Passmark Advanced Multi-User Tests

Version and / or Patch Used: 6.1

Developer Homepage: http://www.passmark.com

Test Homepage: http://www.passmark.com

Many users complain that I/O Meter is too complicated of a benchmark to replicate results so my quest to find an alternative was started. Passmark has added several multi-user tests that measure a hard drives ability to operate in a multi-user environment.

The tests use different settings to mimic basic multi-user operations as they would play out on your server. Variances is read / write percentage as well as random / sequential reads are common in certain applications, Web Servers read nearly 100% of the time while Database Servers write a small amount of data.

The Workstation test is the only single user environment and will be similar to how you use your system at home.

Given the new reliability standards and validation testing Intel put into the 520 Series we wouldn't be surprised to hear about these drives making their way into the data center. Last year we attended a couple of events and spoke with data center administrators and learned that low cost MLC SSDs were indeed being used at the server level and their popularity was growing.

The Intel 520 Series is very fast when performing server level tasks. Only time will tell though how the additional time in validation aids reliability.