SSDs - State of the Product?

[Santilli]

Watching the Celtics and Cavs. off the power supply, the computer is stepped down to 598mhz. It's STILL way quicker then with the 7200 rpm drive.

 

[LunarMist]

The older PATA notebook drives were slow for sure. It's too bad they topped out at 320GB (160 GB/platter). The 7200 RPM drives were even older technology.

 

[Santilli]

The older PATA notebook drives were slow for sure. It's too bad they topped out at 320GB (160 GB/platter). The 7200 RPM drives were even older technology.

My seagate is one of the newer old 7200 rpm drives. It's around 50 MB/sec in the laptop, and, with a clean install is ok, but still not nearly as fast as the SSD. Right now, they are the only game in town, or China I should say, and, I better just stick with what I've got, and not make the USPS rich.

 

[LunarMist]

My seagate is one of the newer old 7200 rpm drives. It's around 50 MB/sec in the laptop, and, with a clean install is ok, but still not nearly as fast as the SSD. Right now, they are the only game in town, or China I should say, and, I better just stick with what I've got, and not make the USPS rich.

50MB sec is about half of what a new notebook HD can achieve. The older drives had less sophisticated caches as well. I abandoned my old notebooks for another reason though, the 2GB RAM limit.

 

[Santilli]

Stinker:

Appears there are two versions of the drive, with the same number:
"Hi
Your add indicates you are selling the JMF602 version of this drive(the results you posted for speed). The one you shipped me is the SM2235 version, half as fast."

GS.

 

[Stinker]

Is there a way for me to get the model number of my Kingspec w/o pulling it out of the computer?

 

[Santilli]

No. Apparently they have only one designation for that drive, even though it's two different drives.
You might look under
Device manager>properties> details
after the first part the following is listed:

Kingspec KSD-PA25.1-032MJ____________JO90429__\534B3050303030303037303633202020202020

Is yours different?

I can't see the boot screen on the Panasonic to get a drive type.

 

[Stinker]

Here's what I have in my Device Manager... Running Vista Business 32-bit.

 

[Stinker]

I also have this Policy set...

 

[Santilli]

Thanks Stinker:
I ordered another one from another vendor. We'll see how it works with the Panasonic CF-51. I've tried the Policy settings as well, both on and off, no change, and altered ATTO to match your settings, same result.
Probably take another 3 weeks to get the new one from China...

 

[LunarMist]

Now that Intel is shipping the 25 nm flash, when will we see a better X25-E? :spiderman:

 

[LunarMist]

The X25-M G2 is now $195. Interesting. I wonder if they will clear out in the summer. :alb:

 

[Adcadet]

Do you guys think there will be a particularly good time to buy an SSD? When there are more PCI-e versions? More Sandforce-based ones? Is there some advance in the pipeline I should wait for, or just get one anytime?

 

[ddrueding]

Now is a great time. The X25-M is pretty cheap, and is all you really need. The Z-Drive is not cheap, but is as fast as any reasonable load could appreciate.

 

[Santilli]

Now is a great time. The X25-M is pretty cheap, and is all you really need. The Z-Drive is not cheap, but is as fast as any reasonable load could appreciate.

I agree. Kingspec, from China on ebay, are 170 MB/sec, 32 gig SATA, for 100 bucks.

Even the slow, 32 MB/sec PATA Kingspec is a huge speed improvement, overall, over the PATA 7200 rpm drive it replaced, that has faster STR, but MUCH slower access time. That was also 100 bucks.

If you shop, the Vertex turbo can be had for under 150 bucks, and it's no joke, either.

 

[Striker]

I agree. Kingspec, from China on ebay, are 170 MB/sec, 32 gig SATA, for 100 bucks.

Even the slow, 32 MB/sec PATA Kingspec is a huge speed improvement, overall, over the PATA 7200 rpm drive it replaced, that has faster STR, but MUCH slower access time. That was also 100 bucks.

If you shop, the Vertex turbo can be had for under 150 bucks, and it's no joke, either.

Is there another source besides eBay for those pata drives? I have an older laptop which is perfectly fine other than the hard drive that is going bad in it that I would like to get a little more life out of.

 

[Santilli]

Is there another source besides eBay for those pata drives? I have an older laptop which is perfectly fine other than the hard drive that is going bad in it that I would like to get a little more life out of.

Not that I have found.

 

[Santilli]

New drive is at the post office. More later today on tests....

