Silicon Power SATA-II SLC SSD
EDITORS NOTE: Please read Solid State Drive (SSD) Benchmark Performance Testing to understand how the benchmarks used in this article should be interpreted.
Silicon Power is a rather unknown player in the North American marketplace, despite having numerous products available to the retail market. Not very long ago, Benchmark Reviews tested the first-generation Silicon Power SATA SSD. In that article we found ourselves torn between performance that left some room for improvement, and the press release announcement that Silicon Power had a new SATA-II SSD product ready to launch. As fortune would have it, we didn't have to wait very long to see if the marketing hype was true. In this article, the Silicon Power 32GB SLC SATA-II SSD SP032GBSSD750S25 receives benchmark testing and gets compared against a dozen other high-performance Solid State Drives.
Since first making a commercial public debut at the 2007 Consumer Electronics Show, Solid State Drives (SSD's) have been a topic of hot discussion among performance enthusiasts. With virtually no access time delay, these nonvolatile flash memory-based drives were quick to promise a more reliable storage device with greater performance while operating at a fraction of the power level. Moving further into 2008 they have become a reality for many performance-minded power users. I suppose it's been a slow ramp-up for consumers to accept Solid State Drive technology, similar to the struggle DDR3 SDRAM has seen. Later on at the end of April 2008, Silicon Power launched their SATA-I and ATA line of SSD products. But this is November, and we're ready to see SATA-II performance.
Perhaps Benchmark Reviews likes to ride the edge of technology just a little too close, since we've tested more DDR3 and SSD's than almost everyone else on the web. The bleeding edge is where most enthusiasts like to live, but seldom enjoy the price tag. Because I am in a position where cutting edge technology are within my reach (if only for a few weeks of testing), my experience is valuable to the small niche of consumers that might actually want these premier products. Benchmark Reviews has been hard at work trying to ride the wave of innovation into the next big technology. It only took a few years of development, but Solid State Drives can now offer superior speed over Hard Disk Drives; but they are still extremely expensive.
According to a Q1 2008 report by the semiconductor market research firm iSuppli, the SSD market will grow at an annualized average of 124 percent during the four-year period from 2008 until 2012. iSuppli now projects SSD sales to increase by an additional 35 percent in 2009 over what it projected last year, 51 percent more in 2010, and 89 percent more in 2011, and continue to show dramatic increases in subsequent years.
Silicon Power SSD Features
The SATA II interface has 3.0Gbps bandwidth which is doubled compared with the previous SATA I interface. Also, with the new "differential-signal-amplified-system", the transfer rate can up to 300MB/s while executing the huge amount of data. Unlike the traditional hard drive, The Silicon-Power SSD has no physical contact with the storage device or moving parts, and it equipped with the most advance Wear Leveling technology to ensure the durability of usage. Furthermore, it carries shockproof and anti-vibration features, and provides user with high efficiency and gigantic capacity. The Silicon-Power SATA II 2.5" SSD can be widely used in various purposes with any critical working environments.
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Reading speed of 120MB/sec, writing speed of 70MB/sec
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Compatible with SATA II interface (Downward compatible with SATA I)
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Fully compatible with notebooks and PCs
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High reliability assured based on the internal ECC
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ROHS Compliant
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Low Power Consumption
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High performance and reliability
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Shock resistance
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No noise, No latency delay and No seek error
Silicon-Power's 2.5-inch SATA II SSD comes in a standard 2.5-inch size and the SATA II interface (downward compatible with SATA I) can easily be used on PCs, notebooks or other mobile devices which support 2.5-inch SATA/ SATA II interface. Base on the different theoretical of the storage technology, the power consumption of SSD can be 80% lower compare to the traditional hard drive. The Silicon-Power's 2.5-inch SATA II SSD has complied with Europe RoHS standards and currently available in 8GB, 16GB, 32GB, 64GB and 128GB capacities.
SP032GBSSD750S25 Specifications
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Dimensions: 100mm x 69.85mm x 9.5mm
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Weight: 90g
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Durability:10,000 insertions (minimum)
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Power Requirement: 4.5V~5.5V
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Operating Temperature: 0C~70C
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Storage Temperature: -40C~85C
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Humidity: 8%~95%
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Vibration: 15G peak-to-peak max
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Shock: 1500G max
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2-year warranty
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Model No.: SP032GBSSD750S25
About the company: Silicon Power Computer & Communications Inc.
Silicon Power Computer & Communications Inc. (SP) was founded by a group of specialists with more than 20 years' experience in the international trading, global marketing, technical know-how of flash data storage products, is the world's leading manufacturer of flash memory cards, USB flash drives, DRAMS, and card readers. We are also the first among our competitors worldwide to offer Lifetime Warranty service both for the Flash Memory Card series and for USB Flash Drive products.
At the heart of Silicon Power, exists a strong atmosphere of "Sharing, Caring, and of being Trustworthy." These are our finest commitments at the core. Recognized and supported in over 90 countries, Silicon Power provides fast, international lifetime service and superior products. Silicon Power R makes a remarkable and successful achievement in the global community. The company is headquartered in Taipei and has established branches worldwide including the Netherlands and Japan.
