SSD technology continues to improve beyond recognition – from the early SLC (Single Level Cell) drives exhibiting very poor capacity to cost ratios and the tendency of early Jmicron controller-equipped drives to stutter and pause, to current SSD technology as represented by the Silicon Power 64GB SSD showing off performance that exceeds regular mechanical hard drives’ in certain situations, while improving on the cost to capacity ratio.

There's not much to say about a plain black box - all the action is inside.                        

The Silicon Power 64GB SATA SSD is an MLC drive, meaning that it stores 2 bits of data per transistor-cell. These transistor “cells” store data in much the same way as magnetic storage, only in this case, there are no spinning platters, moving arm, or a rotating spindle. As such, durability and resistance to shock is a given, while a lower operating power draw, temperature, and noise are all desirable side effects. All of which is also applicable for this SSD. Adding to these advantages is its improved performance especially in the case of writing multiple small files to disk randomly, a problem area exhibited on older SSDs. Other performance measurements point to an SSD’s natural aptitude for quickly reading content – a function of an SSD’s construction as a whole set of memory modules acting together.

IOmeter test using mutiple small files. This test measures operations per second and response time when reading randomly. Compare to bench below.                                       

The Raptor 10.000 rpm drive is handily beaten by the Silicon Power SSD in this test.                                          

Especially when reading randomly, the Silicon Power SSD exhibited performance much better than our test bench’s standard 10,000rpm Raptor – The SSD achieved 4535 operations per second (ops/s) as opposed to the Raptor’s 157 ops/s. An SSD is after all one big cache storage similar to magnetic drive’s integrated cache, in that an index of stored data makes it easy to locate data, even when done randomly. Strangely enough, sequential read speeds came out worse than the Raptor’s at 9604 ops/s for the SSD versus the Raptor’s 14084 ops/s.

Sequential read speed comparison between the SSD (top) and the Raptor (bottom).         

The Silicon Power SSD exhibited excellent numbers when reading off disk, a basic HDTach test shows an average sequential read speed of 147.3 MB/s, twice that of our test bench’s Raptor, at 75.3 MB/s. Burst speeds of 182 MB/s bests that of a previous SSD reviewed, and is much higher than a Raptor’s 136 MB/s. Random and sequential read response time on the Silicon Power SSD was also higher than that of the Raptor.

Random write test of multiple small files for the SSD (top) and Raptor (bottom) show lopsided results in favor of the mechanical hard drive.

Where the Silicon Power SSD loses steam is during random and sequential writes – showing a poor 14 ops/s to the Raptor’s 273 plus a maximum response time of 450ms versus 15ms, this Silicon Power SSD still exhibits signs of stuttering when it comes to writing multiple small files to disk – a problem also seen in a previous Jmicron-equipped SSD, which has a crippling 900ms maximum response time. A final Atto transfer-rate test backs up the IOmeter results by giving a result half that of our test bench Raptor – 62267MB/s versus 32400MB/s for the SSD.

ATTO benchmark used to verify IOmeter's random write results. Note the disparity between read and write speeds in this SSD benchmark.                                  

Raptor ATTO results. Write and read numbers are more evenly matched here.                       

An easy explanation for an SSD’s slowdown when writing to disk can be attributed to the very small high-speed cache included – perhaps due to the same reasoning of treating the SSD as a whole set of cache memory. The slow-down occurs when multiple small files as tested with in IOmeter, lines up to be written into disk. These multiple small files must be placed and indexed by the SSD individually, and the cache quickly fills up. A single large file to be written to disk is less of a problem, as this file is quickly indexed and transferred directly from source to the “large cache” that is the main SSD storage.

Real-life testing did not immediately reveal this flaw in SSD write speeds, as it is only through select combination of activities and programs will this behavior become obvious. The problem is, these circumstances have the potential to occur quite frequently in most user’s computing sessions – a potential downfall for the SSD versus a regular hard drive – until the technology improves enough that is.

Silicon Power SSD (top) and Raptor (bottom) HDTach results.   

By then, we should have the best of both worlds – durability, low noise, heat and power consumption, plus the write speed problem solved or at least jacked up to become on par with current mechanical hard drives. In fact some examples such as Intel’s X25M and a similar Kingston product will have performance that will put them toe-to-toe with the mechanical hard drive best – now the only thing left to wait for is the lowering of prices.

What these results translate to is simply a question of use and application. For certain tasks, such as Windows start-up and the transferring of large files, the Silicon Power SSD excels. On the other hand, pedestrian tasks such as unzipping an archived file, saving multiple tabs of a browser, or auto saving a document slows down the computer by a noticeable amount. This is especially true when multi-tasking, as there are many simultaneous requests on the SSD’s resources. In other instances, the Silicon Power SSD is ridiculously fast – coupled with its durability, robustness and steadily decreasing prices, the Silicon Power SSD is a good choice for those who want to take advantage of the latest in storage technology while not reducing your wallet to an empty leather pouch.