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Silicon Power V20 Series 120GB SSD |
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Benchmarks Continued & Conclusions
Software: ATTO Disk Benchmark 2.46
Score: Megabytes Per Second (MB/s) - Higher is Better.
Download Link: here.
ATTO's benchmark uses data that is primarily compressible, which makes the most of SandForce's DuraWrite compression technology; testing with higher block size tests in the second and third graphs approximates most closely the performance claimed by manufacturers.
Please note: The queue depth specifies the number of queue entries for overlapped I/O, i.e. the maximum number of read/write commands that can be executed at one time. The total length specifies the total size of the data file that is created on the test drive.
Software: PCMark 7 Professional Benchmark Suite
Score: Varies - Higher is Better.
Download Link: here.
PCMark 7 includes a range of tests that offer different views of your system’s performance, but for this review we've limited our results to the storage test which is a collection of workloads that isolate the performance of the PC’s storage system. PC Mark's storage workloads use RankDisk to playback a pre-recorded trace of storage device activity.
The next scenario uses a trace of importing a collection of images in Windows Live Photo Gallery. A USB stick with 68 images (434 MB total) was inserted and images were imported to Windows Live Photo Gallery. Recording of activity on system drive started at the beginning of importing pictures and lasted until thumbnail images appeared on the display. During the trace Windows Live Photo Gallery copied images from USB stick to Pictures library, indexed them and created thumbnails.
The next workload uses a trace of compiling a home video from a set of video clips. The source videos were shot with a Sony HDR-HC3 and imported to the PC. The source video was 1080i MPEG-2 videos. A home video project was prepared with Windows Live Movie Maker. Recording of activity on system drive started just before clicking Publish (1080p video) and lasted until publishing finished. During the trace Movie Maker read parts of source files and wrote a single output file.
The final workload uses a trace of starting up home and office productivity applications. The PC Mark 7 document was copied to Desktop. The document was opened by double clicking and few seconds later Internet Explorer was started from the toolbar. Recording of activity on system drive started just before double clicking the document and lasted until both applications had started and became responsive. During the trace Windows loaded the executables and related DLLs from the system drive.
Conclusions:
Silicon Power's V20 series of SSD offers close performance to the most popular drive in OCZ's range, the Vertex 2, and after analysing each set of results we find maybe a MB/s or two between them. But it's not all rosy and Silicon Power's solution does fall short in matching OCZ's performance in AS SSD's 4K read and write tests, as well as its IOPS performance; nevertheless these shortcomings are only reflected in a couple of benchmarks in which most mainstream users may not even notice. Particularly the "real world" tasks such as file creation/movement and access seem to be on par due to the hardware similarities.
So where does this leave us? Considering the performance achieved and the expected sub-$200 dollar price point, up to $30-40 dollars less than its rival the Vertex 2 2.5" SSD, it leaves us with a product that provides solid SandForce SF-1200 performance and mature 34nm Micron NAND flash, all at a much more affordable price. This may well entice users to make the jump to solid state technology for their next upgrade. And while we have only focused on Silicon Power's 120GB offering, they also produce larger capacities that may offer increased savings over more popular alternatives on the market, each carrying a 3-year warranty.
Feel free to comment on this review in this thread.
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