Corsair Neutron XT (240GB, 480GB & 960GB) SSD Review: Phison S10 Debuts
by Kristian Vättö on November 17, 2014 9:00 AM ESTRandom Read/Write Speed
The four corners of SSD performance are as follows: random read, random write, sequential read and sequential write speed. Random accesses are generally small in size, while sequential accesses tend to be larger and thus we have the four Iometer tests we use in all of our reviews.
Our first test writes 4KB in a completely random pattern over an 8GB space of the drive to simulate the sort of random access that you'd see on an OS drive (even this is more stressful than a normal desktop user would see). We perform three concurrent IOs and run the test for 3 minutes. The results reported are in average MB/s over the entire time.
Random read speed gets a boost compared to the Force LS and the Phison finally appears to be on-par with the others.
Random write speed is also good, although the 240GB model could perform better at lower queue depths.
Sequential Read/Write Speed
To measure sequential performance we run a 1 minute long 128KB sequential test over the entire span of the drive at a queue depth of 1. The results reported are in average MB/s over the entire test length.
Here we see the performance drop when the capacity increases again. The 960GB model is quite noticeably slower in write speed compared to the rest of the capacities, although at 355MB/s it definitely isn't slow.
AS-SSD Incompressible Sequential Read/Write Performance
The AS-SSD sequential benchmark uses incompressible data for all of its transfers. The result is a pretty big reduction in sequential write speed on SandForce based controllers, but most other controllers are unaffected.
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lilmoe - Tuesday, November 18, 2014 - link
Sure, that's the best drive currently. But it's too expensive for the average consumer as of yet...Despoiler - Monday, November 17, 2014 - link
I hope the Neutron GTX is sticking around as the flagship. The LAMD controller is absolutely fantastic and frankly this S10 controller seems like a step backwards from it. At least in its current state.creed3020 - Monday, November 17, 2014 - link
I for one really miss designs around the LAMD controller. I previously owned a Seagate 600 240GB and that drive was fantastic regardless of the work load, and available last Christmas for great boxing day prices of $0.50/GB.extide - Monday, November 17, 2014 - link
From what I can tell they are not and have not been making the old Neutron/GTX for quite some time. Really sad because it is honestly a really really great drive. I wish I got my hands on one back when they were more common.Kevin G - Monday, November 17, 2014 - link
So was it Corsair or Phison that sent the crayon induced block diagram on page 1?Kristian Vättö - Monday, November 17, 2014 - link
That would be Phison.creed3020 - Monday, November 17, 2014 - link
Dinner napkin diagram? :pMikemk - Monday, November 17, 2014 - link
+1LogitechFan - Monday, November 17, 2014 - link
3 year warranty and not a full 1GB space? No thanks, SF3700 or 850Pro for me.eddieobscurant - Monday, November 17, 2014 - link
the way it is, it's more probable that the 860pro comes before the sf3700