Silicon Power SSD Closer Look
For the entire 2007 year and part of 2008, Benchmark Reviews had anxiously awaited the fabled Solid State Drive that could replace our current list of preferred Hard Disk Drives. Making this wait seem even longer was the fact that HDD manufacturers were constantly improving there product and adding new enhancements to the technology. First there was perpendicular storage technology, then came fluid bearings, and finally there was the increase in cache buffer DRAM to speed-up the burst data transfer. Performance has always been the hurdle that SSD's have had a tough time clearing, with read and write bandwidth creating the largest obstacles. Response time and reduced power consumption has long become the key arguments for owning an SSD, but without the bandwidth throughput to measure up against HDD's they became an expensive niche item.
That time has come to pass, and our collection of SSD reviews is proof. Back in March (2008) we tested the lightning-fast MemoRight GT SSD which finally put the Western Digital Raptor in its place... to the tune of almost $2000. In that round, the Solid State Drive won the speed and bandwidth victory, but it had a long way to go before surpassing the value of a Hard Disk Drive. This is a new chapter in the history of the Solid State Drives struggle to replace the Hard Disk Drive. Power consumption is still astonishingly low, even when compared to the newest series of efficient HDD's available. So now all that remains on the list of items holding back the widespread use is... cost.
Red on black certainly demand your attention, and it's no surprise that Silicon Power has joined the two colors to add a level of interest to their SSD product line. Keeping in mind that these products are solid state, and therefore offer no amount of noticeable physical activity, it takes some special attention to presentation to help the consumer feel comfortable with their premium purchase.
Like everything else with a price tag, perception is reality. So it was a little surprising when I discovered how well the Silicon Power SSD came packaged with an unnecessary amount of protection. Back at the start of 2008 I witnessed a Crucial/Lexar demonstration of a SSD fastened to a paint-mixer and being shaken while a video game was being played be a CES convention-goer. Unlike the Hard Disk Drive (HDD), SSD's are practically impervious to impact damage and do not require extra-special packing precautions.
Nevertheless, Silicon Power has safely nested the SP032GBSSD750S25 in a foam enclosure with the care a flight data recorder might receive - and perhaps that is the reason for all of the extra attention. Solid State Drives are very popular items in military and aerospace technology, primarily because of their ability to withstand shock in excess of 1500 G's. The Silicon Power SSD offers the same rugged longevity, which amounts to safer data even after the worst disasters.
Standard 2.5" drive bay mounting points are pre-drilled and threaded in the SATA-II SSD, which allows for quick upgrade or addition to any existing notebook or desktop system. The mounting positions matched up to the drive bracket on my Dell Inspiron laptop, and without any trouble at all I was quickly loading the Windows XP SP-3 Operating System image on this 32GB SATA SSD Solid State Drive.
The underside of the Silicon Power SSD reveals standard SATA power and data interface connections. Unlike desktop computers which utilize a SATA cable system to connect drive to motherboard, nearly all notebooks allow the 2.5" drive to simply slide directly into a connection bay within the system. In addition to notebooks and desktop computer usage, this Silicon Power SATA Solid State Drive can be utilized for mission-critical backups or high-abuse data systems.
The Silicon Power 32GB SATA SSD (SKU: SP032GBSSD750S25) is encased in an metal half shell, which fastens from the underside with counter-sunk screws. In the next section I take a close look at what's on the inside of the SSD. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I invite you to read the rest of the story as we continue on...
SP032GBSSD750S25 Internals
As a professional system builder of higher-end computer systems, I have learned some very important lessons in regards to system performance over the past eight years. While gamers constantly leap for higher frame rates out of their video card, there is something more important than a faster processor, memory, or even front side bus. The real backbone to overall system speed and performance is the primary boot drive. In today's world, that usually means the hard disk drive for nearly all computers. After hundreds of performance computers built and sold, I have seen a 10,000 RPM drive make a 2GHz CPU seemingly perform twice as fast, whereas a 5,400 RPM drive makes that same CPU run like it was only half as fast.
Looking over the Silicon Power SSD I spot a total of sixteen Samsung K9WBG08U1M-PCB0 DRAM IC's. Each of these SLC-NAND-Flash-ICs consume 2.7V ~ 3.6V and operate in Dual nCE & Dual R/nB mode. Samsung specs the density at 32 GB on a SLC 4 Die Stack. Not much is presently released on these modules, so speed and latency are unknown.
Solid State Drives are not for everyone. Similar to the evolution towards DDR3 system memory, a gradual replacement of the Hard Disk Drive (HDD) by the Solid State Drive (SDD) is going to move very slow. The cost of purchase for SSD's is the primary cause, since most drives cost more than an purchase price of an entire computer system. But what if the price was within reach? What if the data throughput was comparable? This is where Benchmark Reviews comes in to answer the tough questions, as we test the Silicon Power 32GB SLC SATA-II SSD SP032GBSSD750S25.
SSD Testing Methodology
EDITORS NOTE: Please read Solid State Drive (SSD) Benchmark Performance Testing to understand how the benchmarks used in this article should be interpreted.
