GSkill Falcon 128GB SATA II SSD

Dummy File Creation
 
When performing manual “file copy” benchmarks, the performance of the drive that the files are being copied from can directly and negatively affect the results of the drive they are being copied to. This is something that needs to be taken into consideration when benchmarking high performance hard disks such as the OCZ Vertex SSD as it’s performance easily exceeds that of a standard hard disk. Therefore, to test the write performance of each storage device a freeware utility called Dummy File Creator was used to generate files directly to each of the hard disks. The first 16GB benchmark writes a collection of files ranging in size from 1GB to 100KB, whereas the 100GB benchmark writes a single file of exactly that size to the disk.
 
 
 
Unreal Tournament 3 Level Loading
 
With a fresh copy of Vista installed on each hard disk, the final test was to find out if the Windows loading times seen above would also be applicable to the map loading time of a popular PC game. Once again, the test procedure was quite simple: Install Unreal Tournament III, load the game, select a map to play (ONS-Torlan) and measure the time taken from pressing the “Begin” button to the time the map is fully loaded. This procedure was repeated a total of three times on each of the hard disks, with a reboot in between each test to clear system memory.
 
 
 
Vista Boot/Shutdown Time
 
Quite a simple and self explanatory test. We took each of the disks, installed a fresh copy of Windows Vista SP1 on to them and measured the time each took to boot into the Windows desktop and display a text file placed in the startup folder. To ensure that the tests were fair the results were averaged over initial reboots. Shutdown time was also recorded, although this generally happened so quick that accuracy was hard to obtain.
 
 
Results Analysis
 
The random 16GB file creation was neck and neck between the Falcon and the Vertex but switch to the longer lasting test of a 100GB file and it is clear which SSD is the better performer.The Falcon managed to generate the 100GB file over 2 minutes quicker than it’s nearest rival which is no mean feat considering the Vertex can hardly be accused of being a slouch in this department.
 
UT III level loading showed the Falcon to have the upper hand here too although the result was much closer with very little to chose between them. Much the same is to be said of the Vista start up and shutdown times.
 
Let’s head over to the conclusion where I will try to give my overall view of the GSkill Falcon 128GB SSD…