RunCore ProV 240GB SSD Review – PCB Composition & Test Protocol

PCB COMPOSITION

The circuit board of the RunCore ProV 240GB SSD contains the SandForce SF-1200 (SF-1222TA3-SBH) processor which makes this SSD scream.  RunCore couldn’t provide us with any information with respect to a recent refresh or firmware update to the line but, as you will see in testing, this drive is a racehorse just before the gate is lifted.

There are also 16 chips of Intel 32nm 16GB NAND flash (29F16B08JAMDB) for a total of 256GB.  SandForce SSDs utilize over provisioning which allows for better performance and longer life span of the drive.  Over provisioning is simply a designated portion of the flash which is dedicated to the firmware of the drive itself and, in the case of this SSD, is 16GB or a single flash NAND chip.  The end user capacity before formatting is 240GB as advertised and, once formatted, it has a final capacity of 223GB available for use.

TEST BENCH, SOFTWARE AND PROTOCOL

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TEST BENCH CONFIGURATION

Motherboard Asus Rampage III Gene SATA 6Gb/s USB3
CPU Intel i7-930 CPU@2.80Ghz (OCd to 3.2Ghz)
RAM 6Gb G.Skill 1600 Triple Channel
Graphics MSI N460GTX DDR5 768MB
Power Supply OCZ ModXStream-Pro 600w
CPU Cooler Cooler Master Hyper 212+
OS Windows 7 64 Bit Ultimate
Wifi Belkin Surf & Share Wireless USB Adapter
Monitor Dell E228WFP 22? Flat Panel
Desktop Case BitFenix Survivor Mid-Tower ATX Gaming Case (x)
Front Loading Mobile SSD Rack Icy Dock SSD 4 x 2.5? Mobile Rack (x)

Software used for testing by The SSD Review consists of Crystal Disk Mark, HDTune Pro, ATTO Benchmark, along with FutureMark PCMark Vantage.  The first three 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.

In order to ensure accuracy of tests throughout the evaluations, tests may be repeated or conducted in safe mode to confim consistency throughout and eliminate any possibility of a wild card result.  Safe mode may be utilized as well as any other number of set criteria to ensure that tests conducted at present do not differ from those conducted in the past.  Where comparative SSDs are still in the possession of The SSD Review, we will follow every opportunity to gain fresh test evaluations from sample media.

We also like to provide a bit of background to the reader that all SSDs are not created equal and this can have a confusing impression to users that are not aware of the intricacies of testing their SSD. SandForce SSDs utilize compression techniques in storage whereas many others do not.  This presents  a  false portrayal of their ability when testing a SandForce SSD with software such as Crystal DiskMark-Random Data Mode or AS SSD.

A comparison of a Samsung, Crucial or Intel to the SandForce will result in the SandForce appearing to have inferior performance scores whereas, PC Mark Vantage HDD Suite will show the SandForce to be equal and sometimes better through synthetic testing that represents the users normal daily computing pattern.  This is followed with an accurate measurement for all tests that provides consistently accurate results across all SSD media.  All comparison testing at The SSD Review is through use of this software.

CRYSTAL DISK INFO VER. 3.9.3

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PG1 – INTRODUCTION

PG2 – PCB COMPOSITION, PROTOCOL, AND CRYSTAL TESTING

PG3 – ATTO AND HDTUNE PRO BENCHMARKS

PG4 – HDTUNE PRO AND PCMARK VANTAGE SSD COMPARISONS

PG5 – CONCLUSIONS

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