Solid State Drives have traveled a long winding course to finally get where they are today. Up to this point in technology, there have been several key differences separating Solid State Drives from magnetic rotational Hard Disk Drives. While the DRAM-based buffer size on desktop HDD's has recently reached 32 MB and is ever-increasing, there is still a hefty delay in the initial response time. This is one key area in which flash-based Solid State Drives continually dominates because they lack moving parts to "get up to speed".
However the benefits inherent to SSD's have traditionally fallen off once the throughput begins, even though data reads or writes are executed at a high constant rate whereas the HDD tapers off in performance. This makes the average transaction speed of a SSD comparable to the data burst rate mentioned in HDD tests, albeit usually lower than the HDD's speed.
Test System
Disk Hardware
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Crucial / Lexar 32GB 2.5" SATA-2 SSD CT32GBFAB0
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Hitachi Travelstar 7K100 2.5" 60GB SATA 7,200 RPM HDD HTS721060G9SA00
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Samsung 64GB 2.5" SATA-2 SSD MCCOE64G5MPP-0VA
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Seagate 7200.11 500GB 3.5" ST3500320AS 7,200 RPM SATA-II Hard Disk Drive (32MB Cache Buffer)
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Western Digital Raptor 74GB 3.5" WD740ADFD 10,000 RPM SATA Hard Disk Drive (16MB Cache Buffer)
Benchmark Reviews is aware that all Intel ICH9/9R and ICH10/10R chipsets featured on 3- and 4- series motherboards exhibit a bandwidth limit defect for most SSDs of approximately 80MBps when not operating in ACHI mode (BIOS configuration). Since the Gigabyte GA-X48T-DQ6 motherboard we used for testing also comes equipped with a JMicron JMB363 SATA controller for two additional SATA-II ports, all tests were conducted using this drive controller.
Test Tools
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ATTO Disk benchmark v2.02
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System Speed Test v4.78 by Vladimir Afanasiev
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Windows XP Professional SP-3 (optimized to 16 processes at idle)
Comparing a Solid State Disk to a standard Hard Disk Drives is always relative; even if you're comparing the fastest rotational spindle speeds. One is going to be many times faster in response (SSD's), while the other is usually going to have higher throughput bandwidth (HDD's). Additionally, there are certain factors which can effect the results of a test which we do our best to avoid.
Nevertheless there will be some tests which will not be completely representative of the individual product tested, but a combination of the product and supporting system hardware. An excellent example of such a test is the write-to bandwidth benchmarks, which rely on other system components to force data onto the drive along with the bus bandwidth to support it. This dependency on system hardware is why you will see Benchmark Reviews place an emphasis on read bandwidth over write tests.
System Speed Test Benchmarks
EDITORS NOTE: Please read Solid State Drive (SSD) Benchmark Performance Testing to understand how the benchmarks used in this article should be interpreted.
It's show time! All claims to performance are either made real or proven false in our testing, and although SSD's clearly offer some advantages it sometimes takes seeing a product compared to the performance of others to prove the point. Not very long ago I decided to take action and get System Speed Test v4.78 back in our test rotation. This software is solid, and the results are more accurate than any others available that I have used.
I doubt that when DOS died, Vladimir Afanasiev ever thought he would see his System Speed Test software used again in professional reviews. This program offers comprehensive system information, but it also has a powerful benchmarking tool for memory, processor, and disks. In terms of disk performance, it measures interface and physical transfer rates, seek and access times at the hardware level, and it does so without delay or interference from Operating System software or running processes. This is why Benchmark Reviews will continue to use this test: it polls its results directly from the hardware without the need for Windows!
To detect the Random Access Time of each device, we ran full test routines on all products a total of five times. The highest and lowest scores were ignored, and the remainder was averaged. This would be pointless however, because in every single access time benchmark the test results were identical. In the bandwidth tests the results were extremely close to the others, and therefore required averaging.
To my complete surprise, System Speed Test access time benchmarks places the Mtron Pro 7500 SSD at the very top of our results. With a lightning-fast 0.08 ms access time, every other SSD is forced to live in the shadow that the MSP-SATA7525 has just created. The sub-0.1ms group of top performers also includes the MemoRight GT, Mtron Pro 7000, and Mtron MOBI 3000. Clearly, Mtron knows a little something about keeping random access time to a bare minimum in their Solid State Drives. The OCZ SATA-II OCZSSD2-1S64G, Samsung MCCOE64G5MPP, Silicon Power SATA-II SP032GBSSD750S25, Patriot Warp PE128GS25SSDR and original OCZ OCZSSD64GB maintain the midrange level or random access times between 0.14ms and 0.23ms.
At the slower end of our SSD response time chart is the original SATA Silicon Power SP064GBSSD25SV10, OCZ Core Series, Crucial's CT32GBFAB0, and the Super Talent MasterDrive MX finishing out the list. In reality you couldn't begin to perceive these subtle differences, but technology should get better with time and not the other way around. It's also worth keeping in mind that our Hard Disk Drive alternatives are a much slower to react: Western Digital's Raptor took 8.53ms to respond, followed by 12.99ms for the Seagate 7200.11, and 15.39ms for the 7200 RPM (most are 4800 RPM) Hitachi Travelstar 7K100 notebook drive.
