ATTO Disk Benchmark

ATTO Disk Benchmark is a free benchmark that allows you to compare the performance of the solid state drive using a variety of transfer sizes. The total size of each test is limited to 256 MB, which is good enough for most intent and purposes.

I/O Comparison

In this test, we compared the basic I/O performance of the 240 GB Intel 520 solid state drive.

With compressible data, its read speed rapidly increased as the transfer block size increased from 512 bytes to 1 MB, before plateauing off. Its write speed though hit its peak once the block size reached the sizes of 256 to 512 KB. The 240 GB Intel 520 SSD ultimately had a maximum read speed of 360 MB/s and a maximum write speed of 244 MB/s.

When we switched to non-compressible data, the 240 GB Intel 520 SSD actually maintained its maximum read speed of 360 MB/s. Only its maximum write speed dropped to 227 MB/s. Its write speed also started to plateau with a block size of 128 KB.

Multiple I/O Comparison

In this test, we compared the 240 GB Intel 520 solid state drive's ability to handle 8 simultaneous I/Os.

	Compressible Data Set - Minimum Read Speed : 26 MB/s (6 Gb/s), 31 MB/s (3 Gb/s) - Maximum Read Speed : 399 MB/s (6 Gb/s), 284 MB/s (3 Gb/s) - Minimum Write Speed : 23 MB/s (6 Gb/s), 29 MB/s (3 Gb/s) - Maximum Write Speed : 245 MB/s (6 Gb/s), 271 MB/s (3 Gb/s) * Please mouse-over the chart to see the SATA 3 Gb/s results
	Non-Compressible Data Set - Minimum Read Speed : 26 MB/s (6 Gb/s), 8.7 MB/s (3 Gb/s) - Maximum Read Speed : 398 MB/s (6 Gb/s), 255 MB/s (3 Gb/s) - Minimum Write Speed : 23 MB/s (6 Gb/s), 8.9 MB/s (3 Gb/s) - Maximum Write Speed : 245 MB/s (6 Gb/s), 241 MB/s (3 Gb/s) * Please mouse-over the chart to see the SATA 3 Gb/s results

When we tested the 240 GB Intel 520 SSD with compressible data, its write speed plateaued when the block size hit 64 KB. Its read speed hit its peak with a block size of 512 KB or larger.

The picture was quite similar when we switched to non-compressible data. In fact, the peak read and write speeds for both compressible and non-compressible data were virtually similar. This shows that the SSD controller is the limitation when dealing with multiple simultaneous transactions. It actually negated the performance boost from the SandForce controller's data compression technology.

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