Serial ATA performance
The Serial ATA disk controller is one of the most important components of a modern core logic chipset, so we threw each platform a selection of I/O-intensive storage tests using a Western Digital Raptor WD1500ADFD.

IOMeter
We'll begin our storage tests with IOMeter, which subjects our systems to increasing multi-user loads. Testing was restricted to IOMeter's workstation and database test patterns, since those are more appropriate for desktop systems than the file or web server test patterns.

We're using a slightly newer version of Intel's AHCI driver for our P45 system, and that might explain why the chipset is just a little faster than the competition here.

The P45's slight advantage is barely visible when we look at IOMeter response times, though.

CPU utilization is low across the board, with most of the chipsets staying well under 1%.