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SilverStone HDDBoost Review
Author: Jim Manis
Published: Sunday, August 22, 2010
Performance Tests Wrap-up
HD Tune is a very well known disk test; it has proven itself to be as accurate as any other and has a very easy to use interface and excellent repeatability. The results of this were a mixed bag; we saw increases in some areas and slowdowns in others. The controller overhead is likely the culprit.
The good news is the actual usage tests show this to not be an issue considering that both PC Mark Vantage and the reboot times showing a large boost.
The good news is the actual usage tests show this to not be an issue considering that both PC Mark Vantage and the reboot times showing a large boost.
HD Tach is similar in usage to HD Tune but with additional abilities. Similar to the other testing it showed some gain and a reduction in access time.
Benchmark Conclusion
Testing revealed a clear reason to never just trust one test or method of testing. In several tests there were huge gains while in others the opposite occurred. The HDDBoost controller did add some overhead to the process but was usually limited to the access time tests shown on this page.
A SSD can have access times of less than .1ms and the HDDBoost took around 13.2-14ms which is as good or better than what the Seagate managed on its own, so still a slight boost regardless. The good thing is that the majority of our tests showed a nice gain, especially considering that the SSD used was not a particularly high performance model. Using a newer 200+MB/s SDDs would most likely have boosted the numbers substantially.
A SSD can have access times of less than .1ms and the HDDBoost took around 13.2-14ms which is as good or better than what the Seagate managed on its own, so still a slight boost regardless. The good thing is that the majority of our tests showed a nice gain, especially considering that the SSD used was not a particularly high performance model. Using a newer 200+MB/s SDDs would most likely have boosted the numbers substantially.
