- Aug 14, 2000
- 22,709
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- 126
Background
I picked up an Intel 320 SSD (120 GB) as an OS and application drive. I got this particular model because I didnt want to invest too heavily in a piece of technology that might disappoint me. I also value reliability over speed so I wont tolerate any flakiness in my system.
The system specs are in my sig, and the three drives tested are:
Due to system and game folder differences, the game scores are not necessarily comparable to the first review, but the HD Tune scores are.
HD Tune
The system is running under IDE mode because I want to make sure the SSD is completely reliable before I start tinkering with AHCI. Despite this, the minimum read speed is still higher than the Hitachis maximum read speed. Access time is of course light years ahead of any mechanical HDD.
The Hitachi would theoretically write faster across most of its surface though, assuming the files are sequential enough so random access doesnt become an issue. Unlike SSDs, mechanical drives generally write as fast as they read.
Games & Booting
Cold boot times were done on Windows 7 SP1 (64 bit), and were measured from pressing the power button until the Windows login screen appeared. Game scores were measured with level and saved game loading.
The Hitachis slow boot time confirms its general sluggishness as an OS drive due to its high random access time. Meanwhile the SSD is more than nine seconds faster than the Western Digital drive, which in turn is over 7 seconds faster than the Hitachi.
The SSD also posts some good gains in the game tests, especially in Stalker and Hard Reset where its about ten seconds faster than its mechanical opponents. Its not faster than the Hitachi in Quake 1, which suggests this situation is no longer I/O bound.
Theres also not a huge difference in Call of Juarez either, so Im starting to wonder if the bottleneck is now with the GPU driver as it loads all those little shader files the game creates. On a related note, the Hitachi loads the game much faster (old score 42.77 seconds) after SP1 is applied due to improved write speeds (see below for more on this).
File Copying
Here are some write speeds in Windows Explorer for copying an assortment of files totalling 31 GB. When the HDDs were writing, the SSD was the source, while the Hitachi was the source for the SSDs writing. This is slightly unscientific but its realistic for my particular situation.
The SSD maxed out its HD Tune write score even with the Hitachi being the source drive, so it was significantly faster with these files.
As an aside, SP1 provides massive write speed improvements for the Hitachi; previously Id get 50-60MB/sec in the situation above. If youre running 4K drives, definitely upgrade Windows 7 to SP1 as it fixes slow write speeds on these types of disks. The Hitachi is actually a very fast mechanical drive for file transfers.
IDE
AHCI (Microsoft)
AHCI (Intel)
Subjective Usage
The SSD feels slightly more responsive during Windows use compared to the Caviar Black. Also programs like Access and iTunes load a bit faster on their first launch. Its not a huge difference but its noticeable.
Conclusion
This drive is pretty much exactly what I expected significant improvements to booting, file copying and game load times, small (but noticeable) improvements to applications and Windows use. Im happy with it, I just hope I dont ever get the 8MB bug.
Whats next? The SSD cant fit my 361 GB gaming library so its damn tempting to get a 600 GB Raptor and drop them there. But since Western Digital will likely update both the Black and the Raptor line soon, I think Ill sit tight with the Caviar Black as my gaming drive for now.
I picked up an Intel 320 SSD (120 GB) as an OS and application drive. I got this particular model because I didnt want to invest too heavily in a piece of technology that might disappoint me. I also value reliability over speed so I wont tolerate any flakiness in my system.
The system specs are in my sig, and the three drives tested are:
- Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000.D 1 TB (HDS721010DLE630), 1 x 1000 GB platter.
- Western Digital Caviar Black 1 TB (WD1002FAEX-00Z3A), 2 x 500 GB platters.
- Intel 320 (SSDSA2CW120G3) 120 GB, SSD.
Due to system and game folder differences, the game scores are not necessarily comparable to the first review, but the HD Tune scores are.
HD Tune
The system is running under IDE mode because I want to make sure the SSD is completely reliable before I start tinkering with AHCI. Despite this, the minimum read speed is still higher than the Hitachis maximum read speed. Access time is of course light years ahead of any mechanical HDD.
The Hitachi would theoretically write faster across most of its surface though, assuming the files are sequential enough so random access doesnt become an issue. Unlike SSDs, mechanical drives generally write as fast as they read.
Games & Booting
Cold boot times were done on Windows 7 SP1 (64 bit), and were measured from pressing the power button until the Windows login screen appeared. Game scores were measured with level and saved game loading.
The Hitachis slow boot time confirms its general sluggishness as an OS drive due to its high random access time. Meanwhile the SSD is more than nine seconds faster than the Western Digital drive, which in turn is over 7 seconds faster than the Hitachi.
The SSD also posts some good gains in the game tests, especially in Stalker and Hard Reset where its about ten seconds faster than its mechanical opponents. Its not faster than the Hitachi in Quake 1, which suggests this situation is no longer I/O bound.
Theres also not a huge difference in Call of Juarez either, so Im starting to wonder if the bottleneck is now with the GPU driver as it loads all those little shader files the game creates. On a related note, the Hitachi loads the game much faster (old score 42.77 seconds) after SP1 is applied due to improved write speeds (see below for more on this).
File Copying
Here are some write speeds in Windows Explorer for copying an assortment of files totalling 31 GB. When the HDDs were writing, the SSD was the source, while the Hitachi was the source for the SSDs writing. This is slightly unscientific but its realistic for my particular situation.
Code:
Drive Time Write (MB/sec)
WD 7 minutes, 10 seconds 70-80
Hitachi 5 minutes, 38 seconds 90-100
Intel 4 minutes, 2 seconds 125The SSD maxed out its HD Tune write score even with the Hitachi being the source drive, so it was significantly faster with these files.
As an aside, SP1 provides massive write speed improvements for the Hitachi; previously Id get 50-60MB/sec in the situation above. If youre running 4K drives, definitely upgrade Windows 7 to SP1 as it fixes slow write speeds on these types of disks. The Hitachi is actually a very fast mechanical drive for file transfers.
IDE
AHCI (Microsoft)
AHCI (Intel)
Subjective Usage
The SSD feels slightly more responsive during Windows use compared to the Caviar Black. Also programs like Access and iTunes load a bit faster on their first launch. Its not a huge difference but its noticeable.
Conclusion
This drive is pretty much exactly what I expected significant improvements to booting, file copying and game load times, small (but noticeable) improvements to applications and Windows use. Im happy with it, I just hope I dont ever get the 8MB bug.
Whats next? The SSD cant fit my 361 GB gaming library so its damn tempting to get a 600 GB Raptor and drop them there. But since Western Digital will likely update both the Black and the Raptor line soon, I think Ill sit tight with the Caviar Black as my gaming drive for now.
Last edited:
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