Best way to check SSD Speeds?

[iRage]

What is the best way to test your SSD Speed? Does this lower you're SSD's life/speed if you do it? I only really want to do it once, since I heard benchmarks can cause harm an SSD. I just got a Intel 510 120 GB, and I want to make sure I didn't get a bad one. My Windows Experience Score is 7.8 which I've been told is strange for a SATA at 6 GB/s.

I heard about Crystal Mark Disk, AS SSD, and ATTO but I'm not sure which one would be the best to use.

 

[Drsignguy]

Best way? I don't think there really is a "best way" All Benchmarks that you mention are ok to use. As for results, they may vary. If you read Zap's Thread, http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?p=29731860&postcount=4, it will help you. As for damaging your SSD, running Benchmarks over and over does not bode well for the life of the SSD.

 

[taltamir]

it "harms" your SSD the same way that driving a thousand miles on your car harms it. That is, it wears it out. Running one quick benchmark isn't going to make much of a difference. But certain benchmarks wear it out faster and running them all the time and for a long period of time is not a good idea.

Zap's thread is a great place to start

 

[Zap]

Best way to check SSD speeds is to have a second computer next to it with just a HDD. Boot both up into Windows and as soon as you see the Start Menu button and your desktop icons, start running various programs immediately, like starting up Firefox, The Gimp, OpenOffice, etc. all at once.

As for synthetic benchmarks that give you some number for your drive performance, I don't even bother with those nowadays unless something is drastically wrong. The reason is that even if everything is working right, you'll see a number that is smaller than what someone else posts for your drive (by 1%? 10%? 20%?) and you'll start to think something is wrong when everything is fine.

 

[iRage]

Well I followed Zap's suggestions from his Sticky. It was impossible for me to measure my Boot times because my other computer, a laptop is so slow and only runs Vista 32-Bit, that comparing it with a new computer running Windows 7 64-Bit is like comparing Apples and Oranges.

I decided to one run of a single benchmark and see where I stand. Unfortunately, when trying to compare the benchmarks to a website like Anandtech and Tomshardware, they use 250 GB drives and I only use 120 GB. The only other forum I found that has tons of people benchmarking there personal drives use ATTO. So... I'm kind of confused at how my results are, I uninstalled CrystalDiskMark after one use, lest I be tempted to keep running it and try to get better speeds.

My question is, are these speeds normal for a Intel 510 120 GB on SATA 6/GBs?. Like I said, the reason I'm so paranoid is, I've heard people getting bad SSDs and I really have no way to compare my system to an older 7 year laptop. It would just skew my perspective.

The reason I'm so high-strung about this is because I still have time to replace my SSD for another one (Same Model of course) if it turns out I got a bad one, so I don't want to lose that window.

 

[Voo]

Rule of thumb: If the only indication of having a bad drive is "people" saying that "some people" have got bad drives and comparing synthetic benchmarks for a handful MB/s more or less, chances are you have a perfectly fine drive

But anyhow, the metrics seem kosher - your random r/w values are where they should be.

 

[groberts101]

not to mention very rarely do you see a "bad drive" that is off the mark a little in synthetic benchmarks. Bad drives are those that have stability,corruption, and/or detection issues. When it works as intended you're pretty well assured you got a "good one".