Benchmarking Storage Options for PCs

The Results Are In ? Exposing the Strengths and Weaknesses of HDDs, SSDs, and Hybrids

Publication Date	July 2008
Publisher	IDC
Product Type	Report
Pages	33
ISBN Number	not applicable
Product Code	IDC04383

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Summary

This IDC study reveals the performance differences between traditional HDDs, SSDs, and H-HDDs. IDC partnered with a third-party testing firm to run a complete array of tests to document the performance of these different storage technologies. The results are vendor agnostic and are meant to highlight the differences between technologies, not vendors. In addition, IDC offers up its analysis of the results and insight to the future to help industry participants understand the future direction of these storage technologies in order to assist OEMs in choosing the most appropriate storage device for their products.

"The results are in! After months and months of debates and speculation, we've finally put six different drive technologies to the test. Two traditional mobile PC drives, two solid state drives, and two hybrid hard drives were put through a battery of tests to determine where they excel, and where they don't. The results were both predictable and unexpected, but in the end, our results have led us to several significant conclusions that we believe will be eye-opening for those that have anything to do with storage device technologies in PCs." - Dave Reinsel, group vice president, Storage and Semiconductors

Content

IDC Opinion
In This Study
Executive Overview
Situation Overview
- Let the Tests Begin
  - The Tests Defined
    - Industry Benchmarks
    - Specific Scripts
    - Data Fragmentation
    - Nice to Haves  But Not at This Time
    - Table: The Six Different Drive Technologies Tested
  - The Test Subjects
  - The Test Platform
- The Test Results
  - HD Tach  Access Times
  - Figure: HD Tach Score by Drive Type: Access Speed
  - Virus Scan Test
  - Figure: Complete System Virus Scan Speed by Drive Type
  - Application Launch
  - Figure: Internet Explorer Program Launch Speed by Drive Type
  - File Copy Tests
  - Figure: File Copy Test Summary by Drive Type
  - Figure: File Copy Speed by Drive Type: 200 MS Word Documents
  - Figure: File Copy Speed by Drive Type: 1,000 MP3 Files
  - Figure: File Copy Speed by Drive Type: 2.67GB File
  - Boot Times and Shutdown
  - Figure: Startup/Shutdown Analysis by Drive Type
  - Industry Benchmarks
  - WorldBench 6 Beta 2
  - Figure: WorldBench 6 Beta 2 Score by Drive Type
  - Mobile Mark Version 7
  - Figure: MobileMark Score by Drive Type
  - IOzone
  - Figure: IOzone Read Results by Drive Type and File Size
  - Figure: IOzone Sequential Read Results by Drive Type and Block Size: 2GB File
  - Figure: IOzone Sequential Write Results by Drive Type and Block Size: 2GB File
  - Figure: IOzone Random Read Results by Drive Type and Block Size: 2GB File
  - Figure: IOzone Random Write Results by Drive Type and Block Size: 2GB File
  - Table: A Summary of the Test Scores
Conclusion
Learn More
- Methodology
  - Benchmarking Drive Performance
    - WorldBench 6 Beta 2
    - MobileMark Version 7
    - IOzone
    - HD Tach
  - Special Scripts
    - Test Duration
      - Application Load Time
      - MP3 File Copy Time
      - Large File Copy Time
      - Small File Copy Time
    - System Startup and Shutdown Performance
    - Virus Scan
- Synopsis