FutureMark PCMark Vantage - HDD Suite	Source: FutureMark

PCMark Vantage is the first objective hardware performance benchmark for PCs running 32 and 64 bit versions of Windows Vista. PCMark Vantage is perfectly suited for benchmarking any type of Windows Vista PC from multi media home entertainment systems and laptops to dedicated workstations and hi-end gaming rigs. Regardless of whether the benchmarker is an artist or an IT Professional, PCMark Vantage shows the user where their system soars or falls flat, and how to get the most performance possible out of their hardware. PCMark Vantage is easy enough for even the most casual enthusiast to use yet supports in-depth, professional industry grade testing. Higher points are better.

Futuremark PCMark Vantage - HDD Suite Windows Defender: (MB/s) Points Ranking Samsung 540U3C-A01 156.1 Samsung 900X4C-A02 138.3 Gaming: (MB/s) Points Ranking Samsung 540U3C-A01 228.2 Samsung 900X4C-A02 164.5 Importing to Photo Gallery: (MB/s) Points Ranking Samsung 540U3C-A01 147.9 Samsung 900X4C-A02 193.5 Windows Vista Startup: (MB/s) Points Ranking Samsung 540U3C-A01 123.4 Samsung 900X4C-A02 208.8 Editing w/h Movie Maker: (MB/s) Points Ranking Samsung 540U3C-A01 89.1 Samsung 900X4C-A02 198.4 Media Center: (MB/s) Points Ranking Samsung 540U3C-A01 148 Samsung 900X4C-A02 299.4 Adding Files to Media Player: (MB/s) Points Ranking Samsung 540U3C-A01 41.4 Samsung 900X4C-A02 123.9 Application Loading: (MB/s) Points Ranking Samsung 540U3C-A01 61.4 Samsung 900X4C-A02 184.7

On the whole, PCMark Vantage positions the 128GB mSATA SSD satisfactorily - but it's not nearly as quick as the full fledged SSD used in Samsung's 9-series ultrabook as the benchmark results clearly indicate.

Next up, AS SSD results...

AS SSD 1.6 Benchmark	Source:AS SSD

The AS SSD benchmark determines the performance of Solid State Drives (SSD). AS SSD benchmark is made specifically to test SSD performance. It is a synthetic benchmark that gauges bandwidth and latency speeds for solid state disks. Higher bandwidth (MB/s) is better, lower latencies (ms) are better.

AS SSD Benchmark 1.6.4013 - Read/Write Read Sequential (MB/s) Points Ranking Samsung 540U3C-A01 435 Samsung 900X4C-A02 459.58 Write Sequential (MB/s) Points Ranking Samsung 540U3C-A01 299.7 Samsung 900X4C-A02 253.42 Read 4K (MB/s) Points Ranking Samsung 540U3C-A01 6.46 Samsung 900X4C-A02 18.29 Write 4K (MB/s) Points Ranking Samsung 540U3C-A01 7.64 Samsung 900X4C-A02 41.67 Read 4k-64Thrd (MB/s) Points Ranking Samsung 540U3C-A01 27.36 Samsung 900X4C-A02 284.47 Write 4k-64Thrd (MB/s) Points Ranking Samsung 540U3C-A01 7.17 Samsung 900X4C-A02 91.6 Read Acc. Time (ms) Points Ranking Samsung 540U3C-A01 0.576 Samsung 900X4C-A02 0.137 Write Acc. Time (ms) Points Ranking Samsung 540U3C-A01 0.523 Samsung 900X4C-A02 0.087

Windows 8 x64 is installed onto a 128GB mSATA SSD in the Samsung NP540U3C-A01 ultrabook. As we can clearly see by the AS SSD benchmark results this storage medium is pretty weak compared to a good quality SSD under intensive and sustained read/write tests. The 128GB mSATA SSD achieves a Sequential Read result of 435MB/s which is quite good on the surface (Sequential Write: 299MB/s), but falls sharply in the 4K read/write and 4k-64 read/write tests.

So, is this little 5-Series Ultrabook worth your hard earned cash?