 

[Santilli]

The new drive is blue, but, it comes in a nice, steel case, vs. plastic.
Doing the install now. Should be done in 6 minutes. Soon will know if it's the drive, or the interface, and chips...
Drives cost 100 bucks, costs 10 bucks to ship back to China, but, that's with no confirmation or insurance. One guy I dealt with seems pretty shaky.

GS

 

[LunarMist]

I prefer Neweggs. 1-2 days when ordered at 1PM. :cyclopsani:

 

[Santilli]

Newegg is now carrying PATA SSD's, at reasonable prices????

Only 292 bucks for a 32 gig SSD. Probably the same internals as these 100 buck drives.

The new one is the same speed, so, I'll keep both. Makes little sense to send it back.

Appears either the benchmarks can't figure out the speed, or, it's a Panasonic cheap chipset, limiting speed. That's kind of weird, since the other drive reads 50 MB/sec...

Weirder things have been known to happen.

There does appear to be either a large market, or no supply for these PATA drives.
Newegg has only the 32 gig for 292, and the rest are out of stock. Makes you wonder....

 

[Santilli]

Newegg is now carrying PATA SSD's, at reasonable prices????

Only 292 bucks for a 32 gig SSD. Probably the same internals as these 100 buck drives.

The new one is the same speed, so, I'll keep both. Makes little sense to send it back.

Appears either the benchmarks can't figure out the speed, or, it's a Panasonic cheap chipset, limiting speed. That's kind of weird, since the other drive reads 50 MB/sec...

Weirder things have been known to happen.

There does appear to be either a large market, or no supply for these PATA drives.
Newegg has only the 32 gig for 292, and the rest are out of stock. Makes you wonder....

 

[LunarMist]

Hmm. I did not think about the PATA part.
And you beat the flood control...

 

[Santilli]

It's taking forever to install XP and it's huge number of fixes. Seems slower then the other drive.
HD Tach numbers are about 30 MB/sec, with .02 Access time, same as the other drive.

See once the XP junk is installed what we get.

The weird part about this is the hard drive is under constant access, but, the amount of processor used is minimal. Very Strange.

Boot time is around 25 seconds.
It's taking bloody forever to install IE 8...

 

[Santilli]

Do you guys think there will be a particularly good time to buy an SSD? When there are more PCI-e versions? More Sandforce-based ones? Is there some advance in the pipeline I should wait for, or just get one anytime?

What are your requirements for a boot drive, size wise?

 

[Adcadet]

My current OS + apps takes up 51 GB. I think a 60 GB drive would be the minimum I would need, 80 GB would be safer, and 100+ a luxury.

 

[Santilli]

That kind of vetos my idea of a cheap, small, 32 gig SATA that I have for 100 bucks, until they seriously come down in price?

How big is the 200 dollar X-25?

 

[LunarMist]

80GB and it is quite good for most use.

 

[Adcadet]

I'm seriously considering the 80GB X-25 M.

 

[Santilli]

I'm seriously considering the 80GB X-25 M.

Only thing that bugs me about the X-25's is that to get trim support, you have to run 7.

Not alot wrong with the Vertex Turbos, either.

 

[LunarMist]

I'm seriously considering the 80GB X-25 M.

Better late than never. :smile:

 

[Santilli]

Better late than never. :smile:

Seems that they are finally coming down within reason. Seems like these things are really high profit cashcows for Intel, but, that's just me?

Intel Extreme pricing comes to mind...

 

[LunarMist]

Seems that they are finally coming down within reason. Seems like these things are really high profit cashcows for Intel, but, that's just me?

Intel Extreme pricing comes to mind...

X25-E drives are not MLC consumer components. Price is reasonable for the purpose.

 

[Santilli]

X25-E drives are not MLC consumer components. Price is reasonable for the purpose.

I was talking about the 1000 dollar price tag, starting, for any Extreme processor from Intel...
In other words, Xeon pricing...

 

[Bozo]

The Flash Memory Destroyer

Cool

 

[timwhit]

The Flash Memory Destroyer

Cool

They are using EEPROM, which is not really the same kind of memory used in SSDs. This test would be a lot more useful if they used MLC Nand.

 

[LunarMist]

I'm seriously considering the 80GB X-25 M.

Prices just rose again. I'm getting sick and tired of Newegg's yo-yo prices every day. :bounce:

 

[BingBangBop]

If you don't like their pricing, then buy it elsewhere. It's a commodity with the same product everywhere. Just note that theres generally a reason why Newegg is extremely popular.

 

[LunarMist]

Just note that theres generally a reason why Newegg is extremely popular.

The reason for many people is that items are actually in stock and ship reliably. :alb:

 

[BingBangBop]

and you too can choose your poison