Crucial m4 256GB SSD – System Set -Up and Software Used

Hardware Suppliers for the Review

Crucial Memory for the m4 Series Solid State Drive (6GB/s) and the DDR3 1333MHz Unbuffered ECC Memory.

Intel EU for the supply of the new 3.5GHz Intel® Xeon® 1280 E Series CPU

Nvidia for the supply of the Quadro® 5000

Supermicro for the supply of the X9SCA Mainboard

Akasa for the supply of the Nero 2 Heatsink Fan and Raptor Chassis for the new Supermicro X9SCA mainboard

With the support and help of all the companies involved. It gives you the reader a choice on upgrade paths that many of you look for here with the performance ratio’s the system has to provide and notwithstanding the professional graphic cards from both AMD and NVIDIA.

Systems Integrators, OEM’s and VAR’s should contact all companies directly for pricing and availability of all components, Boston being a good starting point. Members of the public should contact their respective suppliers requesting the parts directly. One main e-tailer that can supply the EU reader readily all the parts listed you should pop over to SCAN and see what todays best bottom dollar deal is on the main parts listed.

Benchmarks and Software Used 64-bit Mode

Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-bit SP1
SiSoftware Sandra 2011 (Latest Build)
AS SSD Solid State Drive Test
CrystalMark 3 64-bit Benchmark
PCMark 7 Professional
POV-ray 64-bit 3.7 RC3
Bentley MicroStation Benchmark
Cinebench 11.5 64-bit
Redway Turbine Benchmark
SPECapc SM for 3ds Max 2011™
SPECapcSM for Maya 2009
SPECapc for SolidWorks 2007™
SPECviewperf® 11.0 64-bit

An array of synthetic and application tests which will stretch the complete system I/O in every way conceivable. Each has its own merits and each shows on how the CPU, Chipset, Memory, SSD and the professional graphics card fully perform to the maximum. Each set of tests has been applied on the clean system hard drive shown above to ensure that no residue drivers were left installed with all updates/patches applied. A test/render has been completed many times over different periods of the system uptime. Whilst maintaining the fair play rules of SPEC® HyperThreading and Turbo Boost have been enabled, with the memory being left in its default status of Auto. Tests have been conducted in accordance with the resolutions stipulated within the test run rules of 1920 x 1080 @ 59Hz / 60Hz in 32 bit colour. Results that have been shown within this article are from the application/benchmarks first run in accordance with the SPECviewperf® and SPECapc™ fair play rules and in order to maintain continuity all other test results have been obtained in the same process.