Necessary Settings
Despite the time which has passed since the SSD controller was released, it doesn’t run perfectly without some setting changes. It isn’t a lot and it is easy to do, but you’ll need to disable the Windows write-cache buffer flushing on the drive. Otherwise, you’ll get a very weak write performance.
Step-by-Step Guide
- Open your Windows Explorer (Windows Key+E)
- Navigate to My Computer, right-click any drive, and select properties
- Switch to the Hardware tab and select the Apacer PT920/Z280 drive
- Select Properties at the bottom
- In the next window, click Change settings
- Select the Policies tab and check the box to Turn off Windows write-cache buffer flushing
After you’ve done that, you can close all the windows again by the OK buttons. This is a small thing, but it will make a huge difference. To mix things up a bit, I’ve run a complete set of tests where I didn’t do this and the results might surprise you:
Anvil’s Storage Benchmark
AS SSD Benchmark
ATTO Disk Benchmark
CrystalDiskMark
Conclusion
As we can see from the above comparisons, the correct settings will make a huge difference. So don’t cheat yourself out of the best performance you can get out of your drive.
