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ANVIL STORAGE UTILITIES PROFESSIONAL (BETA)
You may not see this for long (and it’s 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 use in our benchmark testing.
Once again, we can see that the high incompressible read performance of the Data Fusion stands up and, as well, IOPS are pretty decent. We wanted to push the QD just a bit, however, to see just how high we could push the IOPS count.
These results are decent, a bit lower than we might have liked for reasons that we will discuss in our report analysis.
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
VISIONTEK DATA FUSION PCMARK VANTAGE PERFORMANCE
The Visiontek Data Fusion PCIe SSD completed PCMark Vantage HDD suite testing with a Total Score of 37996 and a high transfer speed of 255MB/s while testing in Windows Media center. These results are anything but a glowing representation of what this drive is capable and reflective of a device that has been passed around as a test sample.
REPORT ANALYSIS AND FINAL THOUGHTS
Our policy at The SSD review is to NEVER accept an SSD that has been previously used for testing and I broke that policy for the VisionTek Data Fusion 480GB PCIe SSD for two reasons, the first being the number of people who asked us to take a look at this product and the second being the limited number available for review by Visiontek. The practice of product return, secure erase and ship it out to the next guy is an absolute horrid practice because the reviewer never knows what kind of testing, or where the drive has been. Such is the case with their data Fusion and, quite frankly, we believe it may have merited our Editor’s Choice but there is no way that can occur here.
I am not a lover of the recent products that are using the Marvell 88SS9200 Series RAID controller with LSI SandForce SF-2281 flash controllers because they are bottlenecking the potential performance of that controller. We have done simple RAID testing with the same controller on several notebook SSDs and achieved higher performance. Quite frankly, it is like setting a governor on a race car just before it starts the Grand Prix. It’s a trade-off of performance for value and, well, as much as I really want to carry on with that, I am unable to do so because of the amazing price of this device….more to follow.
Taking a look at the performance of the VisionTek Data Fusion, it came in with solid speeds in the 700MB/s range as well as IOPS over 80,000, these being the standard we are seeing for PCIe SSDs of a similar build (MX Express/RAIDR). I am definitely a push, push, push type person and want to hit that 1GB/s plateau whenever, and wherever possible. Listening to those that own this SSD however, they couldn’t be happier. They love it. Actually, they rave about it. Totally unexpectedly, I think that a niche market has carved itself out right in this performance range and VisionTek may be a key factor in the reasoning for this; the result of their drop-dead SSD pricing that many would never expect.
Up until the Visiontek Data Fusion, there has never been a similar product anywhere near this price point, with the 480 and 960GB versions coming in at $1.14/GB and their 128GB capacity still being a great value at $1.70/GB. Quite frankly, there is no way we couldn’t recommend such a product at this price point. Receiving the well-travelled ‘review sample’ SSD still hits because I honestly believe this could have been published with an Editor’s Choice Award, however, it is still very deserving of our Top Value Award…and hours before Black Friday no less.
Check VisionTek Data Fusion SSD Pricing at Amazon.
Interesting review, Les. Thanks 🙂
Always wanted one (SSD) since the came out, but having quite an old mobo (X38 chipset with SATA2) I’m wondering why they (manufacturers) don’t make PCIe solutions, I.e. Samsung 840 Pro PCIe model, not SATA. And I mean an SSD without any RAID or other extra controller, just plain 840 unit with PCIe connection. Why these are so difficult to make? Do they need to re-done their processor from the ground to make it compatible with PCIe?
Keep it up!
These PCIe SSD’s are actually adapters with raid controllers that use m.2 form factor “blades”.
I’m wondering if it is possible to insert other m.2 chips into the provided slots, or if it is only the provided chips. There are 840 m.2’s, just FYI.
Seems from an end user/enthusiast that it’s not worth it. For cheaper you can buy two 250GB drives and run them in RAID 0 and get better results. Even today Newegg has the 240GB Seagate 600 on sale for $130.
Your comparing prices on Black Friday? You are right that, if you want to tie up both Intel ports, you can do much the same with soft RAID yourself. Specific solution for a specific purpose however.
The fact that it’s Black Friday totally escaped me.
still non-native pcie controller ssd…
hey, les, do you know where is TMS ramsan 70/80?
It’s the best bootable pcie ssd!
Is there any such thing as a native pci-e controller except for the upcomming SF-3700?
Horrible timing for Ocz to go tits up. I hope tosh doesn’t waist much time and gets to work on a Barefoot 3 based pci-e drive (w/ Tosh’s 19nm toggle). They will need to make sure that whatever raid controller they use is up to the task…LSI would probably jack the price up (no clue) since it’d be a non-SandForce driven product.
review is very accurate, I found discounts from Amazon for
VisionTek Data Fusion PCIe SSD 480GB https://www.hotdiscountfinder.com/?s=VisionTek+Data+Fusion+PCIe+SSD+%28480GB%29
Thanks for the great review Les !
I need to replace hard drive to work with large solidworks projects, that may contain separate amount (200+) of files in one assembly. After reading review on Samsung Evo or Samsung pro Sata3 drives I am not sure what solution is better in my case. Looks like latest Samsung SATA drives over perform this one. What do you think ?