Comay Venus Pro 3 128GB Solid State Drive Review

PCMark Vantage - Drives with Data Testing

For a complete breakdown on the Drives with Data Testing please read this article. You will be able to perform this test at home with the files provided in the article - full instructions are included.

- Brief Methodology

SSDs perform differently when used for a period of time and when data is already present on the drive. The purpose of the Drives with Data testing is to show how a drive performs in these 'dirty' states. SSDs also need time to recover, either with TRIM or onboard garbage collection methods.

Drives with Data Testing - 25%, 50%, 75% Full States and Dirty / Empty Test

Files needed for 60 (64GB), 120 (128GB), 240 (256GB)

60GB Fill - 15GB, 30GB, 45GB

120GB Fill - 30GB, 60GB, 90GB

240GB Fill - 60GB, 120GB, 160GB

Empty but Dirty - a test run just after the fill tests and shows if a drive needs time to recover or if performance is instantly restored.

HDD1 - Windows Defender

HDD2 - Gaming

HDD3 - Windows Photo Gallery

HDD4 - Vista Startup

HDD5 - Windows Movie Maker

HDD6 - Windows Media Center

HDD7 - Windows Media Player

HDD8 - Application Loading

This is where we separate the men from the boys. If you already own an SSD, then you know it's not as fast right now, as it was the day you bought it. The reason why is because you've stuffed all of your movies, music, pictures of your ex-girlfriends and so on right on the SSD so you can get to them quickly. All of that data is accessed quicker, but your overall system performance has taken a hit because of it. By the time your SSD is half full, you've already lost between 30 and 40% of the fresh out of box performance.

In this test we like to look at the center blue line in the middle of each group. This is the half full state, a good measuring point for most consumers. The Comay Venus Pro 3 120GB gets down in the 47K Mark area, which is pretty average for a SandForce SF-2281 SSD using synchronous flash. The Intel 520 series is a bit faster in this state and so is the Plextor M3 Pro 128GB drive. The Comay doesn't take as large of a hit though as drives using asynchronous flash and of course costs much less than both the Intel and Plextor drives.

Over the last week you've saw us discuss a nasty issue with SandForce drives that use firmware 5.2. This bug impacts TRIM performance and a drives ability to regain performance after data is deleted. Since the Venus Pro 3 uses firmware 3.3.2, it doesn't suffer from this issue.