Overall System Performance using PCMark Vantage

Next up is PCMark Vantage, another system-wide performance suite. For those of you who aren’t familiar with PCMark Vantage, it ends up being the most real-world-like hard drive test I can come up with. It runs things like application launches, file searches, web browsing, contacts searching, video playback, photo editing and other completely mundane but real-world tasks. I’ve described the benchmark in great detail before but if you’d like to read up on what it does in particular, take a look at Futuremark’s whitepaper on the benchmark; it’s not perfect, but it’s good enough to be a member of a comprehensive storage benchmark suite. Any performance impacts here would most likely be reflected in the real world.

PCMark Vantage

PCMark Vantage - Memories Suite

PCMark Vantage - TV & Movies Suite

PCMark Vantage - Communications Suite

PCMark Vantage - Productivity Suite

PCMark Vantage - HDD Suite

AS-SSD High Queue Depth Incompressible Sequential Performance SYSMark 2007
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  • Cow86 - Thursday, February 24, 2011 - link

    This is likely going into my next build ^^ Which is a few months off still, so hopefully the prices will be somewhat favourable by then....
  • vol7ron - Friday, February 25, 2011 - link

    let me guess... waiting for z68? :)
  • Rasterman - Thursday, February 24, 2011 - link

    Which of the benchmarks relate to loading windows and loading programs and games or levels in games? It would be nice to see how these compare, my guess is its not worth it to upgrade from a Crucial Real SSD C300 256GB to a Vertex 3 256GB as the perceived difference is going to be negligible?

    Some real world tests would be nice:
    fresh load of windows 7
    start windows 7 from hibernation
    starting major games
    loading levels in major games
    starting major programs (photoshop, visual studio, windows media player, itunes, outlook)
  • ImSpartacus - Thursday, February 24, 2011 - link

    Well, if you do upgrade from that C300, I would happily take it off your hands.

    I figure that old hardware is only worth, ohhhh, $100? Yeah, that's about right.

    So, what do you say?
  • Figaro56 - Friday, February 25, 2011 - link

    The Crucial C300 256GB drive for $100? Dream on!

    You can buy one brand new today for $420 shipped at amazon.com. You under estimate the C300, it's still a valid product and $100 is just a ridiculous comment.
  • vol7ron - Friday, February 25, 2011 - link

    brand new != used

    with a used drive, you've already cut into warranty and you've reduced its lifespan (as negligible a point as it may be).
  • Figaro56 - Friday, February 25, 2011 - link

    Then you had better buy a new one then. No one is going to sell their originally priced $600 Crucial RealSSD C300 256GB SSD for $100, especially after this review.

    There is a margin of real world performance improvement with the Vertex 3 true, but certainly not so superior over the C300 as to make someone crazy enough to sell an 8 month old $600 SSD for $100 as it's "obviously" not obsolete it's just 2nd best. That's just retarded.

    These SSD drives have an incredible life span so cutting into the life span over 8 months of use is nebulous. The warranty is only there for warm fuzzies, if it works it works.
  • jimhsu - Friday, February 25, 2011 - link

    I suppose IM's response is a joke considering the OP's question of whether an ultra-fast drive is faster than the super-fast drive that he already has.

    (For the record, I bought the C300 256GB for $400 in newegg's awesome 20% off sale).
  • vol7ron - Friday, February 25, 2011 - link

    I took it as a joke too, but still you're not going to get top dollar if you're selling a used device. A person would rather go get a refurb.

    Also, didn't the C300 have many problems that crept up? Not saying it hasn't been solved and the problems weren't rare, but I though a few weeks after Anand got their version, it died - and a few others died as well (betas and productions). For whatever reason, I decided to stay away from Crucial for that reason; not permanently, but in the short run.

    I'm more curious to see with what Intel has to offer. Even if they don't introduce a compression algorithm, I like their wear-leveling better - it should require less additional spare NAND and be cheaper in general. And, of course, I like to see how Vertex 3 fares with TRIM as it approaches the capacity limit.
  • Figaro56 - Tuesday, March 1, 2011 - link

    The infamous firmware issue of the Crucial drive was solved, I've never had a problem. This C300 is a very fast SSD and I'm more than happy with it. When an SSD comes along that is actually twice as fast in every bench mark as my C300 256GB SSD then I might feel as though it's obsolete, but we're not there yet.

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