OCZ Summit 120GB SSD Review

XP Start Up

When it comes to hard drive performance there is one area that even the most oblivious user notices: how long it takes to load the Operating System. For our tests the clock starts as soon as the system “beeps!” and stops when our Anti-Virus splash screen disappears. While all the other tests were run with a streamlined XP image this particular image is the test bed's “day to day” OS and it has accumulated a lot of crud over the months from installs and removals. We chose the Anti-Virus splash screen as our finish line as it is the last program to be loaded on start up.


Just as the synthetics did not tell the whole story with the Corsair P64 it seems that the same is the case with this drive. It may be “faster” in the E-Peen measuring synthetics but that does not translate to faster load times. To be fair, these numbers are still VERY good but after the improvement we saw in the earlier tests we were really hoping it would catch up with the Indilinx. Is the difference due to old firmware? Maybe, but we doubt it.

ADOBE CS3 Load Time

Photoshop is a notoriously slow loading program under the best of circumstances, but when you add in a bunch of extra brushes and the such you get a really great torture test which can bring even the best of the best to their knees. Let’s see how our review unit faired in the Adobe crucible!


As with boot times, the Summit posts impressive numbers, not best in class but not “hang your head in shame” either. This really is shaping up to be a good old fashioned horse race.