2.53 Late 2008 MBP SSD -vs- 7200 HDD xBench

If anyone is interested...

320GB 7200RPM Seagate Momentus 2.5" SATA
Results 144.53
System Info
Xbench Version 1.3
System Version 10.5.7 (9J61)
Physical RAM 4096 MB
Model MacBookPro5,1
Drive Type ST9320421AS
CPU Test 168.87
GCD Loop 288.49 15.21 Mops/sec
Floating Point Basic 143.04 3.40 Gflop/sec
vecLib FFT 117.66 3.88 Gflop/sec
Floating Point Library 211.40 36.81 Mops/sec
Thread Test 316.92
Computation 466.74 9.46 Mops/sec, 4 threads
Lock Contention 239.91 10.32 Mlocks/sec, 4 threads
Memory Test 186.83
System 220.06
Allocate 281.26 1.03 Malloc/sec
Fill 183.22 8908.51 MB/sec
Copy 216.49 4471.52 MB/sec
Stream 162.31
Copy 152.91 3158.36 MB/sec
Scale 158.10 3266.27 MB/sec
Add 169.75 3616.10 MB/sec
Triad 169.84 3633.33 MB/sec
Quartz Graphics Test 207.66
Line 191.95 12.78 Klines/sec [50% alpha]
Rectangle 252.21 75.30 Krects/sec [50% alpha]
Circle 205.62 16.76 Kcircles/sec [50% alpha]
Bezier 200.78 5.06 Kbeziers/sec [50% alpha]
Text 197.64 12.36 Kchars/sec
OpenGL Graphics Test 149.25
Spinning Squares 149.25 189.34 frames/sec
User Interface Test 333.48
Elements 333.48 1.53 Krefresh/sec
Disk Test 51.31
Sequential 102.23
Uncached Write 97.94 60.14 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 120.83 68.36 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 73.84 21.61 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 140.85 70.79 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 34.25
Uncached Write 10.95 1.16 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 149.64 47.91 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 84.57 0.60 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 143.17 26.57 MB/sec [256K blocks]

128GB MLC Super Talent SX 2.5" SATA
Results 201.52
System Info
Xbench Version 1.3
System Version 10.5.7 (9J61)
Physical RAM 4096 MB
Model MacBookPro5,1
Drive Type SAMSUNG MMCRE28G5MXP-MVB
CPU Test 170.13
GCD Loop 295.83 15.59 Mops/sec
Floating Point Basic 143.30 3.40 Gflop/sec
vecLib FFT 118.49 3.91 Gflop/sec
Floating Point Library 212.20 36.95 Mops/sec
Thread Test 328.17
Computation 424.31 8.60 Mops/sec, 4 threads
Lock Contention 267.54 11.51 Mlocks/sec, 4 threads
Memory Test 188.14
System 222.33
Allocate 297.01 1.09 Malloc/sec
Fill 181.99 8848.60 MB/sec
Copy 215.92 4459.64 MB/sec
Stream 163.06
Copy 152.79 3155.84 MB/sec
Scale 157.87 3261.59 MB/sec
Add 172.71 3679.01 MB/sec
Triad 170.59 3649.34 MB/sec
Quartz Graphics Test 206.56
Line 190.79 12.70 Klines/sec [50% alpha]
Rectangle 250.21 74.70 Krects/sec [50% alpha]
Circle 204.49 16.67 Kcircles/sec [50% alpha]
Bezier 198.83 5.02 Kbeziers/sec [50% alpha]
Text 198.07 12.39 Kchars/sec
OpenGL Graphics Test 154.54
Spinning Squares 154.54 196.04 frames/sec
User Interface Test 325.45
Elements 325.45 1.49 Krefresh/sec
Disk Test 163.62
Sequential 130.67
Uncached Write 121.54 74.62 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 107.46 60.80 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 96.94 28.37 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 361.92 181.90 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 218.80
Uncached Write 124.49 13.18 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 125.50 40.18 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 1482.92 10.51 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 622.49 115.51 MB/sec [256K blocks]

VERY impressive, especially for an MLC drive.

How's it do in general use? Do you notice any lagging during write operations (i.e. video editing)?

cwa107 said:

Do you notice any lagging during write operations (i.e. video editing)?

Click to expand...

That's my concern and always has been since I heard that writes, especially small ones, are a weak point for SSDs. I'm hoping someone can convince me of the benefits of SSDs. There is too much on the negative side right now for me - the biggest problem being lifespan of the drive. Nonetheless, impressive results.

Perhaps someone better can answer this but is Xbench really any good at measuring system performance? My machine always does poorly against comparable machine and it's maxed out on RAM and has a 7200RPM HD.

So far, I haven't had the chance to do anything too rigorous. Office 2004 (Word) opens within a second or so. iTunes, Safari, Firefox, etc open with one icon bounce. After a restart the entire menu bar is populated instantly and the dock really "pops". From a cold start, I get about 5.5 to 6.5 spins of the dial on the initial "grey screen". Overall, I'm actually quite happy with it. Almost forgot... Windows XP SP3 running via Parallels is extremely fast. Little to no lag and a very quick boot. I'm also noticing that I use quite a bit less, maybe a third less, RAM than usual. I'd guess it's due to the 128MB cache on the SSD - but that's just a guess. I haven't a clue why, and can't swear it has anything to do with the SSD. On a side note, I trimmed my storage from a bloated 135GB down to 78GB (including ~20GB of WinXP). I didn't realize how much junk I have accumulated ie: Office 2004, OOo, NeoOffice, iWork... what a waste of space!

vansmith said:

Perhaps someone better can answer this but is Xbench really any good at measuring system performance? My machine always does poorly against comparable machine and it's maxed out on RAM and has a 7200RPM HD.

Click to expand...

Good question, and I have no idea to be honest. I use Xbench since I've had it for so long and have benchmarks going back 2 or 3 years. I use it as a relative gauge since I'm basically comparing various iterations or MacBook, MacBook Pro and Mac Mini.