SSD Performance PCMark Vantage Storage

PCMark Vantage Storage Test Suite

PCMark vantage has a very good test suite to benchmark storage performance. The software will look at tasks you normally perform with your PC and will try to measure what kind of an effect that has on your user experience by testing eight different segments, stressing the storage unit.

• TEST1 - Spyware is very common on systems without protection against it, letting Windows Defender scan & protect your system is recommended.
• TEST2 - Streaming data from an HDD in games allows for massive worlds and riveting non-stop action.
• TEST3 - Importing digital photos to Windows Photo Gallery is where a high performance HDD shines.
• TEST4 - Starting Windows Vista is a rather demanding task for the storage device, but a fast HDD will notably decrease the loading time.

The tests include a series of reads, writes and copies under a set of specific conditions and applications.

The Vertex 4 series SSDs was  performing "okay" in this trace based test. The overall performance was a little sub par. The new firmware shows potential as in curtains tests performance goes up significantly.

• TEST5 - Home video editing with Windows Movie Maker can be very time-consuming unless you have a high performance HDD.
• TEST6 - Windows Media Center with a high performance HDD can handle simultaneous video recording, time-shifting, and streaming to an Extender for Windows Media Center, such as Xbox 360.
• TEST7 - Cataloguing your music library is a breeze for fast and powerful HDDs.
• TEST8 - Starting various applications can take a long time unless you have a high performance HDD.

In test 5 to 8 however the perf improvements are really significant. So this Trace based test went from "okay" to "good". It's still not excellent though.