SSD Roundup August 2009

File Copy Tests

The final test in this review involves two file copy operations. For each test the drives are acting as the source and destination for the file and as a result the controller and cache are responsible for maintaining performance during read and write operations. Our first test uses a 1.1 GB file which allows us to see how the drives perform during a short copy operation; the second file is 17.4 GB (high definition video content) which demonstrates the performance over a longer time.

For the small file copy test we can see that there is once again no competition between the SSDs and a mechanical drive such as the Raptor. It is also quite noticeable that each of the products being reviewed exceeds the performance offered by Intel’s X25-M. The Samsung based P128 leads the results once again and the RAID configuration offers benefits, even with smaller files.

When moving larger files the increase in performance over the Raptor is even more apparent, almost to a level where they two technologies should not be compared. The sustained write speed of the Corsair model once again shows its benefits in this test as does the RAID 0 result which is 15% of the total time taken for the Raptor to complete the test.

The two Indilinx based drives from Crucial and OCZ also perform well, finishing quicker than Intel’s model. As expected the OCZ manages to finish slightly faster than the Crucial version, in keeping with the trend throughout this review.