Why are my 330 Series 240 GB SSD benchmarks so low?

[idata]

MacMini i5 2.5Ghz

16 GB Ram

Windows 7 Ultimate (Using Bootcamp)

330 240 GB SSD

Intel Solid State Drive Toolbox 3.0.3

Mac OS X 10.7.4

Background:

- Bootcamp doesn't natively support AHCI so using IDE mode.

- The Toolbox lists this drive model as "Unknown"

- Fresh Install of all Operating Systems

I setup various tests using IO meter, XBENCH, and Crystal Disk Mark and do not get anywhere close to the specs listed by Intel. For IO meter, I performed three tests using 1GB, 8GB, and 24GB test files with Queue Depths of 32. I used the same benchmark parameters as listed in the specs: 4KB Sequential Reads/Writes.

Below are screenshots of the results of the tests that I performed. I am assuming that the IDE mode is one issue however, if that were the case, it seems that I should have gotten outstanding results with XBENCH on the Mac OS X partition.

1GB Sequential Read: 20,685 IO and 80.80 MB/s

1GB Sequential Write: 29,686 IO and 116 MB/s

8GB Sequential Read: 18,929 IO and 74 MB/s

8GB Sequential Write: 29,644 IO and 116 MB/s

24GB Sequential Read: 14,464 IO and 57 MB/s

24GB Sequential Write: 29,688 IO and 116 MB/s

XBENCH Result in Mac OS X 10.7.4: Sequential READ = 32 MB/s and Sequential WRITE = 297 MB/s

Crystal Disk Mark in Win 7 Partition

[idata]

AHCI mode makes a huge difference, you're fortunate to get what you have now without it. The 4K scores are very dependent on AHCI mode, particularly in benchmarks. I don't understand why one benchmark would be better in IDE mode.

It looks like you are barely in SATA III performance territory, if at all. Does that PC support SATA III?

[idata]

parsec - thanks for your reply.

Yes, it is unfortunate - I guess I should have done my homework a bit more. The 2011 MacMini does support SATA III but mine shipped with a SATA II 5400 Drive.

Even in IDE mode, the performance is without a doubt much better but I had hoped to run VMware Workstation on the Windows side with a VSA (Virtual Storage Appliance) and nested ESXi's for testing and studying.

I'll test around on the Mac OS X side and see if I can my hands on a more reliable disk bench marking tool and post my results.