SSDs - State of the Product?

[Santilli]

I finally pulled the trigger on one of those PATA Kingspec drives.
It appears to work fine.
Thanks for pointing me in the right direction Santilli.

Some do, some don't. I'm glad yours does. Would you post numbers and tests using ATTO and HardDisk Tach, or something like that?
Also, what you are testing it in, OS, etc?

Thanks

GS

 

[Striker]

I haven't run any benchmarks on it.
I installed 7 on it. I'll run something later and post my findings for you.

 

[Striker]

Here's ATTO default settings on my Pentium M 1.6 Ghz laptop with 1GB RAM

 

[Santilli]

That's twice what mine is. Congrats.

 

[Striker]

Thanks again

 

[Santilli]

Striker:
I got a complete dog, that cost me about 33 dollars in shipping, a lot of time, with ebay finally backing me.
The other, even though it's half your speed with the CF-51, or my regular drive, the access time improvement is so huge, the XP pro install feels like a new computer.


Bottom line is the gamble is probably worth the chance, I think, at this point, anyway.

 

[Striker]

I'm very pleased. The computer feels faster than it did before but that could be due to the old install of xp that was on before, the toshiba failing or just my imagination.
It doesn't really matter, I have a useful computer again.
I couldn't justify throwing it away just because of the drive, especially since I had bought a new battery for it a few months before the hard drive started failing.

 

[LunarMist]

What is the best choice now for 2 drives in RAID 0 that will exceed the X25-E? :dunno:

I'm concerned about write speeds as much as reads. Total capacity should be 128MB, but the drive size should not sacrifice performance.

 

[Stereodude]

Two Sandforce based drives?

 

[LunarMist]

Are they all similar, like this one?

 

[Bozo]

Ant thoughts on this Corsair SSD?

 

[LunarMist]

That is one of Stormforce SSDs I was considering. The prics are lower than I remember.

 

[Stereodude]

It's Sandforce, not stormforce. oke:

 

[LunarMist]

Maybe we can compromise on Sandstorm. :lol:

 

[sechs]

I was looking at the Vertex 2 and wondering if anyone had used either of the their controllers out there.

 

[ddrueding]

The machine I'm using at the moment has a Vertex LE in it, does that count?

 

[sechs]

I think that it does, at least technically. Although reviewers have given me the impression that the design and firmware for the Vertex 2 is more mature and, therefore, tends to perform better than one would expect, relative to the LE.

Any comments on performance?

 

[LunarMist]

It looks like they jacked the prices back up. I'll save some money now.

 

[ddrueding]

I think that it does, at least technically. Although reviewers have given me the impression that the design and firmware for the Vertex 2 is more mature and, therefore, tends to perform better than one would expect, relative to the LE.

Any comments on performance?

I haven't done any benches, but it is downright awesome in this laptop. If there is any particular tests you would like, let me know.

 

[sechs]

I'd actually be more interested in how it operates in every day use, especially in comparison to something like the original Vertex.

 

[ddrueding]

Faster, but it isn't an apples to apples comparison, as they are in different rigs.

Copying a file back into the same folder sees a burst speeds of 270MB/s and sustained of 95MB/s. It is quite possibly the fastest SSD I've used short of the Z-Drive.

 

[sechs]

Coming from you, I guess that says something.

It seems like prices are so close together, it's not strictly necessary to distinctly differentiate.

 

[ddrueding]

To be honest, all the top players are so fast that it isn't significant. I just buy the current fastest in whatever size is appropriate and stick it in.

 

[LunarMist]

There are tons of similar SandStorm-based drives such asCorsair, GiSkill, Vortex LE, Vertex 2, Muskin Enhanced, Agility 2, etc. How can one choose? The OCZ support appears to be forum-based. uke-l: The Cosair drive seems to need a re-zeroing before use. I'm not sure about the Munchkin SSDs, but their memory was flaky for me. The GiSkill brand is foreign to me. :scratch:

 

[CougTek]

I'm not sure about the Munchkin SSDs, ...

Is the size of the Munchkin measured in Timbits?

 

[CougTek]

Regarding SSDs, Corsair's Nova drives seem like a particularly good value. They are cheaper than most other performance-oriented SSDs and since they have the Indilinx controller, their performance is quite good. They are comparable to the Intel Gen 2, a little lesser than the SandForce, but they are cheaper than both others. The 128GB flavor is ~400$CDN.

 

[ddrueding]

If you want good customer service, I would assume that Intel would be the place to be. Other than that, I don't think there is much to separate them.

 

[LunarMist]

Intel selling the same drive 20 months later is not doing anything for me. Maybe they are asleep or will pull out of the business.

 

[LunarMist]

Is the size of the Munchkin measured in Timbits?

Very clever and esoteric. It's too bad I don't visit the donut shops.

30 years ago or so I did the Foley work for a short that was filmed at a major donut shop. I was so sick of viewing the film and out takes that I did not feel like eating donuts for 20 years. :alb:

 

[ddrueding]

Intel selling the same drive 20 months later is not doing anything for me. Maybe they are asleep or will pull out of the business.

My guess is that, with their reputation to defend, they are not anxious to put their name on less tested technologies. Remember they had a significant misstep with SSDs in the beginning.

Of course, if all you have is forums moderated by the boss' son for support, you can release whatever you want.

 

[LunarMist]

Of course, if all you have is forums moderated by the boss' son for support, you can release whatever you want.

Does Intel do that or someone else?

 

[ddrueding]

I have never needed OCZ support for anything, but that is the impression I have received.

Edit: MSI as well, for that matter.

 

[sechs]

Mwave has the 60G Vertex 2 on sale, if you join their silly club:
http://www.mwave.com/mwave/skusearc...2-2VTXE60G Vertex 2 Extended 60GB 2.5IN SATA2

 

[Bozo]

hmmm... Maybe there will be a price war???

The prices on SSDs seem to be falling rather quickly these days.

 

[Howell]

Is there a significant speed difference between the various drives meant for a SATA II interface?

SATA II is what I have to work with and I don't want to spend more than necessary but I don't want to get a piece of junk either.

 

[LunarMist]

Too late, I ordered the other kind. It will be tested in RAID 0 if I can fingure out how to enter that mode. :brilsmurf:

 

[ddrueding]

What controller will you be using for the RAID? The ICH?

 

[LunarMist]

The LSI 9211-8i claims RAID 0 functionality. I don't know how well it works, but shouldn't it be better than the ICH?

 

[ddrueding]

Better? Maybe, but I doubt by much. RAID-0 is as straightforward as it gets, not much in the way of compute requirements or caching optimizations. I normally stick them on the ICH to simplify OS installation. Of course, with Win7, that isn't really an issue anymore.

 

[LunarMist]

I'm not installing an OS and buying apps for an old computer. That would be only if I build a new system eventually. I was hoping for 6Gbps SSDs to use on the controller, and maybe that will still be possible.