WinBench 99 Version 2.0

Business Disk WinBench 99

The 240 GB Intel 520 SSD did very well in this test, delivering a score of 77.7 MB/s, which is 54% faster than its predecessor, the 160 GB Intel X25-M G2 but just 4.4% faster than the 120 GB OCZ Vertex 2 (E), and 9.3% faster than the 90 GB Corsair F90 solid state drive. Using it with the slower SATA 3 Gbps interface didn't seem to affect its performance much.

High-End Disk WinBench 99

Both the 240 GB Intel 520 SSD and the OCZ RevoDrive failed to deliver a result in the High-End Disk WinMark 99 test. It was not that it failed the test. Disk WinBench 99 just didn't deliver any result! Based on our other test results, we suspect that both SSDs have finally made Disk WinBench 99 obsolete by registering a score so high, it couldn't even display the results!

Transfer Rate Range

This chart shows you the range of platter-to-buffer transfer rates from the innermost track to the outermost track for hard disk drives, and the range of memory cell-to-controller transfer rates for solid state drives. In other words, it shows you the range of transfer rates of hard disk drives and solid state drives (from minimum and maximum).

Unlike hard disk drives which deliver a wide range of transfer rates, solid state drives have an almost uniform transfer rate across the entire device. With a virtually flat transfer rate of 344-352 MB/s (SATA 6 Gb/s), the 240 GB Intel 520 SSD was 23.6% faster than the next-fastest SSD, the 120 GB OCZ Vertex 2 (E) and 25.6% faster than its predecessor, the 160 GB Intel X25-M G2. It was only slower than the OCZ RevoDrive (by 35.7%), which is actually a RAID array of two SSDs.

When used with a SATA 3 Gb/s interface though, the 240 GB Intel 520 SSD's throughput dropped to just 278-280 MB/s, which puts it at the same performance range as the previous generation SSDs.

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