Plextor PX-128M1S 128GB SSD - SSD Testing Info and Benchmarks
| Article Index |
|---|
| Plextor PX-128M1S 128GB SSD |
| Features and Specifications |
| Inside the Plextor SSD |
| SSD Testing Info and Benchmarks |
| Crystal DiskMark and HDTach |
| HDTune, IOMeter and Final Thoughts |
SSD Testing Disclaimer:
Because of the wear-leveling algorithms used in SSDs, performance is actually pretty hard to nail down. It is for this reason also that drive performance can vary so much from one review to the next. Some sites go to extreme measures to show the maximum performance possible after they use utilities to restore the drive to pristine performance levels, but that isn't accurate in the real world. We've tried to get a balance of the pristine and the dirty drive here at BCCHardware and have used this drive extensively in our test system with both Windows Vista 32-bit and Windows 7 RTM 32-bit. We feel that our results are as reproducible as possible, and while no software can accurately measure SSD performance in a perfectly fair fashion, we've done our best to keep the results accurate as possible. We've used synthetic benchmark tools such as HDTach, Everest, CrystalDisk Mark and others that are indicators of real-world performance.
Test System:
|
|
Intel
Core i7
|
|
CPU
|
|
|
Motherboard
|
ASRock X58
Supercomputer
|
|
Memory
|
|
|
Graphics
|
2x Radeon HD 4870
512MB
|
|
Cooling
|
|
|
Hard
Drives
|
Crucial M225128GB SSD - firmware 1571 (no TRIM) |
|
Operating
System
|
Windows 7 Ultimate
x64
|
|
ATI
Drivers
|
10.1 Catalyst
|
Performance - ATTO:
ATTO is not an indicator of real-world performance, but it shows how fast the drive can read and write data using different sized files. We've included results from the 128GB Patriot Torqx as well as the Crucial M225 SSD - which happens to use the same controller, same NAND and same Elpida RAM. The Plextor drive uses similar NAND, but a different controller and different buffer memory.
The Patriot and Crucial drives are based off the same technology but the Plextor drive has a completely different setup. The controller is different as is the buffer memory. While the NAND flash remains fairly similar, the way it is accessed is completely different and you can see especially in the write tests that it lags significantly behind the other two drives. Even in the read tests, the Plextor drive is much slower when all drives are in their "clean" state. Plextor claims that no matter how "dirty" the NAND gets, it will retain the same speed. If it slows down much more, a traditional Hard Drive will be able to best the performance.
All that being said, the drive exceeds what Plextor says it can do in terms of read speed. The specs state that the drive has a maximum speed of 130MB/sec read and 70MB/sec write. According to ATTO, the write speed falls short while the read speed is better than rated.
