Intel 320 Series 300GB SATA II SSD Review – Bench Protocol and Initial Tests

This is The SSD Review Test Bench and a quick click on the photo will bring it up full size for closer inspection.

TEST PROTOCOL

• Our main goal in testing is to ensure that all test results are as accurate as they can be and no anomalies slip through. We conduct all tests three times 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.
• We prefer to use as many benchmark programs as possible to assist with confirmation of results and provide the reader with the actual tests as received to avoid any confusion when unexpected test benchmarks are received.

BENCH CONFIGURATION

MOTHERBOARD: Gigabyte P67A-UD7 ATX LGA 1155 Intel SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0

CPU: Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor

RAM: Corsair Vengeance 8GB DDR3 1600 SDRAM

GPU: MSI N560GTX-Ti Twin Frozr II OC Edition 1024MB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0

POWER: Corsair Professional Series AX850 850W ATX12V v2.31 / EPS12V v2.92 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply

CHASSIS: Fractal-Design Define XL ATX Mid Tower Silent Computer Case

CPU COOLER: Corsair H50 High Performance Water CPU Cooler

NETWORK: DiLink Powerline AV Network With D-Link DIR 655 Wifi N Router

DVD: Sony Black 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 24X DVD Writer

STORAGE: 3 x Icy Dock 4×1 SSD Racks for 5.25″ Device Bay

PRELIMINARY BENCHMARKS

ATTO Disk Benchmark V. 2.46

Crystal DiskMark x64 V. 3.0

Initial testing of both ATTO and Crystal DiskMark are both as expected with high sequential speeds in the same ballpark as manufacturers specifications.  High sequential reads of 281MB/s, as shown in the ATTO test, are right at the top of the SATA II bandwidth and SATA II SSDs just don’t get higher than that.

Pg1 – Introduction and Physical Characteristics

Pg2 – Bench Protocol and Initial Tests

Pg3 – HDTune Pro Benchmarks

Pg4 – AS SSD and PCMark Vantage

Pg5 – SSD Comparison and Conclusions

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