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 SanDisk's 256GB Ultra II SSD, 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 Crucial MX100, SanDisk Extreme Pro, Samsung SSD 850 PRO, Plextor PX-256M6S, Toshiba Q Series PRO, Plextor PX-256M6M, Samsung SSD 840 EVO mSATA, OCZ Vector 150, OCZ Vertex 450, Silicon Power Slim S55, Samsung SSD 840 EVO, Seagate 600 SSD, SanDisk Extreme II, Plextor PX-256M5M, OCZ Vector, Plextor PX-256M5PRO Xtreme, Samsung SSD 840 PRO and Samsung SSD 840.
As I mentioned earlier, the 240GB version of the Ultra II is based on Marvel's 88SS9190 controller chip. Looking at the screenshot above, you can see 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.
 SanDisk Ultra II 240GB |
 Crucial MX100 256GB |
According to SanDisk, the 240GB Ultra II is capable of reading at 550 MB/s and writing at 500 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.
 SanDisk Ultra II 240GB - All 0x00, 0Fill |
 Crucial MX100 256GB - All 0x00, 0Fill |
The Ultra II performed equally well when using highly compressible 0x00 (0 Fill) data. This time around, the drive was able to read at 515.1 MB/s and write at 473.1 MB/s.
HD Tach RW 3.0.4.0:
Next, I used HD Tach to test the Ultra II'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 Ultra II had average read and write speeds of 437.0 MB/s and 237.6 MB/s respectively, as well as a burst speed of 365.9 MB/s. The screenshot also shows the transition from SLC to TLC NAND. The Ultra II starts writing at about 400 MB/s and then drops to about 235 MB/s when On Chip Copy kicks in and begins to copy data from SLC to TLC blocks.
ATTO Disk Benchmark 2.46:
I also used ATTO Disk Benchmark to test the Ultra II'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.
 SanDisk Ultra II 240GB |
 Crucial MX100 256GB |
When tested with ATTO, the Ultra II's read speeds topped out at about 551 MB/s and its write speeds at 510 MB/s.
