For the week leading up to Easter, this has been the quietest period I’ve seen for SSD reviews since last year, with just three in-depth reviews along with a combined review at Gizmodo looking at the top 4 SATA3 SSDs. All but one were published on the 20th April.
In Benchmark Reviews’ Crucial M4 review, they have added an interesting test where aim to prove the manufacturer’s own test results, showing the set up and SSD condition (e.g. if secure erased) they’ve used to achieve the manufacturer’s own claimed figures. While it’s nice to see the results replicated, it’s also nice to see that Benchmark Reviews carries out their usual tests such as AS SSD to find weaknesses. If every review relied on specific tests, manufacturers could tweak their SSDs to turn out better results in these tests than competing drives, even if this tweaking doesn’t stand out in the real world, such as when faced with an OS installation in the real world.
The following are the latest SSD reviews published since our last Review Friday:
- Crucial m4 256GB @ Benchmark Reviews – 20th April - (SATA3) (Sim)
- OCZ Vertex 3 240GB Review @ KitGuru – 20th April - (SATA3) (Sim) (Realworld)
- OCZ Vertex 3 240GB, Crucial m4 256GB, Intel 510 250GB, Plextor M2 128GB
Combined review @ Gizmodo – 20th April - (All SATA3) (Sim) (Short)
- OCZ RevoDrive 80GB @ TechREACTION – 19th April - (PCIe) (Sim) (Realworld)
Legend:
- Real World – Includes real world tests, such as boot, app launch, file copy, etc. timings.
- Sim – Simulated real world tests, such as replay of read/write traces.
- Short – Brief review, similar to in a magazine.
- SATA3 – SSD features an SATA 3.0 6Gbps Interface.
- PCIe – SSD has a PCI Express interface.
If you came across an SSD review over the past week not listed, please let us know!
Please check back next Friday for the next round of reviews. 
