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ANVIL STORAGE UTILITIES PROFESSIONAL (BETA)
You may not see this for long (and its definitely not common) but you get a freebee simply for reading! Over the last little while, we have been assisting with beta testing new benchmark software called Anvil Storage Utilities which is an absolutely amazing SSD benchmarking utility. 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 utilize in our benchmark testing.
Overall, the performance we are seeing with the 480GB version is just a bit lower than we might see in 240GB variations, however, the Total Points of 3,288 is good.
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
PNY XLR8 Pro 480GB SSD PCMARK VANTAGE SCORING
The PNY XLR8 Pro pulled through PCMark Vantage HDD Suite Testing with a Total Point score of 71669 which was much higher than expected. We subsequently ran the test three times for confirmation and the lowest mark obtained was just above the 70,000 level so consistency is evident. A quick look at the transfer speeds shows us that 6 of 8 tests were SATA 3 speeds with a high of 409MB/s while testing in Windows Media Player:
The following chart is our Vantage SATA 3 SSD Hierarchy and results are based solely on PCMark Vantage HDD Suite Scores received to date:
Nice to see PNY venturing into this market. I have a couple of their flash drives and they are solid, reliable performers time after time.
plextor M5P is cheaper and faster
sandforce firmware which version? 5.02 5.03? or 4
5.02
it is only $240 from your link on 1st page! wow thats 0.5$/GB
I have seen a few price mistakes and wrong brand pricing since these have been posted and, to my knowledge, the drive advertised has always been the drive received. If you got it at that price…kudos! Sold out again!
I wont buy another SSD until I see the reviews on the new BF3 from OCZ. But this review impressed me especially for the price.
no single word about the encryption :/
how is it implemented/used?
It is a LSI SandForce based drive and its encryption has been amply discussed on the internet for years now.
Backwards compatible with SATA II?
Of course.