CCSIO Benchmark is an intelligent drive speed checker from Swiss-based storage expert Pipemetrics.

The tiny portable program (210KB download) uses multiple combinations of options to automatically find the fastest possible read and write speeds for any storage device.

This means you’re not asked to make any of the usual testing options. You don’t have to try and decide which buffer size or count is best, which IO mode to use, because CCSIO always runs through every possible combination of settings.

The supported buffer sizes: 8K, 16K, 32K, 64K, 128K, 256K, 512K, 1M, 2M, 4M, 8M, 16M.

Buffer counts are 1, 2, 4, 8, 16.

Maximum read and write speeds are displayed as they’re measured in real time

CCSIO Benchmark runs its tests using unbuffered, unbuffered sequential and (for reads only) buffered sequential IO modes.

This makes for plenty of tests – 180 reads, 120 writes – but we found the process took a little under five minutes on fast SSDs, a little over on slower devices. The program keeps you up-to-date with the latest figures as it works, and there’s a Cancel button if you get bored.

The finished results are displayed as simple Read and Write graphs, each with the maximum MBps value.

If you need more details there are options to view or save the raw data in a text report.

There is even an option to upload an image of the app window – the basic drive details and results graph – to the CCSIO server, where it’ll be assigned a unique URL which you can share with others.

CCSIO Benchmark (that’s “Cold-cache Sequential I/O”, if you were wondering) is available for Windows Vista and later.