SATA SSD Performance & Benchmark Tests
Here you can find detailed speed performance tests of SATA 6 Gb/s SSDs. The maximum speed here, limited by the SATA III interface, is only 600 MB/s* (theoretically). In practice, up to approx. 550 MB/s are possible for reading and writing. SATA SSDs are slower compared to PCIe NVMe SSDs and therefore also cheaper. Therefore, they are usually used as a backup or data grave when the speed is not that important.
We have tested 43 S-ATA SSDs:
| Product | Image | Capacity | Read | Write | Score | Price | $/GB | Test | Shop |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crucial BX500 240GB |  |
240 GB | 551 MB/s | 473 MB/s | 635 | 29 $ | 0,12 $ |  |
|
| Crucial BX500 480GB | |
480 GB | 550 MB/s | 476 MB/s | 650 | 32 $ | 0,07 $ | |
|
| Crucial BX500 1TB | |
1024 GB | 551 MB/s | 476 MB/s | 695 | 63 $ | 0,06 $ | |
|
| Crucial MX500 250GB |  |
250 GB | 551 MB/s | 464 MB/s | 795 | 42 $ | 0,17 $ | |
|
| Crucial MX500 500GB | |
500 GB | 550 MB/s | 473 MB/s | 800 | 45 $ | 0,09 $ | |
|
| Crucial MX500 1TB | |
1024 GB | 551 MB/s | 475 MB/s | 784 | 80 $ | 0,08 $ | |
|
| Crucial MX500 2TB | |
2048 GB | 551 MB/s | 481 MB/s | 799 | 144 $ | 0,07 $ | |
|
| Intenso High Performance 120GB |  |
120 GB | 523 MB/s | 445 MB/s | 629 | 14 $ | 0,12 $ | |
|
| Intenso High Performance 240GB |  |
240 GB | 552 MB/s | 472 MB/s | 646 | 14 $ | 0,06 $ | |
|
| Kingston A400 240GB |  |
240 GB | 550 MB/s | 462 MB/s | 688 | 20 $ | 0,08 $ | |
|
| Kingston A400 480GB | |
480 GB | 550 MB/s | 473 MB/s | 688 | 29 $ | 0,06 $ | |
|
| LC-Power Phoenix 960GB |  |
960 GB | 550 MB/s | 458 MB/s | 662 | 74 $ | 0,08 $ | |
|
| Lexar NQ100 480GB |  |
480 GB | 536 MB/s | 466 MB/s | 636 | 33 $ | 0,07 $ | |
|
| Lexar NQ100 960GB | |
960 GB | 527 MB/s | 424 MB/s | 668 | 79 $ | 0,08 $ | |
|
| Lexar NS100 512GB |  |
512 GB | 530 MB/s | 443 MB/s | 670 | 36 $ | 0,07 $ | |
|
| Lexar NS100 1TB | |
1024 GB | 527 MB/s | 395 MB/s | 702 | 61 $ | 0,06 $ | |
|
| Patriot Burst Elite 240GB |  |
240 GB | 543 MB/s | 454 MB/s | 640 | 18 $ | 0,08 $ | |
|
| Patriot Burst Elite 480GB | |
480 GB | 526 MB/s | 474 MB/s | 714 | 29 $ | 0,06 $ | |
|
| Patriot Burst Elite 960GB | |
960 GB | 518 MB/s | 422 MB/s | 643 | 52 $ | 0,05 $ | |
|
| Patriot Burst Elite 1.88TB | |
1920 GB | 513 MB/s | 385 MB/s | 679 | 95 $ | 0,05 $ | |
|
| Patriot P210 256GB |  |
256 GB | 538 MB/s | 420 MB/s | 607 | 19 $ | 0,07 $ | |
|
| Patriot P210 1TB | |
1024 GB | 520 MB/s | 431 MB/s | 595 | 50 $ | 0,05 $ | |
|
| Patriot P210 2TB | |
2048 GB | 516 MB/s | 385 MB/s | 691 | 99 $ | 0,05 $ | |
|
| PNY CS900 480GB |  |
480 GB | 473 MB/s | 315 MB/s | 698 | 34 $ | 0,07 $ | |
|
| PNY CS900 960GB | |
960 GB | 481 MB/s | 466 MB/s | 718 | 67 $ | 0,07 $ | |
|
| Samsung 860 EVO 500GB |  |
500 GB | 550 MB/s | 486 MB/s | 805 | 67 $ | 0,13 $ | |
|
| Samsung 860 EVO 2TB |  |
2048 GB | 550 MB/s | 486 MB/s | 802 | 290 $ | 0,14 $ | |
|
| Samsung 870 EVO 250GB |  |
250 GB | 549 MB/s | 483 MB/s | 810 | 37 $ | 0,15 $ | |
|
| Samsung 870 EVO 1TB |  |
1024 GB | 550 MB/s | 485 MB/s | 811 | 104 $ | 0,10 $ | |
|
| Samsung 870 QVO 1TB |  |
1024 GB | 549 MB/s | 486 MB/s | 808 | 86 $ | 0,08 $ | |
|
| Samsung 870 QVO 2TB |  |
2048 GB | 549 MB/s | 481 MB/s | 792 | 160 $ | 0,08 $ | |
