The test system used in this review was an HP 8200 Elite. The computer came equipped with an Intel Core i5-2400 CPU, 4GB of DDR3 1333MHz memory, Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST3250312AS 250GB SATA 6 Gb/s hard drive, NVIDIA Quadro FX580 512MB PCIe graphics card and an Intel 82579-LM gigabit network card. For the operating system, I installed a fresh copy of Windows 7 Enterprise.
To test the performance of the SSDNow V300, I ran a series of benchmarks using CrystalDiskMark 3.0.1, HD Tach RW 3.0.4.0, ATTO Disk Benchmark 2.46, AS SSD, HD Tune Pro 4.61, Anvil's Storage Utilities and Iometer. For comparison, I've also included test results from the Silicon Power S70, Plextor PX-256M5P, OCZ Vertex 4, Kingston HyperX 3K, Kingston SSDNow V+200, Plextor PX-256M3P, SanDisk Extreme and Samsung 830 SSD.
As I mentioned earlier, the SSDNow V300 is based on LSI's SandForce SF-2281 controller. Like other SandForce controllers, the SF-2281 features a technology called DuraWrite, which uses data compression to lower write amplification and extend the life of the drive by reducing the number of program-erase cycles. This data compression also plays a big part in the controller's performance. The more the data can be compressed, the faster an SSD like the V300 is able to read and write. Looking at the screenshot above, you can see that there is a considerable performance difference when writing incompressible (0%) and compressible (100%) data. However, thanks to the V300's Toggle Mode NAND, its read speeds aren't affected nearly as much.
CrystalDiskMark 3.0.1:
First, I ran a few quick tests using CrystalDiskMark. This benchmark tool measures the performance of a storage device by testing its sequential read and write speeds as well as its random read and write speeds using blocks 512K and 4K in size.
 Kingston SSDNow V300 120GB |
 Kingston SSDNow V+200 90GB |
According to Kingston, the 120GB SSDNow V300 is capable of reading and writing at 450MB/s when connected to a SATA 6 Gb/s port. The drive had no problems exceeding this number when reading, but came up well short of it when writing CrystalDiskMark's default (random) test data. However, with the highly compressible 0x00 (0 Fill) data, the V300 was able to read at 485.7 MB/s and write at 487.7 MB/s.
 Kingston SSDNow V300 120GB - All 0x00, 0Fill |
 Kingston SSDNow V+200 90GB - All 0x00, 0Fill |
HD Tach RW 3.0.4.0:
Next, I used HD Tach to test the SSDNow V300's read, write and burst speeds as well as its seek times and CPU usage.
Looking at the screenshot above, you can see that the SSDNow V300 had average read and write speeds of 399.8 MB/s and 384.5 MB/s respectively, as well as a burst speed of 427.6 MB/s.
ATTO Disk Benchmark 2.46:
I also used ATTO Disk Benchmark to test the SSDNow V300's sequential read and write speeds. The tests are run using blocks ranging in size from 0.5KB to 8192KB and the total length set to 256MB.
 Kingston SSDNow V300 120GB |
 Kingston SSDNow V+200 90GB |
When tested with ATTO, the SSDNow V300's read speeds topped out at about 555 MB/s and its write speeds at 530 MB/s. This is pretty impressive considering the drive's read and write speeds are rated at 450MB/s.
