Unlike the Apex review where I tested with several different configurations and tweaks, I decided to skip right to the chase and forgo single drive testing. There are several reviews of a single Vertex online at other sites, but not many have results from two drives in RAID0.

All testing was conducted on my main test system, consisting of the following hardware:

Intel Q9650 Processor
ASUS P5Q-E Motherboard
4 GB OCZ Reaper Memory
GeForce 7300 GT
Creative X-Fi Sound
BFG 550w PSU
Windows XP Pro

This is the exact same system specs I used to test the Apex drives in RAID0 so this will give us a good comparison of the two setups. Both systems were formatted and had a fresh copy of Windows XP Professional 32bit with SP3 and all of the latest updates. Some may argue that Vista or even Windows 7 may be a better choice, but XP is what I use on all of my systems and I am the most familiar with it. I also installed all of the software that I use on a daily basis - things like Photoshop, instant messaging applications, FTP client, Winamp, Firefox, anti-virus software, etc.

I used my onboard RAID controller, an Intel ICH10R and set the stripe size to the maximum of 128 allowed by the motherboard. As per the Apex setup, I also did the following in-OS tweaks:

All Windows Updates
Enabled Volume Write-Back Cache
No Page Filing
Hibernation Disabled
Indexing Disabled

It is important to remember that almost all hard drive benchmarking programs today are designed for traditional spinning drives, not solid state drives. This can sometimes present some weird results, but since all of the same programs were used on both the Apex and Vertex setups, it should at least provide a solid basis for comparison.

The following benchmark tests were used:

ATTO Disk Benchmark
CrystalDiskMark 2.2
HD Tune 2.55
SiSoft Sandra File Systems Benchmark
SiSoft Sandra Physical Disks Benchmark

Continue ahead as we kick things off with ATTO Disk Benchmark...