Storage

ACER FA100 1TB PCIe Gen3 x4 M.2 SSD Review

Preparation

The drive will be formatted as NTFS with default settings, as most users will do. The quick format option isn’t used as that might affect the performance the first time data is written.

Modern operating systems all take care of the TRIM command in the background and it isn’t something to worry about for regular users. However, for these reviews, I will add a waiting period between each benchmark to make sure that the TRIM command has been fully executed and finished. After all, we want a clear picture of the drive’s performance with minimal interference from the operating system.

Data

We will start with a typical benchmark analysis of the formatted drive with various fillage scenarios. However, depending on how a drive is built, the performance may differ depending on how much data it is already storing. The drive will be tested empty and at 25%, 50%, and 75% space usage for this area. We’re using Anvil’s Storage Utilities, AS SSD Benchmark, and CrystalDiskMark for this part of the review.

Application and Gaming

Besides the synthetic fill tests, the drive is tested with PCMark 10’s storage benchmark to get real-world performance results for various gaming and application usages.

Drive Conditioning

Durability is a vital factor in NAND-based drives as the chips can only be rewritten so often before they’ll stop working properly. Modern SSDs come with wear-level algorithms to increase the lifetime and reduce this factor as much as possible. Where appropriate, we will test this using Anvil’s Storage Utilities. Following this conditioning process, all of the previous benchmarks will be run again in the same scenarios and the same order.

Hardware

MSI MEG Z490 Godlike
Intel Core i9-9900KS
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti
Crucial Sport 4 x 8GB 3200MHz DDR4
Toshiba OCZ VX500 512GB SSD
be quiet! Dark Power Pro 11 (1200W)
Noctua NH-D15S

Software

Anvil’s Storage Utilities
AS SSD Benchmark
ATTO Benchmark
CrystalDiskMark
PCMark 10 Storage Benchmark
Windows 10 64 bit

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Peter Donnell

As a child still in my 30's (but not for long), I spend my day combining my love of music and movies with a life-long passion for gaming, from arcade classics and retro consoles to the latest high-end PC and console games. So it's no wonder I write about tech and test the latest hardware while I enjoy my hobbies!