SuperSSpeed S301 64GB review

So this review is a long time coming.  It's been almost 3 months but finally I've had time to get everything in order and get some solid results.  

Unfortunately I don't have the reliability of using the Intel RST drivers dedicated to a native Z77 motherboard so I'm using the non native RST that are currently being distributed to allow TRIM and RAID 0 on X79 boards.  Therefore the results may be even better on a Z77 board.  To give a better measurement of the type of performance we can see from this drive on various systems, I've utilised both the X79 Intel SATA III port as well as the LSI SAS 2308 port.  Results of the Intel will be on top and LSI beneath:

HD Tune Pro

There are 2 screens for each controller here.  The first screen is the read performance followed by the write performance.

There was a weird anomaly with the LSI controller having a slow start that climbed almost immediately and stayed steady causing an average much lower than the sustained level of read and writes.  LSI was performing a lot better across the board if not for that little hiccup.

 

 

 HD Tach

 

The last test to wear the drives a little before formatting the drives for further benchmarks.  Incredible burst speeds here.  Well and truly above MLC levels.

 

AS SSD

Incredible sequential read and write speeds.  There are faster drives out there but remember this is a 64GB drive.  The LSI port takes a little lead in sequential read and writes but takes a big dip in 4K-64Thrd writes causing an overall lower score.  Remarkable scores either way from a very small drive.

 

ATTO Disk Bench

Here the drives show similar performance throughout regardless of the controller used.  Intel seems to take an early lead but the LSI has a 14000 write points lead by the 8192 mark.

 

Anvil's Storage Utilities

There are 2 screens for each controller here.  The first screen is the compressible performance followed by the incompressible performance.

Here we start to see a little bit of a difference in how the controllers are performing.  The Intel ports seem to be struggling with the incompressible writes a lot more than the LSI.  With compressible data the Intel shines and pushes the S301 drive to its peak performance in these tests.  Again there are better results from other 128GB SSDs but only at the top end.

CrystalDiskMark

Again here there are 2 screens for each controller.  The first screen is the compressible performance followed by the incompressible performance.

Some very strong numbers again with the LSI controller when running incompressible tests.  Still a peculiarity in the lower numbers of the 4K writes though.  Overall another very strong performance from a 64GB drive.

PCMark Vantage

Intel

LSI

Intel comes out on top during the vantage tests.  At this point the drives have been worn down from all the bench marks and yet still provide decent results.  Intel does have working TRIM running in the background so I'd assume the difference comes down to that.  A secure erase would most likely bring the LSI close to if not surpassing this score.

PCMark 7

Intel

LSI

A massive score here for a 64GB drive. 10 points here goes a mile.  The very best SSDs reach around 5600.  In comparison, a 240gb Sandforce SSD gets around 5400.  This notches that by around 50 points.  Very very impressive!

 

Conclusion

From the results seen above, the 64GB edition of the SuperSSpeed S301 is no slouch when compared to the competition.  Only the very best of the best (the 128GB version of the S301 included) will have a noticeable performance increase over this drive, and even then it would almost be negligible in day to day use.  When I say the best of the best I'm also talking about 120-256GB capacity drives.  It is a sequential writing beast and boasts great benchmark scores that put most larger capacity drives to shame.  Being an SLC NAND flash drive makes it perfect for running in RAID setups that don't support TRIM either.  Its in a class of its own as a small storage solution and I see it holding that crown for the foreseeable future.

PS.  Here's an 8 way RAID score for those who were wondering:

The slow start seems to be consistent with the HD Tune and HD Tach results and their initial low numbers before levelling out.  It may also be responsible for the incredibly low 4K read and writes.  Either way the sequential numbers are extraordinary and as a multimedia and games array it really does feel as good as it gets.



















NOTE: I am in no way paid for this review and do not regularly review SSDs at a professional level.  These are simply my results from personal testing without the strict procedures that other commercial tech review websites use.  Therefore, please do not hold my results as a complete measure of what to expect if you purchase this drive, nor should you regard it as highly as results from trusted websites such as Real World Labs or Tweaktown.