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 PX-256M3P, 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 and Iometer. For comparison, I've also included test results from the SanDisk Extreme, Samsung 830 SSD, Plextor PX-256M3S, Patriot Pyro SE, Plextor PX-256M2P, Kingston HyperX, OCZ Vertex 3 and OCZ Agility 3.
Like the PX-256M2P and PX-256M3S, the PX-256M3P is based on Marvel's 88SS9174 controller chip. While not as popular as some of the newer SandForce controllers, the 88SS9174 does have one major advantage in that it performs equally well with both incompressible (0%) and compressible (100%) data.
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.
 Plextor PX-256M3P |
 SanDisk Extreme SSD 240GB |
According to Plextor, the PX-256M3P is capable of reading at 540 MB/s and writing at 420 MB/s when connected to a SATA 6 Gb/s port. While the drive performed well, it came up a bit short of these numbers in CrystalDiskMark's sequential read and write speed tests.
 Plextor PX-256M3P - All 0x00, 0Fill |
 SanDisk Extreme SSD 240GB - All 0x00, 0Fill |
The PX-256M3P performed equally well when using highly compressible 0x00 (0 Fill) data. This time around, the drive was able to read at 491.4 MB/s and write at 396.9 MB/s.
HD Tach RW 3.0.4.0:
Next, I used HD Tach to test the PX-256M3P'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 PX-256M3P had average read and write speeds of 352.4 MB/s and 247.9 MB/s respectively, as well as a burst speed of 321.1 MB/s.
ATTO Disk Benchmark 2.46:
I also used ATTO Disk Benchmark to test the PX-256M3P'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.
 Plextor PX-256M3P |
 SanDisk Extreme SSD 240GB |
When tested with ATTO, the PX-256M3P's read speeds topped out at about 535 MB/s and its write speeds at 425 MB/s.
