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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 WD_Black SN8100 Gen 5 2TB SSD testing today, our goal is to test in a system that has been as optimized through standard BIOS selections (ie. XMP 3)
For this Test Bench, there are no ‘bios’ specific performance tweaks whatsoever and the new ASUS Maximus Z790 Hero brought us to over 5.5GHz while the newest Crucial Pro Series DDR-5 memory rests comfortably at 6000MHz.
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.
ASROCK Z790 TAICHI PCIE 5.0 TEST BENCH COMPONENTS
| PC CHASSIS: | Corsair 5000D RGB White Tempered Glass Chassis |
| MOTHERBOARD: | ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 Hero Gen 5 |
| CPU: | Intel 13th Gen Core i9-13900K |
| CPU COOLER: | Corsair Hydro Series H150i Capellix White |
| POWER SUPPLY: | Corsair HX1000i Platinum Modular 80Plus |
| GRAPHICS: | ZOTAC GeForce RTX 3080 Trinity White |
| MEMORY: | Crucial Pro Series DDR5-6000 4x16GB |
| STORAGE: | Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus Gen 4 4TB NVMe SSD |
| KEYBOARD: | Corsair K70 PRO RGB Optical Mechanical Gaming |
| MOUSE: | Corsair M65 RGB Elite FPS Gaming |
| MONITOR: | Samsung 34? 1440p WQHD Ultrawide Gaming |
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 10, 3DMark, PassMark Performance Test, Final Fantasy XIV Gaming BenchMark, as well as true data testing. Our selection of software allows each to build on the last and to provide validation to results already obtained.
A WORD ABOUT PERFORMANCE AND BUILDS
We have recently updated to our latest Ultra 200 Series Z890 Test Bench, however, we are finding that performance is best from our Z790 Test Bench in use for this report. Our goal is to inform our readers of the best performance possible from SSDs. Having said that, SSD performance can be a toss up when deciding on which CPU to test with. AMD CPU’s will give you the best high sequential performance, whereas Intel CPUs will provide the best low random performance. WE have favoured Intel benches for some time and this report is with an Intel test Bench.
Upgrading Test benches every two years on average may also cause a performance increase in testing which we will identify in our comparison charts until there are enough Gen 5 reviews to move them to their own chart. Our view is simply that we want to provide the reader with the best possible performance and we welcome all to refer back to specific reports in order to identify the system in use should they desire. Logically, we simply haven’t the time to retest hundreds of SSDs every time we move up to a new platform. Thank you for understanding.
CRYSTAL DISK INFO VER. 8.17.7 X64
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 DiskInfo validates that our SSD is running in PCIe 5.0 x4, using the NVMe 2.0 protocol and confirms that it is TRIM capable. This SSD is probably one of the coolest in our system yet.
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 performance hits highs of 13.34GB/s read and 12.78GB/s write are excellent results for this SSD.
Would really like to see the Intel Optane 5800x on the charts for real world data testing. Would also like to see the steady state 4K Q1T1 tests on both the Optane and the 8100 side by side.
Optane’s strength likes in low queue depth consistency from what I’ve seen, since there is no cache blowout happening like on modern SSDs. Any chance of this being an Optane killer on things like a 70% full drive?
I was never able to obtain an Optane 5800x, but my 905 is still my OS drive for the low latency program launching. I use a 4TB NVMe 4.0 SSD for bulk storage. I would love to find a solution that didn’t require me to run an m.2 -> u.2 adapter for my OS drive, but so far the low latency + program launch time “feel” of the Optane wins vs. any SSD I’ve tried yet.
As described in our article, the two SSDs serve different purposes, the first being consumer related tasks while the second is data center. For this reason, we don’t provide steady state results or comparisons in our reports, unless they are specifically directed as being an enterprise report. Thanks for writing!
James is right, the Optane 5800X should have been compared. Prosumers don’t care what the drive was “intended” for. Pricing has come down enough that I’m considering an array of P5800X vs. SN8100’s and it would have been nice to quantify the performance difference at low queue-depths, as well as both sequential and random performance once the SN8100’s cache has been saturated.
Here’s a side-by-side of the SN8100 vs Optane P5800X. The tests were done by different individuals on different systems, but at least provide a sense of comparative performnace: https://abulhassan.com/wd-black-sn8100-2tb-vs-intel-optane-p5800x-nvme-ssd/
Absolutely love this level of dedication — nothing says “storage geek” like testing SSDs at 4:30am right after a transpacific flight! Those Gen5 drives hitting 14GB/s are wild, especially seeing a DRAMless model push that performance barrier. Curious to see how thermal throttling is handled under sustained loads.
We recently benchmarked some enterprise-grade Dell SAS SSDs in a G14-series rack — obviously not Gen5, but still rock-solid for mixed-use environments where endurance and hot-swap reliability matter more than raw speed. Totally different use case, but fun to compare evolution across form factors.
Keep pushing the envelope — and enjoy that jet lag.
I hope you get as much sleep as you need because I’m hoping for a test of the new Crucial T710 that was announced at Computex as soon at its available. It will make for an interesting 3 way shootout between the WD 8100, Samsung 9100 and Crucial 710 when all 3 are readily available, hopefully all with their own heat sinks. Sleep well!
The SN8100 will be tough to beat. It is an amazing SSD. We have received the order confirmation for the T710 from Micron so hopefully sooner than later.
It would be great to see a Samsung 9100 Pro test against the Z790 now to have a real comparison.
Thanks for your interesting articles. How to download TxBench? The https://www.texim.jp/txbenchus.html link is broken.
Fixed . Enjoy.
Thanks for the quick reply, but I cannot access
https://www.texim.jp/txbenchus.html
The web browser Safari 18.5 (18621.2.5.18.1, 18621) on macOS 13.7.6 (22H625) Ventura on Mac (Intel) says:
Safari Can’t Find the Server
Safari can’t open the page “https://www.texim.jp/txbenchus.html” because Safari can’t find the server “www.texim.jp”
How to download TxBench? I think it is for Windows (not for Mac) but I would like to download it anyway. Thanks again for all.
Yes. I understand. If you click on the title, the referring link has been changed.
Thanks. Which title? What is the working link?
Great review! As I understand it, Dashboard application is not discontinued but just changed from Western Digital to SanDisk one. The new version is available on SanDisk website and not on Western Digital, here: https://support-en.sandisk.com/app/answers/detailweb/a_id/31759
Thanks for that.
i bought a 2tb hoping it would downgrade to PCI-e 4.0 x4, nope, unfortunately my system decided to downgrade it to 1.0 x1, had to return it. even though my amd 7945hx supports pci-e 5.0 on a technical level, it only supports nvme pci-e up to 4.0. its too bad that it couldnt just downgrade. ended up buying a different 4.0 x4 nvme. believe me, i gave it all the testing and checking before giving up. it was already apparent to me when it required 2-5 minutes to post bios each time that it wasnt going to get past this issue.
I checked extensiively and you seem to be the only instance of this issue. Sorry but I have no suggestions except maybe a fresh install.
Amazing performance in the review. I purchased a 2 GB and 4 GB to run in my setup, and performance is significantly lower. My SEQ1M score is very high (14956 Read / 14169 Write). However, SEQ12K drops to 9300 Read / 11,071 Write. RND4K drops substantially lower compared to review, at 1070 Read and 923 Write. My 3DMark SSD Storage score is also only 5,100 at best. This is on a 9950X3D system with MSI X870E Tomahawk motherboard. Appreciate any suggestions on troubleshooting.
check your heat, i had the same issue , installed 3rd party heat sink (thermalrite HR-10 pro) and no more throttling during benchmarks