Synthetic Tests

CrystalDiskMark

Crystal DiskMark version 3.0 is an excellent way to test your motherboard/HD’s performance. CrystalDiskMark is primarily a HDD benchmark utility for your hard drive that enables you to measure sequential data and random read/write speeds in 4k blocks and 512k blocks.

Here are two key features of “CrystalDiskMark”:

· Sequential reads/writes

· Random 4KB/512KB reads/writes

First we test with our 500GB  Seagate 7200.12 mechanical hard drive and we see very decent performance.

Now we move on to the SSD for some amazingly fast performance!  We don’t see any improvement whatsoever over MrK’s Read speeds  in the older V series (ours is tested on a used/filled drive), but there is substantial improvement in the Write speeds – the place where the older SSD was weak.

Impressive.  The SSD leaves the HDD far behind in this benchmark.  We note all the important performance figures are solidly up over the older series and MrK’s test except for Read (which was already excellent).

HD TACH

HD Tach v3.0.4.0 is a hard drive benchmark utility which will measure the average read speed, the random access time, and the CPU utilization.

First we look at the sequential read speed of the SSDis graphed along with the random access time and CPU utilization – average read is 223.5 MB/s.

And now the HDD’s sequential read speed test is graphed along with the random access time and CPU utilization – average read is 110.5 MB/s, less than half that of the SSD:

Even in a used state, the SSD scores impressive numbers over the HDD in every synthetic test so far.  It also scores a bit higher in the average read than the older series and with less CPU utilization than MrK measured.

AIDA64 (Everest)

Everest is a complete benchmarking/stress test for your PC and it has been renamed to AIDA64. Everest as a name is dead, but its lead developer, Tamas Miklós the developer of Everest, AIDA16 and AIDA32, has a new company called FinalWire, based in Hungary.  Like Everest, AIDA64 is an overall PC diagnostics tool and it look and functions much the same.

Just a part of AIDA64 Benchmark will measure the raw performance of:

• AccessRate
• Burst Rate
• Random Access test
• Write benchmark
• Hard Disk information which includes partition information, supported features, firmware version, serial number, disk capacity, buffer size, transfer mode
• Hard Disk Health
• S.M.A.R.T. Information (Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology)
• Power On Time
• Error scan and Temperature display

However, the most important difference in drives that AIDA64 will measure is the Disk Benchmark. First we look at our Seagate 500GB HDD and notice that it is quite fast for a mechanical drive.

Now we look at the Kingston SSD.

We can generally see big improvements in the AIDA64 benches of the SSD over the HDD.  Of course, we wonder how this translates to real world performance.  Bear with us awhile longer as we attempt to relate real world to synthetic performance.

HD Tune 4.60

HD Tune is a hard disk utility. We are using the default setting of 64KB blocks for testing.  First we run the standard benchmark with the 500GB Seagate HDD – Read.

Now we run Read benchmark for the SSD.

Awesome difference.  Now write benchmark for our mechanical drive.

Again the SSD is much faster; access time is spectacular compared to the mechanical drive and CPU usage is at a minimum.

Here is the extra read test for the HDD:

And now the extra read test for the SSD.

Here is extra write, HDD.

And now extra write, SSD.

Again, there is absolutely no comparison in the synthetic tests.  The SSD is much faster than the mechanical HDD and the new Kingston SSDNow V100 series is faster than the older series that MrK evaluated last year.  Read has improved dramatically over last year.

ASSD

ASSD is designed primarily for Solid-State Drives. There are four synthetic and three practice tests. The synthetic tests determine the sequential and random read and write performance of the SSD and are carried out without use of the operating system caches. In Seq-test the program measures how long it takes to read and write a 1 GB file respectively. In the 4K test the read and write performance for random 4K blocks is determined. The 4K-64-thrd test corresponds to the 4K procedure except that the read and write operations on 64 threads are distributed as with the usual start of a program.

In the copying test following folders are created: ISO (two large files), programs (typical program folder with many small files) and games (folder of a game with small and large files). These three folders are copied with a simple copy command of the operating system. The cache is turned on for this test. The practice tests show the performance of the SSD with simultaneous read and write operations.

And now it is the SSD’s turn.

As in most of our test, the SSD leaves the HDD far behind in the benchmarks.  Let’s see what happens when we test again, with the SSD in a more “used” state.

Performance Degradation

Many reviewers will test a SSD only when it is brand new – and that means erasing the SSD before every single test!  Well, we wanted to show you what the performance degradation was like with a nearly-new SSD (above)  – when we began testing – compared with that of a more “used” SSD (below) that was tested at the end of the benchmarking run a few days later  Needless to say, this editor broke with protocol and tested the SSD in a used state – so the numbers you see are more indicative of “real world” performance.

As you can see, the performance decline is subtle and it is something you are not likely to notice weeks or months later – especially since this Kingston SSD supports TRIM and “garbage collecting” to keep your SSD running close to like-new performance.  You have to realize that the mechanical HDDs that we are using also started out brand-new and they are also subject to performance degradation as the files become fragmented.

ATTO

The ATTO Disk Benchmark is an aging performance measurement tool which measures storage systems performance with various transfer sizes and test lengths for reads and writes. Several options are available to customize the performance measurement including queue depth, overlapped I/O and even a comparison mode with the option to run continuously.

And now we run ATTO Disk benchmark on our SSD:

It doesn’t really prove anything, but synthetic benchmarks are definitely faster on the SSD vs the HDD.

PCMark Vantage

PCMark Vantage is a PC benchmark suite designed for Windows Vista and 7 that offers one-click simplicity for casual users and detailed, professional grade testing for industry, press and enthusiasts. A PCMark Vantage score is a rough measure of your computer’s performance across a variety of common tasks. The measurement for the PCMark Vantage hard drive suite is the total score with the scoring for each test further broken down. There are a total of eight hard drive tests within PCMark Vantage and all eight are run to measure the relative performance of the SSD vs the HDD we tested.

The HDD Test suite in PCMark Vantage consists of the following 8 tests:

• HDD 1- Windows Defender
• HDD 2- Game HDD
• HDD 3- Importing pictures
• HDD 4- Windows Vista start-up
• HDD 5- Video editing
• HDD 6- Media Center
• HDD 7- Adding music to Windows Media Player
• HDD 8- Application loading

First we run the standard PCMark Vantage benchmark suite using our Seagate 500GB 7200.12 hard drive.

Now we run the same benchmark suite with our Kingston SSDNow V100.

In all cases, the SSD is faster with PCMark Vantage.

SANDRA 2010 SP1

SANDRA, short for the System ANalyser, Diagnostic and Reporting Assistant is an information and diagnostic utility. It provides a tremendous amount of information about every hardware and software component in your PC. It also provides various benchmarks including for measuring and reporting disk performance.  SANDRA 2011 Service Pack 1 is already out and although we used the Lite version which is free for evaluation, the complete version is currently 60% off the regular $49.99 – only $19.99 – for an incredibly useful suite which we also use regularly as a diagnostic utility.

First we run the drive comparison for our Seagate 500GB HDD:

Now we test with the Kingston SSDNow v100 and watch our performance skyrocket.

As usual, the SSD is significantly faster that the HDD for synthetic benchmarking.  Let’s head for real world testing.

«1. Introduction 2. Contents and Unboxing 3. Test System & Benchmarks4. Synthetic Benchmarks 5. Real World Tests 6. Game loading & Windows Startup 7. Conclusion8. View All»