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We’ve been anxiously awaiting the SF-2200 controller for a while—could the company that sprung out of stealth mode to take the solid-state drive market by storm in 2010 pull a repeat in 2011? Though we’re still a few months away from seeing multiple vendors shipping SF-2200 drives, if the performance of the OCZ Vertex 3 is any indication, it’s going to be another good year for SandForce.
The SandForce-powered OCZ Vertex 3 is the clear winner of our little roundup, posting race-winning scores in virtually every benchmark. In CrystalDiskMark and AS SSD, which are solid-state-specific synthetic benchmarks, the Vertex 3 posted average sequential reads of 500MB/s and average writes of 280MB/s, second only to the Intel 510. In queue-depth 32 4KB random-read and -write benchmarks (both Crystal-DiskMark and Iometer), the Vertex 3 again bested the rest of the field, though Crucial’s m4 SSD came within spitting distance of OCZ’s drive. PCMark Vantage, which mirrors real-world applications, actually gives the top spot to Crucial’s m4 SSD, with the Vertex 3 a close second.
One interesting result our testing shows is the importance of good firmware. Three of the drives in our roundup share the same Marvell 9174 controller (albeit with varying amounts of cache), but they all post different benchmark results. Intel’s 510 shows the strongest sequential-read and -write scores by far, but its random-access scores are no better than those of the Plextor M2. Crucial’s m4, on the other hand, shows random-read and -write speeds almost as high as the Vertex 3, but its sequential speeds were much lower than the Intel or OCZ drives. Intel’s and Crucial’s offerings each excel in at least one area, while the Plextor M2 is competent compared to last-gen drives but unexceptional compared to this generation.
We should make explicit that any of these solid-state drives deserves your purchasing consideration. They’re all powerful performers that really take advantage of the increased bandwidth of the 6Gb/s SATA bus. Depending on your needs, either Crucial’s or Intel’s drives should be near the top of your list, though the OCZ Vertex 3 combines the best features of each—for a price.
| Plextor M2 | Crucial m4 | Intel 510 | OCZ Vertex 3 | OCZ Vertex 2 (6Gb/s SATA) | OCZ Vertex 3 (3Gb/s SATA) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Capacity | 128GB | 256GB | 250GB | 240GB | 100GB | 240GB |
| Controller | Marvell 9174 | Marvell 9174 | Marvell 9174 | SF-2200 | SF-1200 (6Gb/s ports) | SF-2200 (3Gb/s ports) |
| CrystalDiskMark | ||||||
| Sustained Read (MB/s) | 415.2 | 404.5 | 480.1 | 485.5* | 206.2 | 269.6 |
| Sustained Write (MB/s) | 197.5 | 257.3 | 328.9* | 289.8 | 87.92 | 228.4 |
| 4KB Read, 32QD (MB/s) | 75.58 | 167.9 | 80.02 | 171.2* | 111.1 | 166.2 |
| 4KB Write, 32QD (MB/s) | 47.72 | 235.8 | 49.7 | 247.4* | 81.56 | 182.8 |
| AS SSD | ||||||
| Seq. Read (MB/s) | 387.33 | 407.73 |
483.6 |
506.2* | 208.46 | 262.77 |
| Seq. Write (MB/s) | 186.67 | 249.73 | 308.03* | 280.19 | 71.7 | 218.84 |
| 4KB Read (IOPS) | 3,729 | 5,091 | 4,674 | 5,539* | 5,249 | 5,213 |
| 4KB Write (IOPS) | 9,961 |
13,837 | 9,923 | 14,263* | 12,910 | 12,302 |
| Read Access (ms) | 0.232 |
0.105* | 0.207 | 0.157 | 0.13 | 0.168 |
| Write Access (ms) | 0.093* |
0.278 | 0.095* | 0.222 | 0.235 | 0.209 |
| ATTO | ||||||
| 64KB File Read (MB/s) | 391.3 | 284.9 | 449.2* | 446.5 | 257.6 | 253.9 |
| 64KB File Write (MB/s) | 216.9 | 260.2 | 341.5 | 505.3* | 269.1 | 264 |
| IOMETER | ||||||
| 4KB Random Write | 13,169.8 | 56,087.81 | 12,123.95 | 85,144.43* | 47,647.11 | 46,655.39 |
| Max Access Time (ms) | 576 | 143 | 318 | 61* | 30.2 | 52.37 |
| Premiere Pro Encode Write (sec) | 438 | 429 | 424 | 422* | 443 | 433 |
| PCMark Vantage x64 HDD | 37,792 | 61,758* | 39,053 | 59,978 | 42,290 | 38,281 |
Asterisk (*) denotes highest score. Our current test bed is a 3.1GHz Core i3-2100 processor on an Asus P8 P67 Pro (B3 chipset) running Windows 7 Professional 64-bit. All tests used onboard 6Gb/s SATA ports with latest Intel drivers, except 3Gb/s SATA tests, which used onboard 3Gb/s Intel SATA ports.
