SSDs - State of the Product?

[Pradeep]

The logic behind that is that it has to be a "spur of the moment" type decision to get married. If you enter the US under a visitor/edu/work visa with the prior intent to get married and remain that is a breach of the regulations.

If you want the big ceremony and a bunch of family members in attendance, there is the fiance visa, or spousal visa as options.

 

[Stereodude]

The logic behind that is that it has to be a "spur of the moment" type decision to get married. If you enter the US under a visitor/edu/work visa with the prior intent to get married and remain that is a breach of the regulations.

Yeah, the penalty for Visa fraud is pretty serious. I wouldn't want to mess around with it.

My wife and I did the fiance' visa.

 

[Wavemaker]

I have two 16 GB msd6000 drives and I am very frustrated!

I feel like I did my homework and specifically planned my workstation around the compatibility matrix provided by MTRON...

...I would like to see if there is an updated firmware for the msd6000 drives (from what I understand, the MOBI drives are basically msd6000 drives with newer firmware) but MTRON support seems to be giving me the polite run-around.

Anyone know what the latest firmware is for the msd6000 drives, and how I might get a hold of it?

Hi, I know for a fact that the firmware download @ MTron has not been available in a couple of months due to some issue as they claim. Do you have a long initialization period under RAID before loading windows? If I understood you correctly your using a controller card if so have you tried installing at the "S" prompt the cards raid driver then when it asks you if you have anymore third party drivers press the "S" prompt again this time installing the mobo's raid drivers.

<>

 

[ddrueding]

Interesting Wavemaker...where is that from?

Mine are scheduled to arrive on Friday, so I'll be testing them over the weekend and likely doing the OS re-install on Tuesday.

 

[Bozo]

This looks very interesting. But no prices.

http://www.ocztechnology.com/aboutocz/press/2008/276


Bozo :joker:

 

[ddrueding]

No prices and no info about what product they are re-branding. Those specs match the MTron MSP-7000. OCZ's last SSD (saw it at a couple stores) matched the MSD-6000. I think MTron is trying to find a brand name to market with.

 

[ddrueding]

Drives should be arriving today, any particular tests anyone would like run?

 

[ddrueding]

Just arrived still in the box forwarded from Korea. The UPS guy informed me they were insured for $5k+ <shrug>.

Bringing the system down now to drop the array in.

 

[ddrueding]

Here are some basic stats from HDTach 3.0.4.0 for all the arrays currently in my system:

10x 750GB 7200.10 in RAID5

Access: 11.3ms
Burst: 201.7MB/s
Average: 122.5MB/s

2x 74GB Raptors in RAID0

Access: 8.1ms
Burst: 201.9MB/s
Average: 117.3MB/s

3x 16GB MTron MSD-6000 in RAID0

Access: 0.1ms
Burst: 137.3MB/s
Average: 93.1MB/s


I'm not really that happy with the transfer rates, and the graph is far from a straight line; cycling between 74MB/s and 120MB/s every 3GB or so. I'm debating trying the onboard RAID controller or just getting the OS on it.

 

[LunarMist]

What are the sustained write speeds?

 

[ddrueding]

What are the sustained write speeds?

Unfortunatly the free version of HDTach won't tell me. Though I suspect it is similar to the read graph.

 

[ddrueding]

Some stopwatch work indicates about 100MB/s for both read and write.

 

[udaman]

Some stopwatch work indicates about 100MB/s for both read and write.

Best anecdotal evidence I seen all year! But what about 'real' stuff like loading bloatware game modules, do they load 10sec faster? Does Vista boot 10sec faster? Enquiring minds want to know .

Most important of all, is it more power/energy efficient than a Prius? At least 10% such that we can watch a laptop pron DVD on an endless loop for an extra 10min? If so, then it's a *must* have!

 

[ddrueding]

Windows XP 32-bit retail CD BSODs any time the SSD array is attached.

It boots to the CD, I press F6 to load controller drivers from floppy. It prompts for which driver to load from disk, I tell it.

It finishes loading all the drivers and says "Starting Windows..."

Then it BSODs telling me to run Scandisk. Grr.

 

[ddrueding]

I just wanted to see how quickly Vista would boot off it; and the answer is: it won't.

Even though the system requirements state 40GB minimum, it simply refused.

 

[ddrueding]

I just installed Ubuntu 7.10 because, frankly, I couldn't get XP or Vista to install and Server 2003 is at my office.

This is really incredible. Literally 2 seconds to desktop, everything is immediate. No delays anywhere.

 

[ddrueding]

Meh, cloned my Server 2003 install from the raptors to the SSD array. Same thing as Ubuntu. OS boot in seconds, and when it is up, it is ready. Every app loads instantly. In Supreme Commander, Crysis, and Railroads! level load times are easily a third of what they were before.

 

[Clocker]

Are there still long term read/write durability concerns with SSDs or is that all taken care of now? Seems like these things could last a long long long time if there are no moving parts..

C

 

[LunarMist]

Meh, cloned my Server 2003 install from the raptors to the SSD array. Same thing as Ubuntu. OS boot in seconds, and when it is up, it is ready. Every app loads instantly. In Supreme Commander, Crysis, and Railroads! level load times are easily a third of what they were before.

So it takes three of those drives to get good performance? How well does one drive work?

 

[ddrueding]

Are there still long term read/write durability concerns with SSDs or is that all taken care of now? Seems like these things could last a long long long time if there are no moving parts..

C

Durability was solved a long time ago. These days the drive can be read and written continuously for 10-30 years.

