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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 may or may not have been optimized depending on the motherboard base configuration. 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.
This is an updated test bench and, as such, we would love to thank those who jumped in specifically to help the cause. Key contributors to this build are our friends at ASUS for the motherboard and be quiet! for the PSU and cooling fans. We have detailed all components in the table below and they are all linked should you wish to make a duplicate our system as so many seem to do, or check out the price of any soul component. As always, we appreciate your support in any purchase though our links!
SYSTEM COMPONENTS
This Test Bench build was the result of some great relationships and purchase; our appreciation goes to the below mentioned manufacturers for their support in our project. All of the components we use for testing and evaluation can be easily purchased at a relatively affordable price. The links provided below can assist in pricing, as well as availability for those of you who may find interest in our equipment.
| PC CHASSIS: | Corsair 650D |
| MOTHERBOARD: | Asus Maximus VI Extreme |
| CPU: | Intel Core i5-4670K |
| CPU COOLER: | Thermalright Silver Arrow |
| POWER SUPPLY: | be quiet! Dark Power Pro 10 850W |
| SYSTEM COOLING: | be quiet! Silent Wings 2 |
| GRAPHICS CARD: | MSI GTX 660 Ti PE OC |
| MEMORY: | G.Skill Ares DDR3-1866Mhz Memory |
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 Disk Mark, AS SSD, and Anvil’s Storage Utilities. 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 to provide validation to results already obtained.
ATTO DISK BENCHMARK VER. 2.47
ATTO Disk Benchmark is a relatively easy-to-use benchmark tool. ATTO Disk Benchmark relies on testing different file sizes with highly compressible data. Although this is not the best representation of media files which are, for the most part, highly incompressible, it is a good start and is still the main mechanism most manufacturers use to determine their product specifications. In our testing, we have left the benchmark settings to default.
In ATTO we see some mixed results. The drive is achieving a max read of 258MB/s read and 74MB/s write. Read wise this is pretty much near the 260MB/s rated speed, but write is under half of what it should be. Usually we see the fastest speeds out of ATTO due to its testing with fully compressible data. Hopefully our other benchmarks will let us see higher write.
Well, I would like to see the performance with the partition properly aligned, as Anvil and AS-SSD iindicatte that it is not aligned. Maybe after that a small part of write performance would be re-gained. Except if the Phison controller can’t rach further in writes.
I did do testing with the partition aligned as well. The speeds did not change much to my own surprise. I decided to only included the unaligned benchmarks for that reason and because the drive ships with this unaligned offset. Most consumers would not know this and would have the drive like this for most of their use out of it.