Intel Z68 Express with Smart Response Technology

Name: Intel Z68 Express with Smart Response Technology - Page 9
Brand: Intel

by Marco Chiappetta — Wednesday, May 11, 2011, 12:00 AM EDT

Although the higher transfer rates that come from enabling Intel’s Smart Response technology sometimes resulted in a many-fold increase in bandwidth in the PCMark Vantage HDD tests, the effect on overall system performance isn’t quite as dramatic.

The graph pictured above shows the overall PCMark scores of our Z68 Express-based test system when equipped with only a hard drive and with Smart Response technology enabled. As you can see, using either mode, the system performed significantly better, to the tune of 35% to 40%.

WD Raptor 10K RPM	Smart Response (Enhanced Mode)
Smart Response (Maximized Mode)	Intel SSD 311 Series

To further illustrate the effect Smart Response technology has on storage performance, we also ran a few tests with CrystalDiskMark. Once again, this test shows the huge increases in transfer speed realized when Smart Response is enabled. This test, however, also shows the write performance advantage “Maximized” mode has over “Enhanced” mode. Maximized mode’s write back cache mode offers significantly better writes, but as we’ve mentioned, the is a risk of data loss using this mode in the event of a power outage.

Tags: Intel, Asus, MSI, Gigabyte, SSD, Enterprise, Sandy Bridge, caching, Z68, Smart Response

Marco Chiappetta

Marco's interest in computing and technology dates all the way back to his early childhood. Even before being exposed to the Commodore P.E.T. and later the Commodore 64 in the early ‘80s, he was interested in electricity and electronics, and he still has the modded AFX cars and shop-worn soldering irons to prove it. Once he got his hands on his own Commodore 64, however, computing became Marco's passion. Throughout his academic and professional lives, Marco has worked with virtually every major platform from the TRS-80 and Amiga, to today's high end, multi-core servers. Over the years, he has worked in many fields related to technology and computing, including system design, assembly and sales, professional quality assurance testing, and technical writing. In addition to being the Managing Editor here at HotHardware for close to 15 years, Marco is also a freelance writer whose work has been published in a number of PC and technology related print publications and he is a regular fixture on HotHardware’s own Two and a Half Geeks webcast. - Contact: marco(at)hothardware(dot)com