Western Digital SiliconEdge Blue 256GB SSD Review

The Test System

Before we look at the numbers, here is a brief glance at the test system that was used. All testing was done on a fresh install of Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit. All benchmarks were completed on the desktop with no other software programs running. The Intel Core i7 test system was run in triple-channel memory mode at 1600MHz with 8-8-8-24 memory timings. The ASUS P6X58D Premium motherboard was run using all the latest drives and BIOS 0702. The ASUS P6X58D Premium motherboard uses the Intel ICH10R south bridge chipset, which we used to run our ‘boot drive’. The boot drive used in our test system was an Intel X25-V 40GB model with TRIM enabled. We then used the Marvell 9123 PCIe SATA 6Gbps controller that is on the motherboard to test the SSDs that are used in the benchmark charts. All of the SSDs were tested in a fresh out of the box (FOB) state and the system had the latest firmware installed on it when testing was done.

The Marvell 9123 SATA 6G Controller was tested using driver version 1.0.0.1034 or 1034 for short. This driver is said to be the first Marvell driver able to pass the TRIM command from Windows to the drives.

Intel LGA 1366 Test Platform
Component	Brand/Model	Live Pricing
Processor	Core i7 920	Click Here
Motherboard	ASUS P6X58D Premium	Click Here
Memory	6GB Kingston HyperX T1 1600MHz	Click Here
Video Card	ATI Radeon HD 5670	Click Here
Hard Drive	Intel X25-V 40GB	Click Here
Cooling	OEM	Click Here
Power Supply	CoolerMaster UPC 1100W	Click Here
Operating System	Windows 7 Ultimate 64-Bit	Click Here

SSDs Included in the Benchmarking:

• Crucial RealSSD C300 256GB –
  Firmware 0001
• OCZ Vertex 2 Pro 100GB – Firmware
  232A11F0
• OCZ Vertex LE 100GB – Firmware
  1.0
  
• OCZ Vertex 120GB – Firmware 1.5
  
• Intel X25-M G2 160GB – Firmware
  02HD
• Toshiba THNS256GG8BBA 256GB – Firmware AGYA0201
• WD SiliconEdge 256GB – Firmware 5.12
  

Detailed Information on the WD SSC-D0256SC-2100 256GB SSD:

The Western Digital SiliconEdge Blue SSD operates on the ATA8 standard and has features like S.M.A.R.T. and APM (Advanced Power Management) according to Crystal Disk Info.

Let’s take a look at the benchmarks and see what the WD SiliconEdge Blue 256GB SSD has to offer!