The SSD Review The Worlds Dedicated SSD Education and Review Resource | 
BENCHMARK PROTOCOL AND THE TEST BENCH
This is The SSD Review Test Bench Number One. A quick click on the photo will give you a better look.
In testing, our main objective is to obtain results as pure and as accurate as possible and we want to ensure that no anomalies slip through. Simply put, we want to provide you with the absolute best results the tested hardware can provide. Repetition in testing is standard and, if necessary, we may conduct specific tests in Windows 7 safe mode to ensure the OS has little to no influence on the end result.
In order to validate and confirm our findings, testing is supported by industry accepted benchmark programs. All results are displayed through capture of the actual benchmark for better understanding of the testing process by the reader.
We would like to thank Gigabyte, Corsair, MSI, OCZ, and Fractal-Design, for sponsoring components of our Test Bench.
BENCHMARK SOFTWARE
Software used for testing by The SSD Review consists of ATTO Disk Benchmark, Crystal DiskMark, AS SSD, Anvil Storage Utilities, along with FutureMark PCMark Vantage.
All do a great job of showing us the numbers that we want to see, or dont want to see in some cases, while PCMark Vantage x64 is an excellent program which recreates tests that mimic the average users activity, all the while providing a medium to measure each.
Benchmark software used by The SSD Review can be obtained by clicking on the title of each application as all may be downloaded without cost to the consumer.
SSD COMPRESSION AND TESTING FLUCTUATIONS
All SSDs are not created equal and many new SSD enthusiasts realize that when they test their new drive to confirm specifications and ensure all is in order. SandForce controlled SSDs use compression techniques in storage whereas many others do not. This creates a bit of confusion when enthusiasts test the drive with random data through benchmarking programs such as AS SSD and Crystal DiskMark (random data sample). The results seem to be lower than the listed specifications.
The results actually present a false portrayal of the drives ability when compared to other drives such as the Samsung 470 Series and Crucial M4 SSDs that we have reviewed previously. It is for this reason that all of our comparison testing is done through PCMark Vantage. PCMark Vantage HDD Suite simply provides evaluation results based on transfer speeds reached through typical user patterns. Vantage provides a better testing medium, in that, it sees through the typical synthetic benchmarks and provides us with true to life results of the drive.
ATTO Disk Benchmark is perhaps one of the oldest benchmarks going and is definitely the main staple for manufacturer performance specifications. ATTO uses RAW or compressible data and, for our benchmarks, we use a set length of 256mb and test both the read and write performance of various transfer sizes ranging from 0.5 to 8192kb. Manufacturers prefer this method of testing as it deals with raw (compressible) data rather than random (includes incompressible data) which, although more realistic, results in lower performance results.
ATTO produces high transfer speeds of 281MB/s read and 262MB/s write although we see the write speeds to settle a bit lower with higher data samples. This is right in line with posted specifications.
What makes the RunCore so much faster? Sych or toggle nand?
The Runcore T50 is a SATA 3 SSD which accounts for the lionshare of difference in its performance, however, it also uses synchronous NAND flash memory.
Ahh…sata 3…that would explain it..lol
You mentioned “talk now of cached SSDs present in the not far too distant future.” Are you talking about drives such as the synapse used to speed up platter based HDD’s or are you talking about sticking some higher speed memory (ram) on the silicon and using the ram as a cache for the ssd?
Its an interesting concept that would probably require ultrathin 7mm hard drives along with mSATA SSDs with caching software although your latter idea is very interesting.
If it ever comes to market i’d like to people to know that I submitted the idea. No trademarks necessary I’d just like recognition 😛
It looks like a UFO in that picture of the snow…2nd pine tree from the left..at the tip.
That is a UFO. We get tons of them in Canada. They were the first to put me onto SSDs you know. eheh
Have you tested this drive in the Z830? i have the standard tosh drive in my Z830 currently and would like to know if this is a worthy upgrade as the flaky nature of SATA3 discovered in the SSDReviews Z830 is not enough to swing me towards a SATA3 drive currently!
Yes this drive works fine in th Z830 and this is a SATA 2 drive.
excellent, so it shows better performance on the Z830 than the standard tosh drive (which we all know is frankly a bit pants) as in i wont be stuck on crummy 5.9 windows experience and woeful benchmark results in my shiny sexy Z830? 🙂
I am in Germany so I can’t test the WEI score with that drive but can assure you it is a huge step up from the Toshiba. As a matter of fact, any mSATA I have tested is a step up from the Tosh.