Silicon Power Slim S80 240GB Review (Page 8 of 10)

Page 8 - Benchmark: PassMark PerformanceTest 8.0

About PassMark PerformanceTest 8.0

This Advanced Disk Test, which is part of PerformanceTest, measures the data transfer speed when reading or writing data to one or more disks. The speed that data can be transferred between memory and a hard disk drive is one of a system's most important performance aspects. There are quite a few factors which have a bearing on this speed and the Advanced Disk Drive Test allows the user to vary most of these factors and compare the results.

The test supports any drive that can be mounted under Windows. Including IDE drives, SCSI, RAID, USB key drives, SATA, networked shared drives and external drives.

Users have the ability to test multiple drives at the same time using multiple threads, and specify:

- The size of the test file used. Larger files mean that the system cache has less of an effect on the test types, which use caching (see below).
- The size of the data block used for each read or write request. Larger blocks mean less requests and can lead to an improvement in performance.
- The choice of four access methods - C/C++ API, Win32 API cached / uncached and raw disk access.
- Sequential or random access (seeking plus reading and writing)
- Synchronous and Asynchronous access
- The split between reading and writing

The results of all completed tests may be graphed using our custom graphing components.

From: Developer's Page




PassMark PerformanceTest 8.0's Advanced Disk Test, unlike HD Tune Pro 4.60, generates some awesome graphs right out of the box. It also provides valuable insight in simulating real world performance applications. To make things clear to you, the first graph simulates a database server, followed by a file server, web server, and workstation. Obviously, PassMark PerformanceTest 8.0 uses highly compressible data in most tests some controllers can really take advantage of. However, it also requires high IOPS capabilities for the best score. In the past, Marvell and Indilinx based drives perform pretty well in this test. One thing clear is the Silicon Power Slim S80 240GB provided incredibly flat graphs, which is excellent if you are looking for consistent performance.

Overall, this SATA solid state drive's performance was pretty poor. Although it outperformed the Patriot Blaze 240GB in every single test, due to better quality flash chips, it was seriously beaten by every non-Phison based drive in the category. The OCZ ARC 100 240GB posted results of 100.80MB/s, 401.99MB/s, 444.96MB/s, and 56.15MB/s, respectively, in the same tests. The Crucial MX100 256GB had 61.69MB/s, 289.06MB/s, 366.45MB/s, and 83.99MB/s, respectively. The plot continued to thicken when the SanDisk Ultra II 240GB completely blew it out of the water at 105.59MB/s, 345.68MB/s, 433.65MB/s, and 88.68MB/s, respectively. In case you are curious, if we look at the OCZ Vector 150 240GB, one of the best drives in the segment (Which is actually Indilinx Barefoot 3, by the way), it delivered 142.09MB/s, 426.34MB/s, 475.82MB/s, and 73.10MB/s, respectively.


Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. A Closer Look, Test System
3. Benchmark: AIDA64 Disk Benchmark
4. Benchmark: ATTO Disk Benchmark
5. Benchmark: Crystal Disk Mark 3.0
6. Benchmark: HD Tach 3.0.1.0
7. Benchmark: HD Tune Pro 4.60
8. Benchmark: PassMark PerformanceTest 8.0
9. Benchmark: PCMark Vantage
10. Conclusion