Bandwidth is a whole other consideration once you record the results. In our tests, both the Western Digital Raptor and Seagate 7200.11 Hard Disk Drives showed strength as only a select few SSD's could meet or exceed their buffered read performance. A larger 32MB buffer in the 7200.11 makes a 7200 RPM HDD difficult to keep pace with, and the 10,000 RPM spindle speed offer enough of an advantage to keep the Raptor on top. Close on the Raptors' tail was the OCZ OCZSSD2-1S32G and OCZSSD2-1S64G, which is based off of the Samsung MCCOE64G5MPP-0VA SSD which performed the same. The Seagate 7200.11 HDD was nearly matched in buffered read bandwidth by the Super Talent FTM60GK25H and Patriot Warp, with the Mtron Pro 7500 a short distance behind marking the end our our high-bandwidth finishers.
Leading the midrange portion of our SSD group was the SATA-II Silicon Power SP032GBSSD750S25 which performed almost identically to the older SP064GBSSD25SV10 SSD. The Crucial/Lexar CT32GBFAB0 trailed close behind, while the OCZ's CORE SSD performed at the same level as the Crucial/Lexar SATA-II SSD, while the OCZ Core Series SSD, Mtron Pro 700, and Mtron MOBI 3000 complete the midrange list. The low-end portion of our drive performance chart is occupied by the original OCZ SSD, which lasted mere minutes on the market after being released early 2008.
Looked at a different way, and ignoring the dominant buffered read speed results trend set by the Hard Disk Drives, the top SSD's actually did well to hold ground against the Raptor and 7200.11, which are at the very top-end of HDD performance.
Disk Hardware Tested:
Crucial / Lexar 32GB 2.5" SATA-2 SSD CT32GBFAB0
Hitachi Travelstar 7K100 2.5" 60GB SATA 7,200 RPM HDD HTS721060G9SA00
Samsung 64GB 2.5" SATA-2 SSD MCCOE64G5MPP-0VA
Seagate 7200.11 500GB 3.5" ST3500320AS 7,200 RPM SATA-II Hard Disk Drive (32MB Cache Buffer)
Western Digital Raptor 74GB 3.5" WD740ADFD 10,000 RPM SATA Hard Disk Drive (16MB Cache Buffer)
Although Benchmark Reviews completely endorses the test results of System Speed Test for our benchmarking, it's always good to have other sources. We decided to then test our collection of SSD products using the HD Tach RW and ATTO Disk Benchmark tool in the following sections. Please continue to see if our results were a fluke or not.
HD Tach RW Benchmark Results
EDITORS NOTE: Please read Solid State Drive (SSD) Benchmark Performance Testing to understand how the benchmarks used in this article should be interpreted.
HD Tach is a software program for Microsoft Windows that tests the sequential read, random access and interface burst speeds of the attached storage device. For the record. every single product tested was brand new and never used. HD Tach allows write-bandwidth tests only if no partition is present. Additionally, each and every product was tested five times with the highest and lowest results removed before having the average result displayed here. The graphical user interface (GUI) of the Windows-based benchmark tool HD Tach is very convenient. and allows the test product to be compared against others collected on your system or those registered into the Simpli Software database.
In the tests below, Benchmark Reviews utilizes the HD TachRW tool to compare the fastest collection of desktop drives and competing SSD's we can get our hands on. Using the JMB363 SATA controller on the Gigabyte GA-X48T-DQ6, HD Tach recorded a 127.8 MBps burst speed for the SATA-II Silicon Power SSD, which for Solid State Drives should not be a deciding factor due to the cache methods inherent to each memory controller architecture. There are times where this number will be extremely high, such as the 260+ MBps we recorded while testing the OCZ OCZSSD2-1S32G. The important numbers are the average read and write bandwidth speeds, which indicate the true performance level of the product. Our featured test item, the Silicon Power 32GB SLC SATA-II SSD SP032GBSSD750S25, performed at 120.6 MBps sustained read bandwidth and an impressive 87.9 MBps sustained write bandwidth.
The chart below illustrates the collected benchmark results for HD Tach RW on the JMicron SATA controller, with the read and write bandwidth results added together to determine placement. Without question, the MemoRight GT MR25.2-064S SSD enjoys a substantial lead over the entire field of storage products with an impressive 117.9 MBps read-from and 122.8 MBps write-to bandwidth speed (240.7 MBps collectively). In second place with a collective total of 233.0 MBps is the Mtron Pro 7500, which produced results only 3% behind the leader. After these two products, the collective bandwidth falls off.
Unlike the System Speed Test benchmarks that placed the OCZ CORE SSD near the lower portion of our charts, HD Tach positions the SATA-II Silicon Power SLC SSD in fourth place within our test results. Even still, the 120.6 read and 87.9 MBps write bandwidth only trails behind the top-position leader by only 15%.
Our chart indicates that the midrange portion begins with OCZ's SATA-II SSD, which trails a decent distance behind with 94.3 MBps read and 85.9 MBps write, followed by the Seagate 7200.11 HDD with 88.8 and 78.8 MBps respectively. Mtron's Pro 7000 and Samsung's SATA-II SSD (not charted) are trailed by the Crucial SATA-II SSD and Mtron MOBI 3000, which both feature great read speed paired with less-desirable write bandwidth.
