Today it’s the turn of Toshiba to show their worth in the Solid State Drive arena with the 256GB SATA-III THNSNH256GCST SSD.
Product on Review: THNSNH256GCST
Manufacturer and Sponsor: Toshiba
Street Price: £168 (At time of review)
The price of the sold state drive (SSD) has dropped significantly over the past 12 months and enthusiasts are now seizing the opportunity to enjoy SATA-III goodness. With this onslaught and demand certainly being there, manufacturers are keen to bring their products to market and furnish their product lines with what they consider to be the best solution. Today we are looking to a brand that isn’t necessarily associated with hard disk drive storage; Toshiba.
The SSD we are looking at today doesn’t hold such a memorable name as other offerings we have considered in the past. The THNSNH256GCST is a 256GB SATA-III SSD which boasts read transfer speeds of up to 534MB/s and write transfer speeds of up to 482MB/s and promises to deliver reliability for avid system builders.
Toshiba on their THNSNH256GCST
This family of solid state drives (SSDs) utilises the advanced Multi-Level Cell (MLC) 19nm NAND technology from Toshiba. With an unrivalled combination of capacity, performance and power efficiency, the THNSNH range delivers an uncompromised storage solution for high end and thin notebooks, tablets, PCs, all-in-one desktop computers as well as industrial PC applications. The small form factor drives boast a high capacity of up to 512 GB and are available in a range of sizes: THNSNHxxxGBST (9.5mm height, 60, 128, 256, 512 GB), THNSNHxxxGCST (7.0mm height, 60, 128, 256, 512 GB) and the THNSNHxxxGMCT (mSATATM).
Technical Specifications
MODEL
THNSNH060GCST THNSNH128GCST THNSNH256GCST THNSNH512GCST
Formatted storage capacity 60 GByte 128 GByte 256 GByte 512 GByte
Memory 19mn MLC NAND Flash Memory
Performance: Maximum data read (ave.) 534 MB/s (510 MiB/s)
Performance: Maximum data write (ave.) 450 MB/s (430 MiB/s) 471 MB/s (450 MiB/s) 482
Host transfer rate max. 6 Gbit/s
Form factor 2.5 inch case
Height 7 mm
Width 69.85 mm
Depth 100 mm
Weight 48 g 48 g 52 g 52 g
MTTF 1,500,000 Hours
THNSNH060GCST THNSNH128GCST THNSNH256GCST THNSNH512GCST
Formatted storage capacity 60 GByte 128 GByte 256 GByte 512 GByte
Memory 19mn MLC NAND Flash Memory
Performance: Maximum data read (ave.) 534 MB/s (510 MiB/s)
Performance: Maximum data write (ave.) 450 MB/s (430 MiB/s) 471 MB/s (450 MiB/s) 482
Host transfer rate max. 6 Gbit/s
Form factor 2.5 inch case
Height 7 mm
Width 69.85 mm
Depth 100 mm
Weight 48 g 48 g 52 g 52 g
MTTF 1,500,000 Hours
Closer Look
The drive we are looking at today is THNSNH256GCST. This is a 256GB SATA 3 solid state drive, Toshiba have sent over their OEM version which therefore has the retail packaging absent. The drive itself is covered in a metal case which has no paint treatment. The design of THNSNH256GCST is rather lack-lustre inasmuch that is has no eye-catching design or colour, this may appeal to many enthusiasts who just want functionality and performance rather than displaying the aesthetics.
The back-side of the drive has a specifications label which details the model name, capacity, speeds, serial number and production standards.
THNSNH256GCST has a height of just 7mm, a width of 69.85mm, depth of 100mm and weighs a mere 52g.
A lack-lustre design is the flavour of the day
The specifications label details technical information
Gaining access to the inner-workings of THNSNH256GCST requires a total of eight screws to be removed. Once removed the NAND and controller are exposed. Our drive uses a Toshiba controller which is based on Marvell with eight Toshiba 19nm MLC NAND chips. All of the chips and controller have a small thermal pad to assist with heat dissipation.
The PCB for THNSNH256GCST
Test Setup & Methodology
Our test system is formatted and a fresh version of Windows is installed with just drives in place – no additional applications. Windows is then updated to the latest release and the drivers are installed. Included in the list of benchmarks are the following applications:
Benchmarks
ATTO Disk Benchmark v2.46
AS SSD
CrystalDiskMark 3.0
Iometer
SiSoftware SANDRA 2012
Windows 7 Boot Time Test
AS SSD
CrystalDiskMark 3.0
Iometer
SiSoftware SANDRA 2012
Windows 7 Boot Time Test
Test system
CPU Intel Core i5 2500K
Motherboard MSI Z77A-GD65
Graphics MSI R7970 Black Edition
Memory 8GB Corsair Vengeance 2133MHz
HDD
– Toshiba 256GB THNSNH256GCST (Sata 6Gbps)
– OCZ Vector 256GB (Sata 6Gbps)
– Corsair Neutron GTX 240GB (Sata 6Gbps)
– Corsair Force GS 240GB (Sata 6Gbps)
– OCZ Vertex 4 128GB (Sata 6Gbps)
– Kingston HyperX 3K 120GB (Sata 6Gbps)
– Kingston HyperX 240GB (Sata 6Gbps)
– ADATA S510 120GB (Sata 6Gbps)
– Intel 520 480GB (Sata 6Gbps)
– Samsung 830 Series 256GB (Sata 6Gbps)
– Samsung HD103SJ 1TB (Sata 3Gbps)
PSU OCZ 750W Fatal1ty
OS Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-Bit
Motherboard MSI Z77A-GD65
Graphics MSI R7970 Black Edition
Memory 8GB Corsair Vengeance 2133MHz
HDD
– Toshiba 256GB THNSNH256GCST (Sata 6Gbps)
– OCZ Vector 256GB (Sata 6Gbps)
– Corsair Neutron GTX 240GB (Sata 6Gbps)
– Corsair Force GS 240GB (Sata 6Gbps)
– OCZ Vertex 4 128GB (Sata 6Gbps)
– Kingston HyperX 3K 120GB (Sata 6Gbps)
– Kingston HyperX 240GB (Sata 6Gbps)
– ADATA S510 120GB (Sata 6Gbps)
– Intel 520 480GB (Sata 6Gbps)
– Samsung 830 Series 256GB (Sata 6Gbps)
– Samsung HD103SJ 1TB (Sata 3Gbps)
PSU OCZ 750W Fatal1ty
OS Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-Bit
Benchmarks: ATTO
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. Several options are available to customize your performance measurement including queue depth, overlapped I/O and even a comparison mode with the option to run continuously. Use ATTO Disk Benchmark to test any manufacturers RAID controllers, storage controllers, host adapters, hard drives and SSD drives and notice that ATTO products will consistently provide the highest level of performance to your storage.
Benchmarks: AS SSD
AS SSD Benchmark is a straightforward tool for measuring the speed of your SSD drive.
Simply launch the program, choose your drive, click Start, and it’ll test your SSD’s read and write speed in a variety of ways, delivering a score for each when it’s done. And if that’s not enough, there are also additional file copy and compression-related benchmarks available from the Tools menu. (The author’s support page is German only, but if you need further English explanations then there’s a thread on the program at the OCZ Technology forum.).
Simply launch the program, choose your drive, click Start, and it’ll test your SSD’s read and write speed in a variety of ways, delivering a score for each when it’s done. And if that’s not enough, there are also additional file copy and compression-related benchmarks available from the Tools menu. (The author’s support page is German only, but if you need further English explanations then there’s a thread on the program at the OCZ Technology forum.).
Benchmarks: CrystalDiskMark 3.0
CrystalDiskMark is a disk benchmark software that analyses different types of hard drive. Giving sequential benchmark write and read statistics in MB/s. A simple program that is very useful.
Benchmarks: Iometer
Iometer is based on a client–server model, where one instance of the Iometer graphical user interface is managing multiple ‘workers’ (each one representing a separate Dynamo.exe process) which are doing the I/O. Iometer performs Asynchronous I/O – accessing files or block devices (later one allowing to bypass the file system buffers).