 

[ddrueding]

So it takes three of those drives to get good performance? How well does one drive work?

To be honest I didn't even bother checking. I knew I didn't want anything slower than my existing array in any category, and ordered to achieve that.

That said, I have no doubt that one of these would have given a better user experience as an OS drive than my Raptors. Even with the lower STR, the snappiness is like nothing I've seen before.

Also, the $/GB for this particular drive was pretty flat all the way to 64GB, so for my implementation more drives made more sense than a larger drive.

 

[LunarMist]

I would not particularly need an SATA flash HD for the OS/Apps, since all my applications load in 5 seconds or less as it is. The page file, PTG and other temp files, and 2nd scratch disk could always use some improvement. Obviously a practical flash array can't match >1GB/sec. of my RAM drive, but I'd like something faster than than my good old GC-RAMDisk (~135-140 MB/sec.). Perhaps by next year a single flash drive can reach ~200 MB/sec.

 

[ddrueding]

Perhaps by next year a single flash drive can reach ~200 MB/sec.

I have no doubt of that. Considering we are now seeing arrays where the bottleneck is the controller, that will likely be the theme of the next few years.

 

[ddrueding]

Just downloaded ATTO, and it's analysis more closely fits my sense of it's performance.

Write 130MB/s
Read 240MB/s

 

[ddrueding]

In searching for bottlenecks, I've found having the "My Documents" folder on one of the other arrays causes it to hang while the array spins up. Moving

 

[udaman]

Not listed in this site yet:

http://www.storagesearch.com/news2.html

But it's been reported on the net:

http://laptoping.com/ocz-oczssd2-1s32g-oczssd2-1s64g-25-ssds.html

(link to OCZ's site for specs' from ^^^)

Can't find them in stock anywhere (newegg lists prior gen 32GB, also out of stock), but it's the lowest price I've seen advertised for a fast 120/100MB R/W SSD in 64GB size @$1,163 (32GB $636).

http://www.compsource.com/ttechnote.asp?part_no=OCZSSD21S64G&vid=1330&src=F

 

[LunarMist]

Just downloaded ATTO, and it's analysis more closely fits my sense of it's performance.

Write 130MB/s
Read 240MB/s

Why does the write speed suck — the RAID controller?

 

[ddrueding]

Dunno. I haven't really done any performance testing with it in different configurations. Once I get my major project under control (see sig), I'll play with it some more.

 

[sdbardwick]

Probably not the RAID controller; flash memory write times are longer than read times.

 

[ddrueding]

Well, I have 3 drives in RAID0 that are each capable of 80MB writes and 100MB reads; so something isn't right.

 

[udaman]

Well, I have 3 drives in RAID0 that are each capable of 80MB writes and 100MB reads; so something isn't right.

Perhaps post your question on dvnation's SSD forum?

http://www.dvnation.com/vForum/showthread.php?t=43

Could be any number of bottlenecks, including the raid controller; you see similar bottlenecks happening with various I/O systems, different Mac's have different FW performance, etc; including simple HD's like the Seagate 500 or 750GB? were slow on writes until a firmware update.

http://www.barefeats.com/hard94.html

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]For this test session, we installed all four drives inside our 8-core Mac Pro. In the past, SATA drives have performed well connected externally to 3G SATA host adapters. However, they sometimes "stumble" when installed internally to the Mac Pro using the built-in SATA controller. We can assure you that these drives perform as good or better than you see below if you choose to install them in an external enclosure and connect them to a 3G SATA host adapter.[/FONT]

 

[LunarMist]

I believe DD is using a normal computer, not a Mac.

 

[ddrueding]

I might believe that the RAID controller is the bottleneck, if it weren't for two things:

1. This isn't a cheap RAID card, MSRP is ~$1k
2. My other arrays put out faster numbers

At some point, I'll try putting them on the onboard RAID controller and see what happens. But to be honest, performance is incredible; I'm not waiting for anything, ever.

 

[paugie]

hahaha, DD. 2 seconds to the Desktop? That's an Arthur Clark moment there.

Gone, truly, are the days when Storage Review's reviews of new drives were awaited eagerly to find out which was the new Champion.

Funny, I was always waiting and reading but never was able to buy those "old" blazing fast drives. Still am just reading about them. I suppose the drives I use now are faster than any of those Quantums, Maxtors and Seagates of 8 years ago.

Will I be alive 10 years from now when I can't buy rotating drives because they don't manufacture them anymore and my 250 Gb Samsung which has stopped turning needs to be replaced?

No, Wait! You'll probably be throwing your SSDs into the dust bin even though they've got 20 more years of work in them. Hope you will remember I'm here standing in line. ;-)

 

[ddrueding]

I suspect that the pace of SSD development will have them available at all price points quite soon. They should be cheaper to produce than platter-based drives, once the factories get up to volume.

 

[iGary]

Dell denies report of solid-state drive failures
Refutes analyst's claim that almost a third of notebooks with solid-state drives are returned


http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9070318

 

[ddrueding]

I think the VelociRaptor will keep SSDs out of the mainstream for a bit longer.

300GB Capacity
<10W power consumption
6.9ms access time

 

[Bozo]

Good review. What I fail to understand, why can't the hard drive be un-srewed from the adaptor? Is it all one piece?

Bozo :joker:

 

[ddrueding]

Good review. What I fail to understand, why can't the hard drive be un-srewed from the adaptor? Is it all one piece?

Bozo :joker:

I thought that it could.

 

[Bozo]

I thought that it could.

It was just the way I took it when I read the review. Silly me!

Bozo :joker: