We really like PCMark 7's Secondary Storage benchmark module for its pseudo real-world application measurement approach to testing. PCMark 7 offers a trace-based measurement of system response times under various scripted workloads of traditional client / desktop system operation. From simple application start-up performance, to data streaming from a drive in a game engine, and video editing with Windows Movie Maker, we feel more comfortable that these tests reasonably illustrate the performance profile of SSDs in an end-user / consumer PC usage model, more so than a purely synthetic transfer test.
SandForce drives seem to do well in PCMark 7’s secondary storage benchmark, but the Vertex 450 put up a very strong score and finished second best in the group.
The deltas separating the scores in PCMark 7 are relatively miniscule, but even so, the Vertex 450 scored among the top two or three drives in every sub-test.
