Intel 520 SSD Review (Round Two) – RAID Testing at 1.5GB/s With Highpoint 2720SGL RAID Controller

PCMARK VANTAGE X64 HDD SUITE

Our final results of our testing with the Highpoint controller happen to be our favorite, PCMark Vantage. In PCMark Vantage the data simply cannot be manipulated, and a result is provided based on the transfer speeds observed in eight simulated user activities.  PCMark Vantage remains the gold standard of real life usage testing. This is also a widely accepted opinion held by many reviewers and storage enthusiasts. This benchmark uses both mixed read/write tests and is a good test for overall performance.

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

The PCMark Vantage HDD Suite was tested on the array and the results came in at a respectable score of 82112. While this is not much higher than a single drive score, one must take into consideration that tests used in the software are based on typical user scenarios and cannot fully utilize the RAID array to its full potential.  RAID arrays excel at resolving high load situations quickly, thus minimizing ‘wait’ times.

WINDOWS EXPERIENCE INDEX

The Win7 Experience Index (WEI) represents Microsoft’s method of rating computer systems and, more specific to our usage, provides a storage evaluation through a graduated rating system up to 7.9 on PC components and the system as a whole.

This benchmark is built into Windows and anyone can use it by simply typing:

• Go to Win Orb/All programs/Accessories and right click on the Command prompt;
• Click Run as Administrator
• In DOS, type winsat disk and hit enter.

The purpose of Winsat testing is to view the system as the Operating System does. These are the metrics that are important to the base performance of Windows. This is an extremely important benchmark for users who are utilizing their desktops in typical user patterns, such as gaming, browsing, etc.  These results show near-linear scaling with the SSD and controller combo.

For the lay person, a simple explanation is that you aren’t leaving any of the performance on the table from your drives. In many scenarios when using drives together in a RAID configuration you will lose some performance of the drives, as a whole. You gain tremendously, but lose a bit at the same time and this is not the case here.

The score of 832.32MB/s in the ‘Random 16.0 Read’ metric is very indicative of extremely good random speeds, which equate to very fast end-user speeds. This measurement is directly related to the “snappiness” of your computer.  Scores of the maximum 7.9 across the board tell the story!

AIDA 64

This benchmark will be used for an independent latency measurement so that we can verify the great results that we witnessed with the AS SSD benchmark. One of the great features of AIDA 64 as a testing tool is that it measures the latency to a fine point of granularity.  These results mirror those of the AS SSD bench.