At the bottom half of our chart is the Western Digital Raptor 74GB 3.5" WD740ADFD 10,000 RPM SATA Hard Disk Drive. Sustained speeds seem to taper out after the initial burst for this drive, which by no means is a slouch - but just not as high-bandwidth as the others in our test group. The Super Talent MasterDrive MX SATA-II SSD seems to also suffer from a very poor write bandwidth matched against very good read performance. Finally, the Silicon Power 64GB SATA SSD SP064GBSSD25SV10 offers the second worst performance out of an SSD we've ever seen, only to be under-performed by OCZ's original SSD product which arrived to market almost a year ago.
Disk Hardware
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Crucial / Lexar 32GB 2.5" SATA-2 SSD CT32GBFAB0
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Hitachi Travelstar 7K100 2.5" 60GB SATA 7,200 RPM HDD HTS721060G9SA00
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Samsung 64GB 2.5" SATA-2 SSD MCCOE64G5MPP-0VA
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Seagate 7200.11 500GB 3.5" ST3500320AS 7,200 RPM SATA-II Hard Disk Drive (32MB Cache Buffer)
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Western Digital Raptor 74GB 3.5" WD740ADFD 10,000 RPM SATA Hard Disk Drive (16MB Cache Buffer)
In the next section, ATTO Disk Benchmark compares our range of drives and offers a different perspective from a unique test tool.
ATTO Disk Benchmark Results
EDITORS NOTE: Please read Solid State Drive (SSD) Benchmark Performance Testing to understand how the benchmarks used in this article should be interpreted.
The ATTO Disk Benchmark program is free, and offers a comprehensive set of test variables to work with. In terms of disk performance, it measures interface transfer rates at several different user-specified intervals and reports read and write speeds. The drives seek and access times are not statistics made available in this application, which makes this a considerably basic tool, although the adjustable test settings allow for a large range of differing results. Manufacturers seems to like this tool because it offers them the ability to reduce the test length load size to produce high benchmark results. Conversely, Benchmark Reviews uses this tool with the largest (32 MB) test chuck used to produce our test results.
Bandwidth results from our tests are illustrated as the transfer rate in the images below, showing the performance curve for the Silicon Power SATA-II SSD from 512 Bytes up to 1 MB test chunks. Silicon Power specifies bandwidth expectations as 120 MBps read and 70 MBps write for their SP032GBSSD750S25 model, and so far our own bandwidth test results indicate that these are confirmed figures.
Beginning with the JMB363 SATA controller, our results are shown in the first chart pictured below. Read performance begins to plateau from 64.0 KB to 1024 KB and generates a 110,272 KBps (107.7 MBps) bandwidth around 64 KB, indicating a high performance throughput for most file size chunks. The same is true for the write bandwidth, which sustains a 80.1 MBps bandwidth beginning at the 64 KB test chunk range.
Since ATTO Disk Benchmark offers test settings for each transfer file size from .5 KB to 1 MB, Benchmark Reviews decided on using the largest (1 MB) statistic to build the chart shown below. In this illustration, I have organized the products using the sum of their read and write bandwidth speeds to determine position rank.
Once again, the MemoRight GT SSD demonstrates that an optimized generation 1.0a SATA controller can outperform even the latest generation 2.0 SATA controllers (if you care to pay the high price tag). The Mtron Pro 7500 MSP-SATA7525 trails behind, with the Seagate 7200.11 hard drive directly behind to finish out the top-level performance section. Patriot's Warp SSD, along with the Silicon Powers SATA-II SSD and OCZ CORE Series SSD all lead the upper-mid performance section. Not very far behind was the OCZ 64GB SATA-II SSD, Mtron Pro 7000 16GB SSD, and Samsung SSD.
The mid-range of performance is filled by the Mtron MOBI 3000 SSD and Western Digital Raptor, which aren't really all that far off from the products positioned above them. On the other hand, the low-end of performance is a noticeable distance away. The Crucial / Lexar CT32GBFAB0 SATA-II SSD takes a major dip in write-bandwidth performance, which is mirrored by the Super Talent MasterDrive MX SSD and Silicon Power 64GB SATA SSD. I'm not entirely clear on the technology each of these lower-end SSD's contain, but considering that two of them are SATA-II and match the performance of our slowest SATA-I SSD's I would contend that a design improvement is in order.
Originally I hadn't planned on including the ATTO Disk Benchmark results in this article. While the software is decent enough to mention, it was merely included because almost all SSD manufacturers test with it... and for very good reason I have learned. After several tests had been completed, I began to see why they decided on this particular software for benchmarks. What I like least about ATTO Disk Benchmark is how you can manipulate the settings to produce extremely wide range results from the same product.
