Test Methodology
HEXUS SSD Test Bench |
| Hardware Components |
Product Page |
| Processor |
Intel Core i7-8700K (overclocked to 4.8GHz) |
intel.com |
| Motherboard |
Asus ROG Maximus X Hero |
asus.com |
| Graphics Card |
MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Gaming X Trio |
msi.com |
| Memory |
G.Skill Trident Z 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4-3200 |
gskill.com |
| Power Supply |
be quiet! Dark Power Pro 11 1,000W |
bequiet.com |
| Primary Storage |
256GB WD Black PCIe SSD |
wdc.com |
| Secondary Storage |
1TB Crucial MX300 SATA SSD |
crucial.com |
| Chassis |
be quiet! Dark Base 700 |
bequiet.com |
| Monitor |
iiyama ProLite X4071UHSU-B1 |
iiyama.com |
| Operating system |
Windows 10 Pro |
microsoft.com |
Comparison Drive Configurations |
| |
Total Capacity |
Controller |
Firmware |
Interface |
| WD Black NVMe |
1,000GB |
WD |
101020WD |
PCIe x4 |
| WD Black PCIe |
256GB |
Marvell |
B35500WD |
PCIe x4 |
| Crucial MX300 |
1,050GB |
Marvell |
M0CR060 |
SATA 6Gbps |
Benchmarks |
| CrystalDiskMark |
CrystalDiskMark provides various storage benchmarks, but we're interested in the returned 32-thread 4K performance numbers to see how well the drives fare when tasked with numerous small transfers. |
| AS SSD |
AS SSD measures performance against a trio of popular applications. |
PCMark 8 |
PCMark 8's storage test is a collection of workloads that isolate the performance of the PC's storage system. |
Iometer |
The hardest test we do, hitting the drive(s) with a mixed workload using differing number of users. |
Notes
We are benchmarking a-new as we move SSDs on to the latest platform. This is why you will see only a trio of drives in the graphs. The purpose is to show you the benefits, if any, of moving from a good SATA-based SSD (Crucial MX300), to a first-gen PCIe NVME (WD Black), through to today's drive, the WD Black NVMe. Of course, price-per-GB goes up as we move to the fastest drives, but the following graphs ought to illuminate whether it is realy worth spending more cash.
