Mac Performance Test Platform

The test platform is a base model MacBook Pro 13" from Early 2011 (Intel Core i5 2.3GHz, 4GB DDR3-1333).

Solid State Drive Firmware Versions

• Crucial m4: FW009
• Kingston HyperX: 332
• OCZ Vertex 3: 2.15
• Other World Computing Mercury Electra 6G: 332

Testing Configuration and Software

• InTech QuickBench 4.0
• BlackMagic Disk Speed Test 2.1

A base OS X Lion 10.7.2 install is used for the operating system.

All tests were performed 5 times each, and the average of all test runs were used as the results.  Before the QuickBench and BlackMagic Speed Test, the SSD drives were cleared using Parted Magic's Secure Erase function and the hard drives were formatted.

For the real world file copy tests and boot speed tests, an identical system image based on my personal OS X install was used.  Wifi was turned off, and bootup applications included atMonitor and Google Chromium.

The hard drives and SSDs were connected to the SATA 6G connector in the optical bay using the OWC Data Doubler.

Mac Performance Testing Results

QuickBench helps to illustrate the maximum potential speeds that drives can achieve. It uses easily compressible streams of data, so its results should be read as a best case scenario.  The Max IOPS shows performance similar to that of the original Vertex 3, and the other SandForce drives with synchronous NAND.

The Max IOPS drive's 4K write performance is more than double that of any of the other drives in QuickBench.

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