Benchmarks: CrystalDiskMark
The CrystalDiskMark sequential performance test shows the Samsung 640GB hard drive to have a read and write throughput of about 100MB/s. The Intel X25-M 80GB only produced a write result of 75MB/s, but the read performance was phenomenal reaching an insane 259MB/s. In fact, the only SSD to show strong write performance in this test was the G.Skill Titan 128GB and the OCZ Vertex 120GB.
The read results were a different story, and all the SSDs were much faster than the Samsung 640GB hard drive. The fastest of course being the Intel X25-M 80GB, with the OCZ Vertex 120GB taking the second spot.
The CrystalDiskMark random 512KB performance test measuring read and write performance should favor the SSDs, as it is only the smaller kilobyte writes that generally affect these drives. That said, the write performance was not particularly impressive on some of these drives. The Samsung 640GB desktop hard drive produced a write result of 65MB/s. This made it faster than the standard G.Skill 64GB SSD, while the G.Skill Titan 128GB was just 12% faster.
Even the mighty Intel X25-M 80GB was just 15% faster, while the Super Talent UltraDrive ME 64GB was a much more impressive 38% or 25MB/s faster. The OCZ Vertex 120GB was truly impressive here, delivering 90% more performance than a standard desktop hard drive with a throughput of 124MB/s.
The read results were much different and it was the G.Skill Titan 128GB that dominated here, with a throughput of almost 200MB/s, making it roughly 5x faster than the Samsung 640GB hard drive. The rest of the SSD pack delivered read performance between 150 - 165MB/s, which is obviously much higher than that of a standard desktop hard drive.
Now this is typically where MLC based SSDs have suffered in the past. When running the CrystalDiskMark random 4KB performance test we ran into some serious problems with the G.Skill SSDs. These drives managed a throughput of just 2MB/s in the write performance test, while the read performance wasn't as bad. The Intel X25-M 80GB is a beast here, reaching an incredible 52MB/s, whereas the next fastest SSD, being the OCZ Vertex 120GB, managed just 16MB/s.
While the OCZ Vertex 120GB is a serious improvement over the G.Skill Titan 128GB, it is still not quite in the same league as the Intel X25-M. The Super Talent UltraDrive ME 64GB was once again slower than the OCZ Vertex 120GB, particularly in the write test where it was 31% slower.