SSD Testing Rig Upgrade 2023 - PCIe Gen5 SSD Ready

Brent_Justice

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Hello, fellow computer nerds, we have just built a new SSD testing rig for all upcoming SSD reviews starting from this point forward. So I am putting this thread in the Data Storage part of the forum.

This new test rig will be capable of Gen5 SSD testing, which we are now beginning. The specs have been highly upgraded from our previous test rig for SSDs. This is a new dedicated machine that will do nothing but SSD testing, and allow us to throw on SSDs quickly, and throw as many as possible at it to really pump up our SSD testing and volume. I will be updating our official SSD testing page with the new information in the future, which will detail the system and methods.

I am also updating our testing software suite, including (hopefully) more game loading times including Forspoken, to measure and track game load times on SSDs. That one is a little iffy, because right now I have to rely on the iGPU, unless I can find a away to make the GPU stay in there without a bracket to hold it in. At any rate, it is something I want to include, but am not sure quite yet if that one will specifically work out, but otherwise, the suite will be refreshed, and all testing will be standardized and apples-to-apples repeatable and comparable in upcoming reviews once we start reviewing on it (which we haven't yet). We'll be kicking off its debut, with a new Gen5 SSD review that is currently lined up. So enjoy the pictures, and here are the specs.

HAIHUANG ATX Test Bench Frame Chassis with Handle
Corsair RM750e 750W ATX 3.0 Compliant PSU
MSI MAG X670E TOMAHAWK WIFI Motherboard
AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D CPU
NZXT Kraken X53 240mm AIO
Lexar ARES DDR5 32GB 6000MHz Memory
Silicon Power XS750 1TB PCIe Gen4 NVMe SSD
 

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Last edited:
While that indeed looks nice. I would suggest turning that first PCIE Gen 5 x 16 slot into a HBA for multiple gen 5x4 M.2 drives.

On checking the specs for that motherboard it only has 1 gen 5 slot available to it for M.2 use. So your aspirations of testing multiple Gen 5 x 4 NVME drives are lost without that HBA.

According to MSI's site this is what I found:
STORAGE4x M.2
M.2_1 Source (From CPU) supports up to PCIe 5.0 x4 , supports 22110/2280 devices
M.2_2 Source (From Chipset) supports up to PCIe 4.0 x4 , supports 2280/2260 devices
M.2_3 Source (From Chipset) supports up to PCIe 4.0 x4 , supports 2280/2260 devices
M.2_4 Source (From Chipset) supports up to PCIe 4.0 x4 , supports 2280/2260 devices
4x SATA 6G
*PCI_E4 & M2_4 share the bandwidth. M2_4 will run at x2 speed when installing device in the PCI_E4 slot.
 
So far, testing multiple drives at once, or in RAID, is not on the menu, primarly single M.2 Gen4 and 5 SSD reviews of single drives, one at a time are planned, which follows all our other previous testing so far: https://www.thefpsreview.com/category/reviews/storage/ I will test on the primary M.2 slot connected directly to the CPU. Appreciate the feedback! We'll keep that in mind if we ever test multiple drives.
 
Brent_Justice said:
So far, testing multiple drives at once, or in RAID, is not on the menu, primarly single M.2 Gen4 and 5 SSD reviews of single drives, one at a time are planned, which follows all our other previous testing so far: https://www.thefpsreview.com/category/reviews/storage/ I will test on the primary M.2 slot connected directly to the CPU. Appreciate the feedback! We'll keep that in mind if we ever test multiple drives.
Click to expand...
Ooops did some research and suggested a couple (EXPENSIVE) boards if you wanted to be able to test more than one Gen 5 NVME at a time. The focus on one is better though because you'll have less chance of a ghost in the machine screwing up your test with non standard configurations.
 
Addition: Added a GeForce RTX 3060 12GB video card to the test system, now I can run Forspoken and Final Fantasy Endwalker Benchmark to get game load times tested. Using a GPU bracket to hold up the GPU, it's not perfect, but good enough. I got some PCIe standoffs for open test bench coming that may fix it more permanently.
 
Brent_Justice said:
I have now updated our: SSD Storage Review Format and Methodology

https://www.thefpsreview.com/2021/07/27/ssd-storage-review-format-and-methodology/
Click to expand...
Interesting read through. Question though, when you copy a 50 gig file to a different folder on the same disk isn't it just updating the content table of the disk to say the file is in a new location. No actual data retrieval or writing needed. Or am I just deluded here in thinking that was the case and the large file size necessitates actually moving the data?
 
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