|
| SanDisk SSD Plus 240GB |  |
240 GB | 540 MB/s | 348 MB/s | 397 | 32 $ | 0,13 $ | |
|
| SanDisk SSD Plus 1TB |  |
1024 GB | 526 MB/s | 487 MB/s | 789 | 98 $ | 0,10 $ | |
|
| SanDisk Ultra 3D 500GB |  |
500 GB | 356 MB/s | 489 MB/s | 798 | 64 $ | 0,13 $ | |
|
| SanDisk Ultra 3D 1TB | |
1024 GB | 525 MB/s | 483 MB/s | 801 | 96 $ | 0,09 $ | |
|
| SanDisk Ultra 3D 2TB | |
2048 GB | 381 MB/s | 484 MB/s | 790 | 165 $ | 0,08 $ | |
|
| TeamGroup T-Force Vulcan Z 1TB |  |
1024 GB | 503 MB/s | 453 MB/s | 727 | 63 $ | 0,06 $ | |
|
| Transcend SSD220Q 500GB |  |
500 GB | 550 MB/s | 460 MB/s | 606 | 41 $ | 0,08 $ | |
|
| Verbatim Vi550 S3 256GB |  |
256 GB | 550 MB/s | 466 MB/s | 536 | 23 $ | 0,09 $ | |
|
| Verbatim Vi550 S3 512GB | |
512 GB | 535 MB/s | 466 MB/s | 636 | 36 $ | 0,07 $ | |
|
| Western Digital WD Blue 3D 1TB |  |
1024 GB | 474 MB/s | 483 MB/s | 805 | 138 $ | 0,13 $ | |
|
| Western Digital WD Green 120GB |  |
120 GB | 532 MB/s | 314 MB/s | 198 | 35 $ | 0,29 $ | |
|
| Western Digital WD Green 2TB |  |
2048 GB | 542 MB/s | 451 MB/s | 422 | 146 $ | 0,07 $ | |
*) The SATA Express (SATAe) successor with 8 and 16 Gbit/s has also been available since 2013, but it did not succeed because of the faster M.2 interface.
When does a SATA SSD make sense?
There are actually only two applications where a SATA drive still makes sense. 1. in older laptops that do not have an M.2 slot and 2. as a fast storage expansion in a desktop PC.
To 1) Often, older laptops still have a mechanical 2.5" HDD installed, which is connected to the SATA port. You can achieve a significant and noticeable speed increase by removing the mechanical HDD and installing a SATA SSD instead.
To 2) The use of an M.2 SSD is absolutely recommended for desktop PCs. If your mainboard does not have an M.2 slot, you can also use a PCI Express adapter to use an M.2 SSD. The operating system and programs should definitely be installed on the fast M.2 SSD. Here, 256 or 512 GB are often sufficient. If you need more storage space (for MP3s, photos or videos), you can buy a cheap SATA SSD. SATA disks are a bit cheaper than M.2 disks with about 0.10 Euros per gigabyte.
SATA and X570 = Bad Performance
After I had tested several SATA disks, and none of them achieved write rates over 460 MB/s (although the manufacturers had specified 530 MB/s), I became a bit suspicious whether this could be due to my test system. I connected the disks to different SATA ports of my mainboard and performed several tests with different programs (AS SSD, ATTO, CDM). Always with the same result, that I did not get good values (especially in the 4K test).
I then researched on the Internet and came across an article of a Reddit user, which also showed this problem and could trace the problem back to the AMD X570 chipset. The same SATA disk delivers much better transfer rates on a B550 motherboard.
However, since my test system (see home page below) uses an X570 motherboard (only this currently supports M.2 SSDs of Gen. 4), it does not make sense to test more SATA SSDs here, since not the SSD but the AMD chipset is the bottleneck here. I hope that a future BIOS firmware update will fix this problem. Until then, I will post the tests here (status: December 2020).