If benchmarks are a bit of a flop, the safe bet is to turn to real-world tests. We transferred a 2GB directory of files within each drive and also from one drive to another. Usually, we run a particular test a number of times until we are confident the results are both representative and repeatable and then we use the median figure. The OCZ blew that approach out of the water as the numbers were horribly inconsistent, so we have given the three median figures for each file transfer test.
2GB File Transfer Results
OCZ Apex as Data Drive
Time in Seconds
Shorter bars are better
Intel X-25M as Data Drive
Time in Seconds
Shorter bars are better
WD Caviar Black as Data Drive
Time in Seconds
Shorter bars are better
COMMENTS
testing random writes on SSD?
I think here you will find just the right tool (admittedly, benchmarking is not its purpose) : http://managedflash.com/downloads/index.htm . To see what I mean, download the documentation http://downloads.managedflash.com/documentation/090107_windowsinstall.pdf and jump to bottom part of page 22 (section 2.8).
Alternatively, just adopt any SQL IO performance test - they all measure random writes performance pretty well. BTW, I hope this explains why random writes latency is important.
Figures, figures
Apologies for this folks - the figures on the graphs are correct however I managed to trip over the reams test results and make some silly mistakes in the copy which Tony has sorted out.
ref Bronek's comments: Tony and self talked about hard drive testing a while back and came to the conclusion that benchmarks are all well and good but file transfer tests are more real world.
Transferring files and timing the results should reflect any funny business such as excessive latency. If this is not the case I'd be happy to hear the flaw along with any suggestions about how we can realistically measure it.
@All
Apologies, all. The graphs present the correct HD Tach numbers - and now so does the review text. It doesn't radically alter the outcome of the evaluation, and the Verdict and Rating stand.
SSD friendly OS
Is Mac OS X 'SSD friendly', as per the configs you can buy from Apple with SSDs?
Would be interesting to see results here.
