OCZ RevoDrive 350 PCIe SSD Review (480GB) – LSI SandForce Driven Once Again

CRYSTAL DISK BENCHMARK VER. 3.0 X64

Crystal Disk Benchmark is used to measure read and write performance through sampling of highly compressible data (oFill/1Fill), or random data which is, for the most part, incompressible. Traditionally, LSI SandForce controlled SSDs did better with highly compressible data than that of incompressible data.  Let’s take a look at the results, compressible on the left and incompressible on the right.

Testing the Revo 350 with compressible data differs slightly from that of incompressible data as can be expected with LSI SandForce flash controllers that use compression in storage.  Overall performance is less than we might see in ATTO which is the typical relationship of these programs, compressible data being favored in all write transfer operations.  As much as enthusiasts praise pure incompressible performance, one needs to remember that there is a much greater need for storage devices that excel in the transfer of both compressible and incompressible data.

AS SSD BENCHMARK VER 1.6

The toughest benchmark available for solid state drives is AS SSD as it relies solely on incompressible data samples when testing performance.  For the most part, AS SSD tests can be considered the ‘worst case scenario’ in obtaining data transfer speeds and many enthusiasts like AS SSD for their needs. Transfer speeds are displayed on the left with IOPS results on the right.

A bit unusual is the fact that AS SSD high sequential performance is better than that of Crystal DiskMark.  What is most impressive, however, is the fact that 4K read IOPS hit 146K while write IOPS hit 145K, well above listed specifications.  Let is see how AS SSD Copy Bench looks:

The ISO read transfer speed of 1028MB/s is one of the highest we have had to date with a total transfer time of over a second.

ANVIL STORAGE UTILITIES PROFESSIONAL

Anvil Storage Utilities (ASU) are the most complete test bed available for the solid state drive today.  The benchmark displays test results for, not only throughput but also, IOPS and Disk Access Times.  Not only does it have a preset SSD benchmark, but also, it has included such things as endurance testing and threaded I/O read, write and mixed tests, all of which are very simple to understand and use in our benchmark testing.

Once again, we see the results of testing with incompressible data.  ASU is not the best example of just how high we can get our IOPS so we thought we might do a bit of a custom test in ASU:

Although not as high as the original Revo 3×2 PCIe SSD, IOPS are right around the 150K mark which is an excellent result.  Our primary purpose here was to confirm the high IOPS result of AS SSD which we have done.  perhaps PCZ might consider adjusting their IOPS specs to meet these.

PCMARK VANTAGE X64 HDD SUITE

The SSD Review uses benchmark software called PCMark Vantage x64 HDD Suite to create testing scenarios that might be used in the typical user experience. 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

OCZ REVODRIVE 350 PCMARK VANTAGE RESULTS

Our testing of the OCZ RevoDrive 350 PCIe SSD returned a high of 52079 Total Points with a high transfer speed of 532MB/s when testing in Windows Media Center. As we had our doubts about this return, we reran the test on three separate PC’s, all of which returned similar results.  Considering the performance we have seen of the Revo 350 thusfar, we may be able to simply chalk this up to incompatibility, as we have seen in several other PCIe SSDs as well.  In any case, we will include some true transfer speed testing in response to this low score.