G.Skill Phoenix Blade (480GB) PCIe SSD Review
by Kristian Vättö on December 12, 2014 9:02 AM ESTAnandTech Storage Bench 2011
Back in 2011 (which seems like so long ago now!), we introduced our AnandTech Storage Bench, a suite of benchmarks that took traces of real OS/application usage and played them back in a repeatable manner. The MOASB, officially called AnandTech Storage Bench 2011 – Heavy Workload, mainly focuses on peak IO performance and basic garbage collection routines. There is a lot of downloading and application installing that happens during the course of this test. Our thinking was that it's during application installs, file copies, downloading and multitasking with all of this that you can really notice performance differences between drives. The full description of the Heavy test can be found here, while the Light workload details are here.
The Phoenix Blade continues to be strong in our 2011 Storage Benches, although the XP941 retrieves its crown as the fastest client drive. I'm guessing the XP941 is more optimized for typical client workloads, which the 2011 suites present, whereas the 2013 workload is much, much heavier and only applies to users with very heavy IO workload.
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personne - Friday, December 12, 2014 - link
Oh nice, how did I miss that? Must have been thinking of another site. Thanks.vLsL2VnDmWjoTByaVLxb - Friday, December 12, 2014 - link
"there is a market in users with older motherboards for whom the XP941 is simply not an option due to the lack of boot support."Presumably an enthusiast or one in the higher-end workstation markets would already have a suitable boot device so I don't see this as a hindrance. This is already a high-end product, so buying a motherboard to fit the niche would be expected.
Kinda like you don't bemoan a high-power GPU for it's inability to work on low-power supply systems.
Kristian Vättö - Friday, December 12, 2014 - link
I'm not sure I agree with this. Many enthusiasts/professionals haven't seen the appeal to upgrade from Sandy/Ivy Bridge setups, so it's not just the motherboard that needs to be updated.DanNeely - Friday, December 12, 2014 - link
I definitely don't agree with it. The only reason I'm planning to replace the core of my even older i7-930 system is that it's gotten old enough that an old age failure is becoming more likely and I don't want to do a rush upgrade when something catastrophically fails.hojnikb - Friday, December 12, 2014 - link
And i'm just here, expection a native pci-e solution.... Damn, raid0 sandforce is really annoying. Atleast use a proper controller, like marvell.And trim still doesn't seem to work properly...
UltraWide - Friday, December 12, 2014 - link
Would it be more prudent to wait for an NVMe based PCIe SSD? Maybe the Intel DC P3500 that is about to start selling in the next few weeks?Kristian Vättö - Friday, December 12, 2014 - link
I thought about mentioning the P3500, but it's been "about to start selling in the next few weeks" for the past six months, so I decided not to mention it since there is still no real schedule for its release.Luke212 - Friday, December 12, 2014 - link
Kristian why does noone bother to bench to P3600? I only need read performance and the P3600 might be suitable. its cutting edge tech yet noone has bothered to review it!Kristian Vättö - Saturday, December 13, 2014 - link
Intel hasn't sampled media with the P3600, that's why.otherwise - Monday, December 15, 2014 - link
I too have been waiting for this drive, but considering it was pulled from Intel's website, I don't think we're going to see it. I am going to guess that Intel though it would completely cannibalize P3600 sales, which it probably will if it sees the light of day.