Test Setup And HDTune  

We installed the Supertalent SSD16GB25M drive, and the Hitachi 7K250 160GB drive we compared it to side-along an existing test bed installation of Windows Vista on the following system...

• ECS PX1 Intel P965 Mainboard
• Intel Core2Duo E6300 CPU
• 2GB TwinMOS DDR2-800 SDRAM
• Crucial X1600XT 256MB PCI-E Video Card
• Seagate 312006AS 120GB SATA HD
• Liteon 165P6S DVD/RW Drive

The only testing done under Windows Vista was HDTune 2.53 transfer rate tests. The remainder of the tests were performed on a Windows XP SP2 installation. The installation was performed directly on the Hitachi 7K250 drive, installing the latest Catalyst 7.4 drivers for the ATI card, and Realtek HD Audio v1.66 drivers. Also, the following software was installed...

• PCMark 2005
• IOMeter 2006.07.27
• Half Life 2 - Episode 1
• Prey Demo
• Adobe Acrobat Reader 8
• Microsoft Office 2003

After the operating system and software was installed on the Hitachi 7K250 160GB drive, the system was defragmented, and then the image was transferred to the Supertalent SSD16GB25M drive, in an attempt to ensure we were comparing apples to apples as far as the OS and software installation were concerned.

First we look at the results from HDTune 2.53. An initial glance at the results from the Supertalent drive shows clearly it's no stellar performer in sustained and burst transfer rates. You'll notice too that the drive itself appears to be divided into 4GB "Zones", a fact clearly shown in the transfer rate graph.

Though not a stellar performer as far as modern hard drives are concerned, the Hitachi 7K250 160GB drive is a respectable example of "average" performance. At least in sustained transfer rate, even in the outer platter zones, it's still significantly faster than the Supertalent drive. The only performance metric where the Supertalent drive dominates is in random access time. Keep this fact in mind as we proceed, as it will weigh heavily in interpreting the results of the other tests.

HDTune begins at least to "paint a picture" of just how different these two architectures are, and as we proceed, we hope the inherent strengths and weaknesses become more apparent.