Quote:
Originally Posted by White Owl
When I was first considering getting a solid state drive, I did some googling and came across an article that explained in great detail how the Windows experience index is perfectly useless for evaluating SSDs, since the index uses the drive's rotation speed as an important criteria. And of course a SSD doesn't have a rotation speed. So with that bit of information missing, all the other numbers are garbage.
I don't have the link anymore, and don't recall where I found it.  |
I'm sure you read that some were about vista.
Windows 7 is made to run SSD. Windows experience index was up dated to test SSD drives in W-7.
Say goodbye to those times when the maximum score that a Windows Vista PC could return was 5.9. With the introduction of Windows 7, the Windows Experience Index has evolved from 5.9 up to no less than 7.9. However, at the same time, other aspects of the WEI have not changed in the least. The score that Windows 7 will return will continue to be based on the lowest subscore, taking into consideration hardware resources such as Processor; Memory (RAM); Graphics; Gaming Graphics (typically 3D); and Primary Hard Disk. But while the scoring is the same as the one debuted in Vista, the WEI can now go as high as 7.9.
“In Vista, the WEI scores ranged from 1.0 to 5.9. In Windows 7, the range has been extended upward to 7.9. The scoring rules for devices have also changed from Vista to reflect experience and feedback comparing closely rated devices with differing quality of actual use (i.e. to make the rating more indicative of actual use.) We know during the beta some folks have noticed that the score changed (relative to Vista) for one or more components in their system and this tuning, which we will describe here, is responsible for the change,” Michael Fortin, one of Microsoft’s distinguished engineers and head of the Windows Fundamentals feature team, revealed.
With Windows 7, the maximum score possible will be 7.9, a good couple of points up from Vista's 5.9. What will take for a computer to achieve the new WEI peak? Well, according to Microsoft, nothing short of the key technology improvements as they go mainstream, namely solid state disks, but also high-end graphics and multi-core processors, plus a consistent volume of RAM.
“For these new levels, we’re working to add guidelines for each level. As an example for gaming users, we expect systems with gaming graphics scores in the 6.0 to 6.9 range to support DX10 graphics and deliver good frames rates at typical screen resolutions (like 40-50 frames per second at 1280x1024). In the range of 7.0 to 7.9, we would expect higher frame rates at even higher screen resolutions. Obviously, the specifics of each game have much to do with this and the WEI scores are also meant to help game developers decide how best to scale their experience on a given system,” Fortin added, indicating that graphics remained an area with the largest amount of scores available.
The bottom line is that, in order to achieve a perfect 7.9 Windows 7 score, users will have to buy a computer powered by at least an 8 core processor. However, the processor is simply not enough. Customers will also have to feed their machine with RAM, somewhere in the vicinity of 8 GB. At the same time, Solid State Drives (SSDs) with very high random I/O rates and as low as possible latency issues will also contribute to getting close to 7.9. When it comes to graphics, users will need a card with at least DirectX 10 support and a WDDM 1.1 driver.
{And of course a SSD doesn't have a rotation speed. So with that bit of information missing, all the other numbers are garbage.}
There are SSD developers that use Windows experience index from W-7 to test an sell there SSD's like this. And all PC game developers know of this. Like IC.
Single SandForce Driven™ SSDs Are First to Proclaim Maximum Windows Experience Index Storage Score
SandForce Driven SSD Manufacturers Proudly Demonstrate Production SATA 6Gb/s SSDs at Computex including the latest program member, Kingston Technology
COMPUTEX TAIPEI 2011
June 02, 2011 02:03 AM Eastern Daylight Time
TAIPEI, Taiwan--(EON: Enhanced Online News)--SandForce® Inc., the innovator of Solid State Drive (SSD) Processors that drive ubiquitous deployment of volume flash memory into primary and I/O intensive data storage applications, today announced that single SSDs based on the SF-2000 SSD Processor and advanced 25nm multi-level cell (MLC) flash memory achieve the highest possible Microsoft Windows Experience Index (WEI) score of 7.9 for the disk data transfer rate. Microsoft provides the WEI to enable end users to easily identify their system’s capabilities when considering running high-performance applications with the best user experience. Today a single SF-2000-based SandForce Driven™ SSD eliminates storage access bottlenecks and future-proofs the system for optimally running current and next generation, data throughput-intensive applications.
“Our mission critical Mobile Workstations and Mobile Servers will be vastly improved with the addition of SF-2000 series SSDs, with up to 4 drives in RAID 0/1/5/10 configurations”
The SF-2000 processors feature a 6 Gigabit-per-second (Gb/s) SATA host interface, an unprecedented sustained sequential read/write performance of up to 500 Megabytes per second (MB/s), award-winning DuraClass™ Technology, and state-of-the-art, high-speed ONFi2 and Toggle flash interfaces supporting single-level cell (SLC) & MLC NAND flash families from all major suppliers.
“SandForce SSD Processors optimize the entire Microsoft Windows computing experience with incredible boot and program loading times while enhancing systems responsiveness under virtually all workloads when compared to traditional spinning media as well as other SSD solutions,” said Sumit Puri, Sr. Director of Strategic Marketing for SandForce. “Our innovative DuraClass technology is uniquely positioned to optimize data transfers between increasingly faster, multi-core processors and the SSD storage media, providing the highest system-level performance and longest endurance with standard NAND flash memory.”