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TSSDR TEST BENCH AND PROTOCOL
SSD testing at TSSDR differs slightly, depending on whether we are looking at consumer or enterprise storage media. For our Samsung 980 Pro Gen 4 M.2 SSD testing today, our goal is to test in a system that has been optimized and will reach top speeds possible.
We are using a fairly new ASRock X570 Creator Test Bench which is AMD based and contains the AMD Ryzen 3700x Gen 4 CPU. Our PC has been overclocked from 3600Mhz to 4300MHz and memory has been set at a XMP profile of 2667MHz,
SYSTEM COMPONENTS
The components of this Test Bench are detailed below. All hardware is linked for purchase and product sales may be reached by a simple click on the individual item. As well, the title is linked back to the individual build article where performance testing can be validated. Tons of credit to this Cougar Blazer Gaming Case paired with Corsair fans and Corsair iCue RGB software which make this our most attractive case to date
TSSDR ASROCK CREATOR GEN 4 X570 TEST BENCH (link)
| PC CHASSIS: | Cougar Blazer Open Frame Gaming Mid-Tower Case |
| MOTHERBOARD: | ASRock X570 Creator PCIe 4.0 |
| CPU: | AMD Ryzen 3700x |
| CPU COOLER: | Corsair Hydro H150i Pro RGB 360mm Liquid Cooling |
| POWER SUPPLY: | Corsair RM850x 80Plus |
| GRAPHICS: | MSI Armor Mk 2 Radeon RX570 OC |
| MEMORY: | Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 3600MHz |
| STORAGE: | Intel Optane 905P 1.5TB SSD |
| KEYBOARD: | Corsair K57 Wireless Gaming |
| MOUSE: | Corsair Dark Core RGB SE Wireless BT Gaming |
| OS | Microsoft Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit |
BENCHMARK SOFTWARE
The software in use for today’s analysis is typical of many of our reviews and consists of Crystal Disk Info, ATTO Disk Benchmark, Crystal Disk Mark, AS SSD, Anvil’s Storage Utilities, AJA, TxBench, PCMark 8, and we will be conducting true testing data transfer comparisons. Our selection of software allows each to build on the last and to provide validation to results already obtained.
Crystal Disk Info is a great tool for displaying the characteristics and health of storage devices. It displays everything from temperatures, the number of hours the device has been powered, and even to the extent of informing you of the firmware of the device.
Crystal Disk Info validates that our SSD is running in PCIe 4.0 x4 (four lane), and also that NVMe 1.3 protocol is in use.
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 512b to 65mb. 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.
1TB CAPACITY
Listed specs are 7GB/s read and 5GB/s write and our initial results of 6.33GB/s read and 4.68GB/s write fall just below that.
250GB CAPACITY
There have been problems reported with the use of earlier Samsung PCIe SSD drives and Dell XPS 8920 desktops that won’t boot in the AHCI mode. This has been reported in the Dell.com User Forums. The 8920 only recognize the Samsung drives in RAID mode. Any word on this with the latest Samsung PCIe drives?
Hey Richard and thanks for writing. I was not familiar with that issue so dug this up. I hope it helps, but unfortunately cannot comment on that and newer drives:
https://www.dell.com/community/XPS-Desktops/XPS-8920-will-not-reboot-from-SSD/td-p/7551974
Having said that, I don’t believe the issue will be with the SSD so much as the system bios and setup. SSDs all follow the NVMe protocol to minimize configurability issues. Any SSD should work, or cause that same problem. I could be wrong.
Dear Mr.Tokar,
Thank you very much for your detailed review on the Samsung 980 Pro. could you please make a review about the new “AORUS Gen4 AIC SSD 2TB ” from Gigabyte. it is claimed to reach 15GB/s in read speed and 9.5 GB/s in write speed. it has the capacity to include 4 NVMe M.2 SSD’s and get connected to a PCIe Gen 4.0 slot on a motherboard. the link to this product is:
https://www.gigabyte.com/Solid-State-Drive/AORUS-Gen4-AIC-SSD-2TB#kf
it would be interesting to see it’s performance against those single SSD’s in the article table.
best regards.
I would love nothing more than to test that SSD, as would a number of reviewers but the opportunity hasn’t presented itself. Ig you have any contacts…please let them know!
If you could review the new drives such as the Adata XPG Gammix S70 which are based on the Phison E-18 it would be appreciated. Thanks.
Les, For those lowly mortals still on PCIE 3 (or even 2!) can you include some benchmarks comparing PCIE 4 ssd’s at these lower speeds, also does PCIE x 8 give the same performance as 4 x 4? Thanks.
would be nice to have this PCIe 4.0 / 3.0 Spec mentioned in the real world overview graph (note very body has this directly in mind when reading the names of the devices)
In addition would be awesome to always have the winner of The PC Mark Standard benchmark also in this graph, just to compare new exppensive memory technology (xpoint) to the evolution of nand…
Many thanks for all your great work!
With the price of the 970 Pro 1TB dropped to $270 on Amazon it becomes an interesting comparison with the 980 Pro which is only $40 less.
Simple choice between mlc and tlc memory. I have always been one to also push getting the right SSD for your needs so, unless you are getting the 980 Pro for PCIe 4…