As an example, if you reduce the total test length size from 32 MB (used in our testing configuration) to one of the smaller sizes the benchmark results are more than 30% different (as in higher bandwidth). This reason alone is enough for manufacturers to tweak their own test configurations for self-benefit. Nevertheless, in regard to our ATTO tests the entire range of SSD products is very well represented with our configuration. It should be noted that with cache buffers growing larger and larger, perhaps there's a reasonable middle ground that will provide the best of both worlds. I suspect that hybrid drives could play an important role in this argument very soon.
Disk Hardware
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Crucial / Lexar 32GB 2.5" SATA-2 SSD CT32GBFAB0
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Hitachi Travelstar 7K100 2.5" 60GB SATA 7,200 RPM HDD HTS721060G9SA00
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Samsung 64GB 2.5" SATA-2 SSD MCCOE64G5MPP-0VA
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Seagate 7200.11 500GB 3.5" ST3500320AS 7,200 RPM SATA-II Hard Disk Drive (32MB Cache Buffer)
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Western Digital Raptor 74GB 3.5" WD740ADFD 10,000 RPM SATA Hard Disk Drive (16MB Cache Buffer)
PCMark05 Benchmarks
EDITORS NOTE: Please read Solid State Drive (SSD) Benchmark Performance Testing to understand how the benchmarks used in this article should be interpreted.
PCMark is a series of computer benchmark tools developed by Futurmark Corporation. The tools are designed to test the performance of the user's CPU, read/write speeds of RAM and hard drives. For this article, we are concerned with only the HDD Test Suite, which measures the MBps performance of: Windows XP Startup, Application Loading, General Usage, Virus Scan, and File Writing.
Our first results were obtained from the JMicron SATA controller resident on the Gigabyte GA-X48T-DQ6 motherboard. On this JMB363 SATA controller the Silicon Power SSD performed at levels which look suspiciously low, Benchmark Reviews hasn't offered the PCMark05 test results for many of our projects, but considering the Mtron Pro 7500 we recently tested offering nearly 58 MBps of bandwidth for the Windows XP startup test perhaps the 10.269 generated by the Silicon Power SSD is pretty poor. The PCMark05 Virus Scan test recorded almost 114 MBps for the Mtron Pro 7500 while the same test resulting in 97.772 MBps for the SP032GBSSD750S25. In the File Write test we received 42.912 for the Silicon Power SSD compared to 96 MBps for the Mtron Pro 7500.
As we collect more 3dMark05 information about our Solid State Drive collection, it will be collectively charted. In the mean time, it's recommended that you take this particular test with minimal weight since it hasn't been tested long-term.
Disk Hardware
In our next section, the entire collection of SSD products Benchmark Reviews has tested will be timed for a Windows XP startup benchmark. Please continue to see how SSD's effect startup performance.
Windows XP Startup
After several SSD product reviews in which I recorded Windows XP startup time data, I have repeatedly omitted my results from the article for lack of enough comparison data. In all honesty, I cannot make this an interesting subject. Most of you reading this article have already watched the video of a Windows computer starting up in mere seconds when it used a Solid State Drive, so it wouldn't be very exciting to show this again. Instead, I have recorded the length of time it took for my Dell Inspiron 6400 notebook computer to startup with each drive. Here are the specifications on the notebook:
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Dell Inspiron 6400 Notebook
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Intel Core Duo T2300 @ 1.66 GHz
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2GB DDR2 667 MHz System Memory
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Windows XP Professional SP3 (identical image cloned to each drive)
This "test" is going to be useful to laptop computer users only, primarily because I did not test the desktop hard drives. The only hard drive included was the high-performance 7200 RPM Hitachi Travelstar 7K100, which recorded a 28-second load time from the moment I pressed the power button to the moment the Windows Login screen was displayed. It's important to note that this particular Dell notebook consumes almost 11 seconds on the POST routine and pre-loading prior to starting Windows, so it's not realistic to think that my results would match another system identically.
The primary purpose of this test was to demonstrate that a Solid State Drive could in fact cut the Windows load time in half. In regards to the Mtron Pro 7500, I could subtract the preloading time for POST and other BIOS routines and be left with a 6-second boot-up time. Conversely, with the same benefit given to the Hitachi Travelstar 7K100, the resulting boot-up time is still 18 seconds - 300% longer.
Disk Hardware
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Crucial / Lexar 32GB 2.5" SATA-2 SSD CT32GBFAB0
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Hitachi Travelstar 7K100 2.5" 60GB SATA 7,200 RPM HDD HTS721060G9SA00
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Samsung 64GB 2.5" SATA-2 SSD MCCOE64G5MPP-0VA
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Seagate 7200.11 500GB 3.5" ST3500320AS 7,200 RPM SATA-II Hard Disk Drive (32MB Cache Buffer)
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Western Digital Raptor 74GB 3.5" WD740ADFD 10,000 RPM SATA Hard Disk Drive (16MB Cache Buffer)
In the next section, I begin to summarize my final thoughts on the Mtron Pro 7500 series as well as Solid State Drives in general. Please continue on to see what I think of SSD technology.
