For the application load test, we launch the following applications on Windows’ startup: Internet Explorer, Outlook 2007, Access 2007, Excel 2007, PowerPoint 2007, Publisher 2007, Word 2007 and Photoshop CS4. The test starts when the Windows 7 startup sound plays to the time the final application is loaded. Intel’s SSD 510 performed reasonably well, taking just 5.1 seconds to load all the applications. There’s nothing to celebrate either, as we generally witness very little variance in performance between SSDs. This test measures the time it takes to launch Adobe Photoshop CS4. When loading Photoshop CS4 the Intel SSD 510 120GB took only 1.4 seconds, making it just a fraction slower than the Vertex 3. We recorded the next batch of results while loading the last level of StarCraft II’s single player campaign – starting when the loading screen appears and stopping once the “click to play” message appears. The SSD 510 loaded the level very fast at just 13.2 seconds. That’s considerably faster than the Samsung 470 Series and Crucial RealSSD C300, but the Vertex 3 still reigned supreme taking only 9.5 seconds.
