I/O Benchmarks, VMware, SSD's, & 6gbps SATA

I have been a big fan of sticking a SSD drive into VMware hosts for a long time.  Using Host Cache (where the ESXi host will use the SSD for it's swap file location), and redirecting the VM swap file to also be on SSD.  In my home lab I upgraded from a Corsair  Force90gb SDD purchased back in 2012 to a Crucial M4 256gb.  A bit more room, and I figured a 3+ year newer drive might have some performance gains......turns out not really.

I also picked up a cheap SATA 6gbps controller hoping that might help pick up some more speed...turns out ..meh...not really.  ALSO, most SATA controllers are not supported by ESXi v5.5 and newer.  I had to take advantage of a community hack to get it to work:

http://www.v-front.de/2013/11/how-to-make-your-unsupported-sata-ahci.html