Heat Output Results
Solid State Drives are not yet a household technology, and because of this the marketing propaganda has become as high-pressure as any political campaign. Benchmark Reviews has tested SSD products from many manufacturers (to name a few: Crucial, Intel, MemoRight, Mtron, OCZ, Patriot, Samsung, Super Talent, and Silicon Power) and each has taken full advantage of the vast new technology improvements offered by their products. Some manufacturers have made claims that other websites have taken to the mat and wrestled with a topic (such as power consumption), only to later be criticized for improperly testing the hardware. Well, we don't intend on repeating the mistakes of our mega-site affiliates, which is why we plan to approach new methodology in small bites.
There have been television shows made famous on the principal of dispelling rumors and myth. This section is not exactly meant to imitate that concept, although we do separate fact from fiction. The first myth we challenge is the claim that Solid State Drives produce no heat. Nearly every manufacturer selling Solid State products has at some point claimed their SSD products do not produce heat, which is believable on many levels because there are no moving parts. Well, chances are very good that you have already peeked at the illustration below, so I won't delay in explaining what we've found.
Using a some spare Styrofoam, I constructed a small unit to shield two 2.5" notebook drives from the nearby power supply. Although not pictured, there was also an open-top wall section that surrounded this unit, further insulating it from thermal effects of any nearby environment. Since there was no data connection made, these tests are what I would consider to be 'idle'. The power leads were connected and power was delivered for twenty minutes before temperatures were taken with a non-contact IR thermometer at approximately six inches from surface. The rooms ambient temperature as measured directly at the test site was exactly 19.0°C at the time I recorded the results for the units pictured.
In the image above there are only two devices pictured of a four-cell test platform. On the left side is the Hitachi Travelstar 7K100 60GB HTS721060G9SA00 7,200 RPM SATA 2.5" Hard Disk Drive, and on the right is the Mtron Pro 7500 32GB SATA-II 2.5-Inch SSD Solid State Drive MSP-SATA7525-032-N-A. The Hitachi 7K100 is one of the few 7200 RPM notebook hard drives available, since these faster spinning disks use more power and thus create more heat. Although not pictured because of camera direction, my test rig setup compares up to four products at once. The results of other SSD test products are shown in the charts below.
Temperature Readings at 19.0°C
| Device Name |
Ambient |
Drive Temp |
| Mtron Pro 7500 SSD |
19.0°C |
31°C |
| Mtron Pro 7000 SSD |
19.0°C |
29°C |
| Hitachi Travelstar 7K100 HDD |
19.0°C |
27°C |
| Mtron Pro 7500 SSD |
19.0°C |
31°C |
| OCZ Core Series SSD |
19.0°C |
28°C |
| Samsung MCCOE64G5MPP-0VA SSD |
19.0°C |
27°C |
| Silicon Power SP064GBSSD25SV10 SSD |
19.0°C |
27°C |
| Super Talent FTM60GK25H SSD |
19.0°C |
27°C |
| Mtron MOBI 3000 SSD |
19.0°C |
27°C |
| Silicon Power SP032GBSSD750S25 SSD |
19.0°C |
26°C |
| Crucial CT32GBFAB0 SSD |
19.0°C |
25°C |
| Patriot Warp SSD |
19.0°C |
25°C |
| OCZ OCZSSD2 SSD |
19.0°C |
21°C |
Disk Hardware
-
Crucial / Lexar 32GB 2.5" SATA-2 SSD CT32GBFAB0
-
Hitachi Travelstar 7K100 2.5" 60GB SATA 7,200 RPM HDD HTS721060G9SA00
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Samsung 64GB 2.5" SATA-2 SSD MCCOE64G5MPP-0VA
-
Seagate 7200.11 500GB 3.5" ST3500320AS 7,200 RPM SATA-II Hard Disk Drive (32MB Cache Buffer)
-
-
-
-
Western Digital Raptor 74GB 3.5" WD740ADFD 10,000 RPM SATA Hard Disk Drive (16MB Cache Buffer)
SSD Final Thoughts
EDITORS NOTE: Please read Solid State Drive (SSD) Benchmark Performance Testing to understand how the benchmarks used in this article should be interpreted.
New technology always has one major hurdle to face: the consumer. I have long maintained my opinion that DDR3 system memory is every bit an excellent replacement to the aging DDR2 standard, but the argument of high price and limited adoption by manufacturers has hushed my position. Faced with a similar situation, Solid State Drive technology has suffered the same difficult transition towards widespread use. Like most electronics, it wasn't a question of how much of a technology improvement was evident, it was price.
For the past year, or at least since Reno Hosted the SuperComputing Conference SC07, I have been on the prowl to test every SSD I could get my hands onto. For all intent and purpose, the biggest obstacle was actually getting my hands around these expensive products. What I later understood about this problem is that if a popular computer hardware website was having a difficult time securing samples, then how is the average consumer going to approach these products?
So when OCZ mentioned that their 64GB Core Series SSD would sell for $259, I really wasn't sure what to think. It didn't take long to realize these claims were all true, because shortly after the launch NewEgg began to sell the 64GB CORE series SSD for only $259.00. This in itself should have started the dawn of widespread consumer acceptance for SSD products... but there's always a catch. As it turned out, the OCZ Core Series SSD I touted in my review was prone to data corruption and the mail-in rebate nullified consumer ability to return the defective product for a refund. Nothing hurts progress more than an angry customer, and this incident created plenty.
