Page 3: Testing, Test Setup:, Conclusion
Testing
We ran the Kingston SSDNow V Series through the benchmarks a few times during different periods to make sure the drive was fully used. After a month of use, the benchmarks only slightly degraded and these will be the ones we will be showing. We are adding a Seagate 1TB 7200.11 drive in comparison to see what a mainstream magnetic drive has to offer. A base install of Ubuntu 9.04 x86_64 was used for the operating system.
Test Setup:
Asus P6T Deluxe
Intel Core i7 920
»6GB Crucial Ballistix Tracer Red
»Sapphire Radeon 4850
Ubuntu 9.04 x86_64
Phoronix Test Suite 2.0
A fully partitioned drive has about 119GB of usable space. This is pretty much in line with what happens with magnetic drives (due to their non binary numbering). And yes, the swap partition is placed in an extended partition.
Aside from one test, these benchmarks show a mixed bag. For the most part, the SSD is faster on reads (highly on random ones), but slower on writes. In the last benchmark, the SSD gets beaten severely. This might be due to the lack of cache or the redesigned controller, and it seems that it just can't handle the load in that situation. Will this present itself in normal use? Probably not, as that benchmark is more relevant to server-type computers, but it is interesting to see.
Conclusion
Kingston's first in-house designed SSD, the SSDNow V Series, is a very good comprise between speed and price. Even though Kingston took a long time to bring a SSD to market, the wait was better for consumers that will purchase this drive. The controller is mature enough and the performance is good, but because the drive is targeted at the value segment, don't expect this drive to run circles around magnetic drives in production right now.
The drive does have its strong points including the high speed, low latency random reads. Most disk access in a traditional home computer use situation would be random reads and this is where the Kingston SSDNow really comes into focus for the market. Replacing this drive for the OS and programs alone will bring a modest speed increase for your computing experience. That's the goal with this product. It isn't made to supplant magnetic storage just yet.
The drive currently »retails for $240. For a SSD with 128GB of storage, this is a very good deal. Kingston has done a great job bringing a value product to market and even though other players have had their products on the market for longer, a well designed product that works off the bat says something about the company. Nice job, Kingston.
ASE Labs would like to thank Kingston for making this review possible.
We ran the Kingston SSDNow V Series through the benchmarks a few times during different periods to make sure the drive was fully used. After a month of use, the benchmarks only slightly degraded and these will be the ones we will be showing. We are adding a Seagate 1TB 7200.11 drive in comparison to see what a mainstream magnetic drive has to offer. A base install of Ubuntu 9.04 x86_64 was used for the operating system.
Test Setup:
Asus P6T Deluxe
Intel Core i7 920
»6GB Crucial Ballistix Tracer Red
»Sapphire Radeon 4850
Ubuntu 9.04 x86_64
Phoronix Test Suite 2.0
A fully partitioned drive has about 119GB of usable space. This is pretty much in line with what happens with magnetic drives (due to their non binary numbering). And yes, the swap partition is placed in an extended partition.
Drive Performance (Higher is better)
- Name
- Value
PostgreSQL pgbench8.4.0 TPS
- SSDNow V
- 944.66
- SG1TB
- 1057.57
PostMark1.51 TPS
- SSDNow V
- 4017.25
- SG1TB
- 3395.00
IOzone3.323 8GB Write MB/s
- SSDNow V
- 81.30
- SG1TB
- 110.20
IOzone3.323 8GB Read MB/s
- SSDNow V
- 116.13
- SG1TB
- 107.29
Dbench4.0 12 Clients MB/s
- SSDNow V
- 105.12
- SG1TB
- 37.92
Dbench4.0 128 Clients MB/s
- SSDNow V
- 7.72
- SG1TB
- 56.89
Aside from one test, these benchmarks show a mixed bag. For the most part, the SSD is faster on reads (highly on random ones), but slower on writes. In the last benchmark, the SSD gets beaten severely. This might be due to the lack of cache or the redesigned controller, and it seems that it just can't handle the load in that situation. Will this present itself in normal use? Probably not, as that benchmark is more relevant to server-type computers, but it is interesting to see.
Conclusion
Kingston's first in-house designed SSD, the SSDNow V Series, is a very good comprise between speed and price. Even though Kingston took a long time to bring a SSD to market, the wait was better for consumers that will purchase this drive. The controller is mature enough and the performance is good, but because the drive is targeted at the value segment, don't expect this drive to run circles around magnetic drives in production right now.
The drive does have its strong points including the high speed, low latency random reads. Most disk access in a traditional home computer use situation would be random reads and this is where the Kingston SSDNow really comes into focus for the market. Replacing this drive for the OS and programs alone will bring a modest speed increase for your computing experience. That's the goal with this product. It isn't made to supplant magnetic storage just yet.
The drive currently »retails for $240. For a SSD with 128GB of storage, this is a very good deal. Kingston has done a great job bringing a value product to market and even though other players have had their products on the market for longer, a well designed product that works off the bat says something about the company. Nice job, Kingston.
ASE Labs would like to thank Kingston for making this review possible.