Test Setup
Testing was accomplished on a blank formatted SSD. The drive used in our tests was first securely erased via software provided by their respective manufacturer and then updated to their latest firmware. I also used the USB Type-C to Type-C cable to see maximum potential. Our test setup consists of the following hardware:
| CPU | Intel Core i5-8600K @ 3.6GHz (Coffee Lake) |
| Cooling | AORUS LIQUID COOLER 240 |
| Motherboard | Asus ROG Maximus X Hero Z370 |
| Ram | Zadak 32GB (4x8GB) DDR4 4133 MHz |
| HDD | Samsung 960 EVO 250GB PCIE M.2 SSD |
| PSU | Antec Signature Series 1000W |
| OS | Windows 10 |
Performance
Just as a quick reminder of the advertised specifications from Lexar. Sequential read 550MB/s and sequential write 400 MB/s.
ATTO Disk Benchmark v4.01
The ATTO Disk Benchmark application was designed to measure your storage systems performance with transfer sizes and test lengths for reads and write speeds. Several options are available to customize your performance measurement including queue depth, overlapped I/O and even a comparison mode with the option to run continuously. You can test any manufacturers RAID controllers, storage controllers, host adapters, hard drives and SSD drives.
ATTO Disk Benchmark Features:
- Transfer sizes from 512KB to 8MB
- Transfer lengths from 64KB to 2GB
- Support for overlapped I/O Supports a variety of queue depths
- I/O comparisons with various test patterns
- Timed mode allows continuous testing
- Non-destructive performance measurement on formatted drives.
Results: Max Sequential read 528MB/s and sequential write 477 MB/s
Very close to advertised speeds. Out performed the Write specs!
Crystal Disk Mark 7.0
CrystalDiskMark is designed to quickly test the performance of your hard drives. Currently, the program allows to measure sequential and random read/write speeds.
CrystalDiskMark Features:
- Measure sequential reads/writes speed
- Measure random 512KB, 4KB, 4KB (Queue Depth=32) reads/writes speed
- Select test data (Random, 0Fill, 1Fill)
- Theme support
- Multi-Language support
Results: Max Sequential read 552 MB/s and sequential write 499 MB/s
Beat the advertised speeds!
PCMark 10 Results with real-world relevance
- PCMark 10 Storage Benchmarks produce an overall score as a measure of drive performance. Comparing devices is as simple as comparing scores. The tests also measure and report the bandwidth and average access time performance for the drive.
- Each test uses traces recorded while performing real-world tasks such as booting Windows 10, starting applications such as Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, working with applications such as Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint, and copying several large files and many small files.
- Unlike other synthetic storage tests, this focus on real-world activities enables PCMark 10 to show meaningful differences between the latest, high-performance storage technologies.
- PCMark 10 Storage Benchmarks help professional users relate manufacturers’ technical specifications to practical real-world performance with tests that are easy to set up and run.
- You can compare up to four results in the PCMark 10 app, or export your results to Microsoft Excel for more detailed analysis.
The Data Drive Benchmark is designed to test drives that are used for storing files rather than applications. You can also use this test with NAS drives, USB sticks, memory cards, and other external storage devices.
The Quick System Drive Benchmark is a shorter test with a smaller set of less demanding real-world traces. You can use this benchmark to test smaller system drives that are unable to run the Full System Drive benchmark.
There we have it! The SL200 Portable SSD brought to us by Lexar! Let us cover a few final thoughts and conclusion of our review.