Around this same time, a certain well-respected hardware website published an article that claimed SSDs didn't consume less power after all. Although this report was later recanted on account of testing errors, I have to wonder what kind of impact my news of higher heat output will cause the adoption process? After all, I like these products, and completely endorse the technology. But the bad publicity, even when it's disproven, still has a lasting effect thanks to the angst a premium price tag creates. Which raises a lasting concern for me and the rest of the consumer market: price.
As a product analyst, I often get to have my hands on expensive product that I would otherwise never spend my own money to purchase. Certainly without argument, Solid State Drives fit perfectly into this category. There are many products which I feel are so new that it's better to let them ripen on the vine, and with a little time they will mature into something everyone wants. However early adopters never follow the pack, and scoff at the notion of waiting out the next technologies maturity. So when Benchmark Reviews began testing SSD's last year en mass, it seemed like we were doing very little more than toying with the untouchable. But that was before you could replace your existing high-performance Hard Disk Drive for a SSD product for almost the same cost (sacrificing a small degree of capacity, of course).
As I previously mentioned, OCZ has managed the "impossible" by offering top-performance SSD products at only $4 (less after rebate) per gigabyte of storage space. Even if I consider this to be a fluke occurrence, the Super Talent MasterDrive MX hits a reasonable $6 per gigabyte ratio their own SSD. Both of these product perform well, even if they do not occupy the very top-most position in our benchmark results. These particular prices are getting very near to the Western Digital Raptor compared in this article, which is available for about $2 per gigabyte of storage. So why are there still Solid State Drives for sale at twice the cost? That's a very good question that only a particular group of manufacturers can answer.
Back when I reviewed the OCZ SATA-II 32GB SSD it seemed like $17 per gigabyte was a relatively good price for SSDs at the time. Consider for a moment that before now, SSD's such the elite-level 32 GB MemoRight GT cost on the level of $33 per gigabyte. Even products like the entry-level 32 GB Mtron MOBI 3000 still cost $14 per gigabyte, making the price of admission seem quite high for even the lower-level SKU's. So will consumers still accept a $24 per gigabyte price tag on SSD products like the Mtron Pro 7500 MSP-SATA7525? Probably not. In fact, it's pricing like this that will cause the market to flood with less expensive items like the OCZ CORE series SSD, even despite its flaws.
The good news is that Samsung is planning to launch 64 GB DRAM IC chips based on a 30 nm fabrication process some time in 2009. I see this as writing on the wall: get competitive or get out of the business. Samsungs MLC IC's already created the foundation for vastly more affordable SSD products, and now they're about to only get better... especially with the price of DRAW in decline.
SP032GBSSD750S25 Conclusion
EDITORS NOTE: Please read Solid State Drive (SSD) Benchmark Performance Testing to understand how the benchmarks used in this article should be interpreted.
 As I first mentioned at the beginning of the article, Silicon Power has injected a fresh and powerful look into their product decals. Of course, 2.5" drives are generally used for notebook computer, and therefore never really see the light of day. But still, if only for a few moments during installation, you'll appreciate the exciting look of their SATA-II SSD.
Construction is probably the strongest feature credited to the Silicon Power SSD. Solid State Drives are by nature immune to most abuses, but add to this a hard metal shell and you have to wonder what it would take to make this drive fail. Silicon Power offers a 2-year warranty but there isn't a clear channel for RMA requests or North American support telephone numbers.
Based on the collection of benchmark tests we conducted, Silicon Power's 32GB SATA-II SSD settles in near the top of our performance charts. At this moment the SP032GBSSD750S25 model occupies the #4 position in our ranks, which is quite an improvement over their last generation product. With a sustained read speed of 121 MBps and sustained write at 88 MBps, the bandwidth available is quite enough to match the fastest Hard Disk Drives; but the additional benefit of an immediate response time makes all the difference in performance.
Value is a relative term, especially when you discuss bleeding edge technology. At the ends of every emerging technology are two sides: one which will buy the technology and one that will not. Silicon Power doesn't have a North American distributor just yet so pricing isn't readily available at this time, and our rating will forego this category until more information becomes available.
In conclusion, the Silicon Power SATA-II SLC Solid State Drive is a stark improvement over the past product line, and is very worthy of your consideration. Expect to enjoy extremely fast application opening and O/S boot times with this SSD, along with the perk of lower power consumption and relatively low heat output under load. The biggest drawback is going to be retail availability, and perhaps price. Until we see Silicon Power SSDs land on North American shores, this items will be relegated to Europe and Asia.
Pros:
+ Impressive 121 MBps read and 88 write bandwidth
+ Spatter-painted casing adds to appearance and appeal
+ Low power consumption may extend battery life
+ Lightweight compact storage solution
+ Resistant to extreme shock impact
+ Up to 128GB of SSD capacity
+ 2-Year Silicon Power full warranty
+ Very low random access time
Cons:
- Metal case is heavier and less durable than plastic
- Difficult to purchase in North America
- Limited support and warranty contacts
Questions? Comments? Benchmark Reviews really wants your feedback. We invite you to leave your remarks in our Discussion Forum.
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