AS-SSD, Crystal Disk Mark, HDTach and ATTO are typical free utilities.
Note that I cited that article because by definition SATA2 SSDs are indeed old now. Nobody makes
them anymore. All modern SSDs are SATA3 by default.
Also as I tried to explain before, by definition, a SATA3 is the same thing as 6Gbps. Likewise, SATA2 = 300Gbps
(or 300MB/sec approx.), so it's impossible for a SATA2 to be any faster than that. The two terms you've
mentioned basically refer to the same thing, just different marketing ways in which companies & users refer
to the max speeds and connection speeds.
Let me put it this way, if I told you how fast you were going in your car in mph and also in feet-per-year,
they'd be two very different numbers, but both define exactly the same velocity.
Btw, using RAID0 is a bad idea for anything that needs long term reliability. Lose one device and the
whole array is lost. Fine for scratch drives & suchlike, but use RAID10 for anything which needs reliability
and long term use. I was able to get 700MB/sec with 4 ports RAID10 on a SATA2 board.
If you want reliability, then use the Samsung 840, 840 EVO, 840 Pro, 850 Pro, Sandisk X210, Vector,
or various other top-tier models. For the work you're doing, definitely avoid the budget models like
the M500, MX100, etc.
I hope you're using a Quadro card for 4K. You won't get accurate colour grading with a gamer card.
Also, for the best possible consistence performance, you ought to use a decent RAID card like an Areca,
or just use a mbd like the Asrock X99 Extreme11 which has built-in SAS and lots of ports, or of course
if you can afford it, a dual-socket XEON board.
Btw, you do realise that film data is all sequential I/O? Using SSDs doesn't really gain you that much.
For film I/O, SAS drives would give the same performance levels in a RAID setup, since the I/O is almost
always large request sizes (30 to 60MB per frame, perhaps more, depending on depth, Alpha, res, etc.)
Ian.
PS. Other prosumer alternative, the one I'd use if I couldn't afford XEONs: ASUS X99-E WS, fitted with
a RAID card. Naturally, use a RAID card which has some cache RAM and battery backup. I bagged an
old HP P410 with 1GB RAM that easily manages 2GB/sec, includes battery backup. Lots of newer options
now though.