical details here, if someone doesn’t mind helping a brother out! I have a 2008 white Macbook (SATA) and want to upgrade to SSD. Is there a reason why I would pick the V4 over the M4 if not for a slightly cheaper price at this time? Or is there some reason I should consider the M4 over the V4? And, do I need any special mounting hardware or will it plug into the existing slot in my laptop?
m4 is sata3 which is backwards compatible with sata 2. sata 2 itself is backwards compatible with Sata1. if your mac is sata1 you should go with v4 and not m4
I’ve just purchased thw 256GB model and installed as an OS drive on my Macbook and it has worse performance than a HDD. Try multitasking with real world use and you’ll see how dire the drive is.
The V4 256gb version is HORRIBLE at multitasking and cannot perform a replay service which is a relatively lite read sample, smoothly! I am hugely disappointed with this ssd.
I was shocked at the performance of this V4 SSD. It is very similar to a spinning HDD and is the slowest SSD I have encountered. Shame on Crucial for ever releasing such a dullard.