EVEREST Controller Analysis

EDITOR'S NOTE: Lavalys EVEREST continues to be an excellent tool for benchmark testing maximum sequential linear read and write bandwidth speeds, however NAND wear condition may impact performance results.

After completing the initial version of this article, I received several messages asking why there wasn't a chart with all of the results compiled to show the difference in SATA controllers. The truth is, I actually wanted visitors to read through this article in its entirety, as the information was embedded on each page. But alas, I know that visitors like their information hand fed to them, so I've returned to add this section. Instead of hand-picking data from the collection of software programs we've used for benchmark testing, which would be repetitive considering that the results have already been revealed, I have decided to use Lavalys EVEREST to demonstrate the trend that's been repeated.

This first chart illustrates the linear read performance of the G.Skill 64GB 2.5" SATA-2 SSD FM-25S2S-64GB on the Intel ICH10R Southbridge SATA controller. As you can see, there is very little movement in the waveform, and the average sustains a very tight range. With a minimum of 136.1 MBps and maximum of 137.6, the average is a very consistent 137.5 MBps. So let's see how the JMicron controller handles this same SSD...

Attached to the JMicron JMB322 SATA controller, the G.Skill SSD performs considerably worse. The minimum sustained read bandwidth occasionally dipped to 108.3 MBps, while the maximum and average was 111.5 MBps.

So if we compare results for the G.Skill FM-25S2S-64GB, the Intel ICH10R controller offers a full 26.0 MBps sustained read performance advantage. Now let's see about write performance on the same drive...

Back on the ICH10R, the G.Skill SSD give some movement between minimum and maximum linear write performance, with an average of 89.9 MBps. That's not bad, so let's see how different the performance is for JMicron's chip...

On the JMicron JMB322 controller, our G.Skill SSD performs 7.4 MBps worse than the Intel ICH10R. The G.Skill SSD indicates a heavy preference towards the Intel ICH10 chip, with a 26.0 MBps linear read performance advantage and 7.4 MBps linear write bandwidth gain.

I tested several other SSDs using the two SATA controllers, and the results seemed much closer for some drives more than others. The OCZ SATA-II SSD (OCZSSD2-1S32G) gained only 4.5 MBps read bandwidth on the ICH10, and a mere 2.3 MBps write improvement over JMicron. Conversely, the Western Digital Raptor 74GB HDD actually performed better on the JMicron controller, even though the JMB322 only improved linear read speed by 0.8 MBps for 75.2 total while write speed improved by only 0.4 MBps for 74.2.

While this matches the trend we received with PCMark05 and ATTO Disk Benchmark, they conflict with HD Tach and CrystalDiskMark. So who do we believe, and can any of these tools be 'right'?

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