Testing and Benchmarks:
Test System:
- Gateway P-7811FX
- P8400 2.26GHz Processor
- 4GB DDR2 RAM
- 1 x Western Digital WD5000LPVT 500GB
- 1 x Intel 32GB SLC SSD
Test Plan:
Essentially, the plan is to install each drive (WD and Intel) into the test laptop and run them through the various benchmark suites to see how the stack up with everything else being equal. It may not be fair to compare a spinning 5400RPM drive and an SLC SSD drive, but I believe this is where the fork in the road will be for most folks….price versus performance. So it will be good to see how much you have to give up one way or another depending on where your particular emphasis is.
ATTO:
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With this benchmark, the results are pretty much what anyone would have guessed by comparing a spinning drive and an SSD. The WD5000LPVT write speed is about 100MB slower and read speed is about 50MB slower. However, when deciding between performance, capacity, and price, knowing the delta is an important variable to consider.
Crystal Disk Mark:
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Here we see the strength of spinning drives versus the weakness of SSD drives even the playing field….sequential I/O. The sequential I/O results are almost interchangeable between the two drives and so depending on your particular data usage requirements, either drive could be a viable candidate.
HDtune:
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With HDtune the results were the closest across the board as we have seen so far. With average and burst rates being so close, the discussion of price versus capacity comes to the forefront.
