FC-Test Results

Website: FC-Test

Our FC-Test benchmark is split into three parts. First is a write test involving the creation of a file pattern similar to common files such as MP3s or large video files. Once created on the drive, we then copy the file pattern from the drive back to a different folder on the same drive producing a combined read/write test. Finally we test the read speed of the drive by performing FC-Test's read test on the files copied.

For our benchmarks, we're using both the MP3 pattern, consisting of two hundred and seventy small files totalling 0.99GB, and the the ISO pattern, consisting of three large files totalling 1.6GB in size. We feel these represent the most common files people will be frequently copying to and from an drive, and can be interpreted as as close to a real world file transfer test as possible.


Thanks to the Corsair P256's towering average write speed we were expecting some serious performance here and weren't disappointed. The P256 is the fastest MLC drive we've ever tested when it comes to writing the 0.99GB MP3 file pattern, faster even than the Indilinx powered OCZ Vertex. The only drive that's quicker is the SLC based X25-E, which has something of an advantage by using single level cell NAND flash.


When copying files the P256 is even faster than when first writing them, a feat no doubt assisted by the huge 1GB of available cache. Duplicating our 0.99GB MP3 file pattern took on average just 5.31 seconds, almost twenty percent faster than the Vertex and far faster than conventional mechanical drives.


Read speeds were also excellent, with the P256 matching the speed of the OCZ Vertex by taking just 3.5 seconds to read the un-cached file pattern. The P256 certainly seems to be a real contender when it comes to small file read/writes, but can it match that performance in large file read/write speeds?