Testbed and Methods

The testbed we are going to use for this test session is based on a mainboard with Intel H67 chipset which offers two SATA 6 Gbit/s ports. It is to these ports that we connect our SSDs.

We will compare the ADATA S511 240GB with a few other SSDs of the same storage capacity that have SATA 6 Gbit/s interface. One of them, the Crucial m4, is based on a Marvell controller whereas the rest are based on second-generation SandForce controllers but vary in flash memory type. The OCZ Vertex 3 Max IOPS uses 32nm Toggle NAND flash; the Corsair Force Series GT and Kingston HyperX feature 25nm synchronous flash; and the Corsair Force Series 3 and OCZ Agility 3 are equipped with 25nm synchronous flash.

Here is the full testbed configuration:

• Intel Core i5-2400 (Sandy Bridge, 4 cores, 3.1 GHz, EIST and Turbo Boost turned off);
• Foxconn H67S mainboard (BIOS A41F1P01);
• 2 x 2 GB DDR3-1333 SDRAM DIMM 9-9-9-24-1T;
• Crucial m4 256 GB system disk (CT256M4SSD2);
• Tested SSDs:
  • ADATA S511 240 GB (AS511S3-240GM-C, firmware version 3.3.2);
  • Corsair Force 3 Series 240 GB (CSSD-F240GB3-BK, firmware version 1.3.3);
  • Corsair Force GT Series 240 GB (CSSD-F240GBGT-BK, firmware version 1.3.3);
  • Crucial m4 256 GB (CT256M4SSD2, firmware version 0009);
  • Kingston HyperX 240 GB (SH100S3/240G, firmware version 332);
  • OCZ Agility 3 240 GB (AGT3-25SAT3-240G, firmware version 2.15);
  • OCZ Vertex 3 Max IOPS 240 GB (VTX3MI-25SAT3-240G, firmware version 2.15).
• Microsoft Windows 7 SP1 Ultimate x64
• Drivers:
  • Intel Chipset Driver 9.2.0.1030
  • Intel HD Graphics Driver 15.22.1.2361
  • Intel Management Engine Driver 7.1.10.1065
  • Intel Rapid Storage Technology 10.8.0.1003.