Comments are closed on this article
Msater
April 19, 2011 at 10:43pm
I don’t think you should be able to call this a “SSD Showdown: 4 Top Drives Reviewed” when you’re not adding the top SSD drive to the mix. The OCZ RevoDrive X2 beats the other drives hands down. I bought the 100Gb OCZ RevoDrive X2 OCZSSDPX-1RVDX0100 and will never go back to anything less than PCI-E for my main drive. I have a 500Gb WD black that has my personal folders stored so I don’t fill it up in an hour downloading Linux distros. Out of the around 20Tb of HDD’s that I have none of them will even come close to the speed of it. Even on Newegg’s site Maximum PC is quoted “The Fastest We’ve Seen by Far”- Maximum PC. And BretMThomas should be banned from a site called MAXIMUM PC with comments like that.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227659 <-Mine and worth every penny
Samuel.Aldrich
April 25, 2011 at 10:21am
Actually if anyone is to be banned it should be people like you who think they are the god of computers and have to make comments like:
"BretMThomas should be banned from a site called MAXIMUM PC with comments like that"
Not cool man, not everyone is on the same level of computer expertise. That is why they might be interested in a magazine/website like this....
ddz49
April 20, 2011 at 4:24pm
You do realize that when they say "SSD," they really mean the actual rectangular drives that use SATA connections. OF COURSE Revodrive x2s are better. They're directly connected to the motherboard via PCI-E! It's inherently better than something connected with a bunch of wire, no matter how fast the wire is.
BretMThomas
April 19, 2011 at 7:48pm
As someone just starting to get back into the PC/IT profession (Veteran medical issues causing an *extended* leave), it would be nice to see these SSD benchmarks with at least one comparison to the top-of-the-line mechanical Disk drive(s).
After reading the article, I don't see a description of how much of an improvement an SSD drive is over the "old fashioned" mechanical drives that someone can get 2TB SATA3 for $100...
Thanks for your help!
Hirantha
April 19, 2011 at 7:56am
We already knew OCZ Vertex 3 is the best out there, didn't need a compare :)
eday_2010
April 19, 2011 at 6:07am
I was considering getting an SSD when I build a new machine later this year, but they are still so expensive it doesn't seem worth it. It would be great to have one for Windows 7 and all my programs, but for the price of one 128GB SSD, I can get two 2TB HDDs.
D00dlavy
April 18, 2011 at 4:04pm
Are the SSD offerings from Kingston very good? I have one and I'm pretty pleased with it, but I rarely see these included in these round-ups.
drcrazyrich
April 18, 2011 at 3:45pm
THX I NEEDED THAT ,NOW JUST TO GO PRICE COMPARE SINCE I HAVE AN OLDER MOBOI MAY JUST GET A VERTEX 2 CUZ THE LAST I SAW ,THEY RE GOIN CHEAP ITS ALL I NEEDGOT AN OLD RAPTOR DOING BOOT DUTY NOW .MY ONLY QUESTION I HAVE NOW HOW RELIABLE ARE THEY?? I KEEP READING LOST DATA ISSUES ,WHY IS THAT ??
Neufeldt2002
April 18, 2011 at 3:52pm
Can't answer your question, but I was wondering why are you yelling?
Please make publish to facebook opt-in, not opt-out.
blindhorizon
April 18, 2011 at 12:09pm
ok so who is the real winner? i want the best of the best and price dosen't matter what one do i buy? i'm good with numbers but in the end this is still confusing to me.
also the chart is cut off, would be nice to see the whole thing.
szore
April 18, 2011 at 10:42pm
Yes but he is right, though inelloquent. The graph is for a Plextor drive, and they give no benchmark results (unless I missed it) at all. Poor article all around. We know you like the Vertex, but what are the actual benchmarks?
JohnP
April 18, 2011 at 12:58pm
Usually the KICK ASS award would give a clue to which one MPC picks. So does the NUMBER NINE. I guess the only thing left would be to draw a big red circle around the Vertex 3 and label it "THIS ONE!".
