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 |
| Model |
Capacity |
Form Factor |
Controller |
Firmware |
Protocol / Interface |
Reviewed
Price |
HEXUS Review |
| Corsair Force Series MP510 |
960GB |
M.2 2280 |
Phison-E12 |
ECFM11.0 |
NVMe / PCIe 3.0 x4 |
£220 |
Dec 2018 |
| Crucial MX300 |
1TB |
2.5in |
Marvell 88SS1074 |
M0CR060 |
AHCI / SATA 3.0 |
N/A |
N/A |
| HyperX Fury RGB |
480GB |
2.5in |
Marvell 88SS1074 |
000056R8 |
AHCI / SATA 3.0 |
£115 |
Dec 2018 |
| Samsung 950 Pro |
256GB |
M.2 2280 |
Samsung UBX |
2B0QBXX7 |
NVMe / PCIe 3.0 x4 |
N/A |
N/A |
| Seagate FireCuda 510 |
1TB |
M.2 2280 |
Phison-E12 |
STES1020 |
NVMe / PCIe 3.0 x4 |
£230 |
Jun 2019 |
| Seagate FireCuda 520 |
1TB |
M.2 2280 |
Phison-E16 |
STNSC011 |
NVMe / PCIe 4.0 x4* |
£225 |
Dec 2019 |
| Team Group Cardea Liquid |
512GB |
M.2 2280 |
Phison-E12 |
ECFM12.2 |
NVMe / PCIe 3.0 x4 |
TBC |
Aug 2019 |
| Team Group T-Force Delta Max RGB |
500GB |
2.5in |
SM2258 |
TBC |
AHCI / SATA 3.0 |
N/A |
N/A |
| WD Black NVMe |
1TB |
M.2 2280 |
WD |
B35590WD |
NVMe / PCIe x4 |
£375 |
Apr 2018 |
| WD Black SN750 NVMe |
1TB |
M.2 2280 |
WD |
B35590WD |
NVMe / PCIe 3.0 x4 |
£230 |
Jan 2019 |
| WD Blue SN500 NVMe |
500GB |
M.2 2280 |
WD |
201000WD |
NVMe / PCIe 3.0 x2 |
£67 |
Mar 2019 |
| *PCIe 4.0 x4 testing conducted on Scan 3XS Vengeance RTX Fluid Extreme |
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. |
| DiskBench |
A small program that accurately measures the time taken to read and write folders on to the same drive. |
PCMark 8 |
PCMark 8's storage test is a collection of workloads that isolate the performance of the PC's storage system. |
| Final Fantasy XIV Stormblood |
An alternative storage benchmark used to gauge game load time. |
Notes
We're faced with a bit of a predicament in that our Intel-based test platform doesn't offer support for PCIe Gen 4. That's something we're hoping to remedy in the very near future, but as luck would have it, we just so happened to have a £7,000 AMD Ryzen-based gaming rig sitting around. Should numbers between different platforms compared? Ideally not, but we've decided to go with it to give readers an idea of what to expect between a number of popular PCIe Gen 3 drives on Intel Z370 and the Seagate PCIe Gen 4 on AMD X570.
