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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 Kingston HyperX 240GB SSD is one of the best all around solid state drive products to come across our desk to date.  We first learned of Kingstons pairing with SandForce while at CES Las Vegas last January and I have been wondering where the heck it was, at least until our first look at Computex Taipei where we did …

The NZXT Source 210 Elite reminds me of November 15, 2001.  Why? Well, that was the day that the word “elite” would have more than one meaning. The fact Halo was released almost ten years ago is starting to make me feel old, and I’m not even that old yet. With the anniversary version of the game coming out on …

We are very happy to announce that TweakTown’s very first eBook is live and now on sale. It is titled “TweakTown’s Ultimate Guide to PC Cases” and was written by our very own case and cooling expert Chad Sebring. The extensive book goes into detail about all things cases and which is the best to buy and much more. Full …

This is an article I’ve wanted to do for a while now and as this month started, I told myself it was time to get it done as my testbeds here are making some changes.I’ve been tossing up if I should make the move to Z68 for our VGA reviews, or stick with the tried and trusted X58 platform. Most …

Recently, Rosewill sent to Benchmark Reviews their THOR 2 full tower gamer, enthusiast case for a good thrashing. The THOR 2 is the second evolution of the THOR series. When I first saw this case I was curious because it looked pretty lean, mean, and clean while avoiding what I call the “We are Borg, resistance is futile” look. So …

Today we are evaluating the newest version of CacheCade, a storage caching system developed by LSI for use with their MegaRAID controllers. This system aims to create the perfect fusion between HDD capacity and SSD speed, accelerating new or existing storage subsystems that are already in place. A previous CacheCade v1.0 review of the software illustrated some of the extreme …

UNDERSTANDING THE ‘TIERED’ APPROACH The CacheCade Pro system separates the volumes into three distinct layers. Commands are issued from the host system which, in this illustration, is to the left. From there the data will travel to the RAID controller and, in a normal system, right to the HDD array. With the implementation of this system, there is a separate …

One of the major improvements with the CacheCade Pro version is that write data can also be cached. The write caching is a tremendous accelerator for any HDD array, be it large or small. One of the major weaknesses of any storage medium is writing, especially in mixed read/write scenarios. An unfortunate side-effect of writing is that it slows down …

TCO is an acronym which stands for ‘Total Cost of Ownership’. This is one of the most important measurements that must be taken into consideration when deciding whether or not to upgrade. Basically put…What is this going to cost and is it a viable investment? When confronted with the thought of upgrading to SSDs, many will balk at the prohibitive …

This is the Test Bench.  As you may have guessed, it truly is no ordinary Test Bench, and I have dedicated many many hours creating this build which has been used in many benchmarking excursions and extreme overclocking sessions. She has even set a few HWBot world records along the way! Our main focal point in this report will be …

One of the hardest situations to simulate with IOmeter is the acceleration of arrays with rapidly changing data in a caching scenario. Writing test files to a Base Array with a CacheCade Pro Volume enabled resulted in a very quick pace of acceleration. Once the test file is written in its entirety, the ramp is almost instantaneous. What we are …

With each page we are progressing into more difficult scenarios. The ‘overlapped regions’ is one of the most complex access patterns. It is much more demanding of the caching algorithm. What we are simulating is a scenario that would be found typically in a large dataset on a typical server. The areas of the disk that are hot data are …

All of our extensive testing with Iometer is, at the end of the day, merely synthetic testing. A program such as this is no easy task to benchmark, especially when using synthetic measurements. The main thrust of the testing is to reproduce situations that are similar to real world applications and how they would behave. I feel that, if anything, …

Now that we have taken a look at a power supply on the lower end of the Wattage spectrum with the Kingwin LZP-550, we are going to take a look at something capable of more than doubling that out. The unit that we have sitting on the bench today is from Sparkle Computer Corp. We have taken a look at …