We’ve been asked a couple of times by our readers with one very simple question: what should I upgrade this Christmas? Aside from assuming that we are intense technical guys and omnipotent genies, these users are usually at the brink of buying something, and that act itself warrants a great deal of thinking. In the end, we obliged.
To be on the safe side, we often suggest upgrading to an SSD storage system. Aside from being affordable, it is a great solution to most users which then leads us to the main point of this article. We got our hands on a cool gray SSD in the form of the AMD Radeon R7 240GB SSD. So how did it fare? Read on!
Introduction
AMD is a new-comer in the blood-ridden fields of the SSD battlefield. Though not ‘new’ in terms of technology as they acquired the know-hows from the now defunct OCZ. Is it a rebranding? Well, yeah. But with the promise of better support and performance.
Physical Features
The Radeon R7 240GB has fans, radiators, and LEDs. Ha! Who are we kidding? It’s a typical SSD – a slab of technological marvel that can dictate the life of your dying or obsolete PC. There’s nothing really special about the exterior. You have decals and sticker that reminds you that this is an AMD product. It comes with a cool-looking box and is bundled together with a couple of screws and a 3.5” bay for chassis that require it.
Performance
| Bench Buddy | |
| CPU | Intel Core i5 4670K |
| VGA | ASUS GTX780Ti DirectCU II |
| Memory | 16GB |
| SSD | AMD Radeon R7 240GB SSD |
| Motherboard | ROG Maximus VII Gene |
For our benchmarks, we used four (an upgrade from three! Yey!) programs that are widely known for checking write/read speeds.
Crystal DiskMark
CrystalDiskMark is a disk benchmark software.It measure sequential reads/writes speed,measure random 512KB, 4KB, 4KB (Queue Depth=32) reads/writes speed,select test data (Random, 0Fill, 1Fill),provide theme support and Multi-Language support.
HD Tune Pro
HD Tune Pro is a hard disk / SSD utility with many functions. It can be used to measure the drive’s performance, scan for errors, check the health status (S.M.A.R.T.), securely erase all data and much more.
Read
Write
| Radeon R7 240GB HDTunePro | |||
| MB/s | Min | Ave | Max |
| Write | 73.4 | 310.3 | 406.5 |
| Read | 308.3 | 314.7 | 323.1 |
ATTO Disk Benchmark
The ATTO Disk Benchmark performance measurement tool is compatible with Microsoft Windows. Measure your storage systems performance with various transfer sizes and test lengths for reads and writes.
Using the ATTO, utilizes the file formatting of the drive as opposed to the HDTune Pro. There’s not denying it with the results that we have. The AMD Radeon R7 SSD is blazing fast!
Anvil Storage Utilities
Similar to other component benchmarks, Anvil utilizes a point system to designate the performance of storage drives. Regrettably, we can’t compare it with other previous storage drives that we reviewed as this is the first unit that underwent this program. We do promise to integrate this system in our future reviews. In reference to other results online, we can definitely say that this Radeon SSD has a high score.
SSDs and Games?
Before we get to the sweet part of this review, let us share with you one thing that we found in this review. SSDs are great. They’re fast and they don’t test your patience in booting up your computer. However, there’s the temptation to use them in video games. The answer is: don’t. There’s really no apparent advantage with having your SSDs brimming with games. Sure, they load faster, but that does not necessarily add a couple of frames per second for a better gaming experience.
Verdict
With all that said, the Radeon R7 240GB SSD is worthy of being a Christmas gift. To yourself, of course. If you’re planning to give it away, then better expect something in return as this is one heck of an SSD. It handles well, be it in writing or reading, and is a great all-around performance SSD. We definitely recommend this neat slab of technology for users looking to upgrade or add another engine into their already formidable rig.
Price and Availability
The 120GB version is priced at 4,387Php while the 240GB version is priced at 7,194Php. They also have the 480GB which is priced at 13,118Php and are all available on all leading computer stores nationwide.