Iometer allows the configuration of disk parameters such as the ‘Maximum Disk Size’, ‘Starting Disk Sector’ and ‘# of Outstanding I/Os’. This allows a user to configure a test file upon which the ‘Access Specifications’ configure the I/O types to the file.
Iometer allows the configuration of disk parameters such as the ‘Maximum Disk Size’, ‘Starting Disk Sector’ and ‘# of Outstanding I/Os’. This allows a user to configure a test file upon which the ‘Access Specifications’ configure the I/O types to the file.
For the purpose of this test. The 4K 50%/50% read/write file will be under the examination with 100% Random Distribution – reporting back on IOPS and MBs per Second.
Benchmarks: SiSoftware SANDRA
SiSoftware Sandra (the System ANalyser, Diagnostic and Reporting Assistant) is an information & diagnostic utility. It should provide most of the information (including undocumented) you need to know about your hardware, software and other devices whether hardware or software.
Sandra is a (girl) name of Greek origin that means “defender”, “helper of mankind”. We think that’s quite fitting.
It works along the lines of other Windows utilities, however it tries to go beyond them and show you more of what’s really going on. Giving the user the ability to draw comparisons at both a high and low-level. You can get information about the CPU, chipset, video adapter, ports, printers, sound card, memory, network, Windows internals, AGP, PCI, PCI-X, PCIe (PCI Express), database, USB, USB2, 1394/Firewire, etc.
Sandra is a (girl) name of Greek origin that means “defender”, “helper of mankind”. We think that’s quite fitting.
It works along the lines of other Windows utilities, however it tries to go beyond them and show you more of what’s really going on. Giving the user the ability to draw comparisons at both a high and low-level. You can get information about the CPU, chipset, video adapter, ports, printers, sound card, memory, network, Windows internals, AGP, PCI, PCI-X, PCIe (PCI Express), database, USB, USB2, 1394/Firewire, etc.
Benchmarks: Windows 7 Boot
Synthetic testing is valuable in the examination of Solid State Drives. But some of the tests may not mean all that much to some readers so the final test in this review is a real world test showing the Windows 7 boot time.
In order to perform this test (and indeed all other benchmarks), a fresh install of Windows 7 Professional was installed on the Vector – the image of this install with no additional applications or drivers was exported for importing onto each drive at the time of testing. This will provide a clean and fair environment for comparing the boot times on each of the drives. The times were monitored using a stopwatch.
In order to perform this test (and indeed all other benchmarks), a fresh install of Windows 7 Professional was installed on the Vector – the image of this install with no additional applications or drivers was exported for importing onto each drive at the time of testing. This will provide a clean and fair environment for comparing the boot times on each of the drives. The times were monitored using a stopwatch.
Conclusion
Today we’ve moved away from mainstream SSD brands to consider what Toshiba has to offer, have we been impressed?
Judging the Toshiba drive on performance, we are largely impressed by what it has to offer. In a variety of different scenarios and benchmarks the THNSNH256GCST delivers consistently pleasing results. Sequential endurance is particularly challenging yet we found stable performance across the board and It isn’t often you find such reliability.
Toshiba’s decision to dress-down with THNSNH256GCST isn’t altogether disappointing. Some enthusiasts and system builders do not require eye-catching designs and flashy colouration; we actually quite like the lack-lustre design which THNSNH256GCST employs.
The 256GB version of this drive can be found for as little as £168, putting it in the same arena as the more affordable 200GB+ drives. There is no doubting that THNSNH256GCST is a great value for money option for those wanting some SATA-III action.
Toshiba’s THNSNH256GCST demonstrates consistently good results, has great build quality with an ultra-slim 7mm design and is priced to be a great value for money 256GB SATA-III SSD.
Pros
+ Good build quality
+ Ultra-thin 7mm
+ Excellent performance
+ Affordable
Cons
– Lower warranty compared to counter-parts
– Long-term reliability unknown
+ Good build quality
+ Ultra-thin 7mm
+ Excellent performance
+ Affordable
Cons
– Lower warranty compared to counter-parts
– Long-term reliability unknown
Click here for an explanation of our awards at Vortez.net.
