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THE SSD REVIEW TEST PROTOCOL
At The SSD Review, we test our SSDs slightly different depending upon the drive’s marketed purpose, be it consumer/oem or enterprise focused SSD. For a consumer SSD, our goal is to test in a system that has been optimized with our SSD Optimization Guide, however, CPU C States may or may not have been altered, dependent on motherboard UEFI features. Benchmarks for our consumer tests are that of fresh drives (PCMark 8 testing exempt), so that we can verify that the manufacturer’s specifications match the SSD. Additionally, we also include links to the benchmarks used in our reports so that you as the reader can replicate our tests to confirm that your SSD is top-notch.
TSSDR Z170 TEST BENCH COMPONENTS
Our newest Z170 Test bench was the result of some great sponsorship’s and our appreciation goes to Samsung, Corsair, ASRock, PNY and Intel for helping us with this build. All of the hardware we use for testing is available for purchases at a reasonable price; albeit this specific build is a tad high-end. The links provided below can assist in pricing and availability of the hardware contained within this system:
| PC CHASSIS: | Corsair 760T White Full Window |
| MOTHERBOARD: | ASRock Z170 Extreme7+ ATX DDR4 |
| CPU: | Intel I7-6700K 4.00 GHz |
| CPU COOLER: | Corsair Hydro Series H110i GTX |
| POWER SUPPLY: | Corsair HX1200i ATX12V |
| GRAPHICS: | PNY GTX 980 4GB XLR8 Pro OC |
| MEMORY: | Corsair Dominator Pl 32GB 2800 |
| STORAGE: | Intel 750 Series 1.2TB NVMe SSD |
| KEYBOARD: | Corsair Vengeance K70 Mech |
| MOUSE: | Corsair White M65 Laser |
| OS | Microsoft Windows 10 Home 64 Bit |
BENCHMARK SOFTWARE
The software used for today’s analysis is typical of many of our reports and consists of ATTO Disk BenchMark, Crystal DiskMark, AS SSD, Anvil Storage Utilities as well as PCMark Vantage. Most of this software is FREE and access to all programs can be done by simply clicking on the title of the benchmark. For a complete background and linkage to the software we use, check out our recent article, “The Ultimate Guide To SSD Benchmark Software“.
Crystal Disk Info is a great tool for displaying the characteristics and health of storage devices. It displays everything from temperatures, to the number of hours the device has been powered, and even to the extent of informing you of the firmware of the device.
This Crystal Disk Info chart was taken after a bit of testing and validates that UASP is in use, and that TRIM is active.
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.
Taking a look at ATTO Disk Benchmark Performance, the gradual speed progression throughout file says is the sign of a very strong SSD. On top of this, performance increases very quickly, although not as fast as a SATA connected SSD. High data transfer speeds of 461MB/s read and 441MB/s write are very close to the general listed specs, however, above that for specs listed for different OS’s. We are using Windows 10.1.
So, how do I know if a mobo is UASP compatible or not?! I’ve been checking specs for some mobos, H170 or Z170, from Asus and Gigabyte, and I don’t see nothing mention on there manuals…
170 motherboards have UASP integrated if they include USB 3.1. WE have the ZSRock Z170 Extreme7 and it works flawlessly.
usb 3.1 is not native to the current intel chipsets. uasp support goes back way earlier, starting with ivy bridge native controllers, if i remember correctly
Driver needed for Mac? Check out?
Mac Owners Should Hold Off on New Samsung T1 Flash SSD
https://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/mac-owners-should-hold-off-on-new-samsung-t1-flash-ssd
Can it be used to boot Mac and work from it all day long?
RAID 0 inside as in SanDisk’s 1.92TB Extreme 900 Portable SSD? That is the best way to lose data (2x probability or more). One disk fails (or controller), all lost.
No driver needed…plug it in and it is recognized…funny I never had a problem whatsoever with the T1 I still use as well. I might suggest reading various reviews rather than relying on the word of just one, myself included of course!
RAID 0 ? Can you maybe explain this further?
Thanks for the reply. SanDisk Extreme 900 Portable SSD has two disks inside in RAID 0. If one disk fails (or the controller), all is lost.
Its so easy to fill it up, when one just doesnt measure it in Word documents (who really does?) but shoot RAW and with 36mpx.
If you store rips of your bluray collection it would fill up quickly with many movies at the 20GB+ size. It would be easy to fill with games as well. I imagine by “most users” he means people who only use their pc for social media and music.
as far as I know, till date, no retail 2TB msata available out there. With T3, I can have 2TB of mSATA placed in the laptop internally… anyone care to test how it is compared to 850 EVO 1TB mSata?
what size screwdriver do you need to unscrew