SSDs - State of the Product?

[timwhit]

If you can't get by with 60, the next size up is 120GB for $349. Just a hair more expensive than a 15k 300GB SAS drive. Crazy, I know, but better.

I'd still buy the Intel X25-M 80GB, if that's too small go for the 160GB.

 

[ddrueding]

I'd still buy the Intel X25-M 80GB, if that's too small go for the 160GB.

Not a bad idea.

Or you could buy a 50-pack of X25-M 80GB for $28k. Sweet.

 

[timwhit]

Or you could buy a 50-pack of X25-M 80GB for $28k. Sweet.

$560 per drive. That's a terrible price. Newegg sells the same drive for $363. They also don't appear to have a limit on the number of drives you can order. Though Newegg only appears to have 26 in stock.

 

[ddrueding]

$560 per drive. That's a terrible price. Newegg sells the same drive for $363. They also don't appear to have a limit on the number of drives you can order. Though Newegg only appears to have 26 in stock.

Good catch. I just glimpsed at the price and divided by 100 instead (that would be a good price).

 

[Santilli]

I need something for tax write offs, and, I guess I better figure how much this whole thing is going to really save me in the long run.

The second one you posted looks like a good way to go, provided the card I have in this thing is SATA 2, but, I doubt it...

 

[ddrueding]

I'll bet you a healthy amount of money that anything you do (besides benchmarking) won't care about SATA1 vs 2.

 

[Santilli]

Silicon IMage Si1 3112 SATALink Controller.

 

[ddrueding]

That will do just fine. The only thing you will need besides the drive is a place to stick a 2.5" drive. I usually use poster tape and the side of the case.

 

[Santilli]

Still a bit rich for my blood. Can't help but think as production really comes online, these things are going to be half what they are getting now.

I notice newegg.com doesn't have the Intel SSDs.

Not to mention I need time for the 15.6 or 15.7 Cheetahs to become mainstream, and, come back refurbished in 80 pin SCA.

Anyone have a about 40-80 gig drive for a laptop, PATA they like?

 

[ddrueding]

I'm sure SSDs will half again in price during the next year, if you can wait.

Newegg has both capacities of the X25-M and both of the Kingston re-branding.

 

[timwhit]

I notice newegg.com doesn't have the Intel SSDs.

Yes they do.

 

[udaman]

I'll bet you a healthy amount of money that anything you do (besides benchmarking) won't care about SATA1 vs 2.

I'll bet you any Wallstreet or Big Auto parachute plan, I can saturate that SATA1.5Gb/s bandwidth with ease, and you'll notice the difference with just a consumer HD cam. editing session.

Put down your still cam dd, go with the youngsters and go HD video...then you'll be wantin, hurtin for 6Gb/s SATA SSDs

 

[udaman]

Current Max is 300MB/s per channel. Depending on what RAID mode you want, you can get good RAID performance off the onboard for RAIDs 0, 1 and 10. I wouldn't bother with any of the stuff between that and the Areca/3Ware level. Once you go there, you can saturate an 8x PCI-E connection (2GB/s). If you were looking for the high-end of the bang/buck scale, I would point you towards this:

Areca ARC-1680IX-16-4G w/4GB Cache (16 Port, 8x PCI-E)
16x OCZ Vertex 250GB SSDs
2x Supermicro M28E1

Stuck into a RAID-0*, it gives you 4TB of 2GB/s, 0.2ms latency storage in 4 full-height drive bays for about $15k. The loudest thing will be the fan on the RAID card.

*Redundancy is too expensive to keep in SSDs, get a pair of 2TB drives to store a near-realtime backup if you don't need massive uptime numbers.

...or you can get a few of these, with no fan

PhotoFast G-MONSTER PCIe SSD

http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/26/photofast-intros-256gb-to-1tb-g-monster-pcie-ssd/

Those in and around Osaka can expect these to land around mid-April for about the cost of a new TV -- seriously.

Price of a 103in TV, that is .

 

[udaman]

An interesting SSD article. link

"link"

Do you know how to Cut N Paste and article title into something useful as a descriptor that might induce someone to click on the "link"?


The SSD Anthology: Understanding SSDs and New Drives from OCZ
http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3531&p=1

too bad Anand Lal Shimpi did not read my link above to storagesearch.dot.com notes on the 'issues'

 

[Stereodude]

All I can say is this thing rocks. I haven't used this notebook much since installing it, or tweaked anything for it yet, but it's way faster than the conventional HD that was in here.

Ok, I take back everything nice I said about this drive. It's an utter and complete pile of crap way slower than any spinning HD. It loads applications fast, but don't try to install anything to it. I will be ordering a new spinning disc to replace it.

 

[timwhit]

Ok, I take back everything nice I said about this drive. It's an utter and complete pile of crap way slower than any spinning HD. It loads applications fast, but don't try to install anything to it. I will be ordering a new spinning disc to replace it.

You should really try installing SteadyState and see if it makes a difference.

 

[ddrueding]

...or get one of the SSDs that doesn't exhibit these problems (OCZ Vertex, Intel).

 

[Santilli]

Pretty good article:
' Cost Per GB from Newegg.com
Intel X25-E 32GB $12.88
Intel X25-M 80GB $4.29
OCZ Solid 60GB $2.33
OCZ Apex 60GB $2.98
OCZ Vertex 120GB $3.49
Samsung SLC 32GB $8.71
Western Digital Caviar SE16 640GB $0.12
Western Digital VelociRaptor 300GB $0.77"

This reminds me of paying a Mercedes mechanic 300 dollars to install 150 dollars in parts. I'd rather wait, or do it myself.

I may pick up one of the SDD's for the laptop, PATA.

 

[Stereodude]

...or get one of the SSDs that doesn't exhibit these problems (OCZ Vertex, Intel).

I have an OCZ Vertex in my HTPC.

The SSD I don't like is a PATA SSD. And there aren't many options for those. I think I will put the original spinning HD back in the system.

 

[ddrueding]

Yup. The only high-performance PATA SSD I have is a 1.8" number with a ZIF socket...doesn't really count. Though it is for sale...

 

[sdbardwick]

OCZ Vertex vs. HGST 80GB 7200RPM (with video) at Madshrimps
Compared in otherwise identical Dell D630 laptops.

 

[Santilli]

ONE good thing that did come out of this right now, I went through the articles and found the suggestion to create a RAM Disk.

While you can't boot from one, it's a great place to put the browser cache file, and, a page file. Would also be great for a scratch disk for Photoshop.

Seems to REALLY have helped my laptop, and, it's also a bit faster on my Workstation...

The figures above are 755mb/sec burst, and over 1200 mb/sec Read.

 

[Santilli]

Check that. It's about 1650 mb/sec.

 

[Santilli]

Shows a faster bus speed, 1200 mb/sec on the laptop, with a lower Sustained read, only 1200 mb/sec.

Both systems run around 500 mb for the pagefile.

 

[Santilli]

Shows a faster bus speed, 1200 mb/sec on the laptop, with a lower Sustained read, only 1200 mb/sec.

Both systems run around 500 mb for the pagefile.

Wonder if RAM might be a better investment, speed wise?

David: the web edition of 2003 can address 4 gigs of ram?
XP Pro 2 gb?

 

[timwhit]

David: the web edition of 2003 can address 4 gigs of ram?
XP Pro 2 gb?

32 bit Windows OSes can access 4GB of RAM.

Read this for more: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555223

Even if you install 4GB, you will only see ~3.5GB of memory in Windows, because of reserved memory space.

RAM/RAMDISK is not a great replacement for a quality SSD.

 

[ddrueding]

Server 2003 Web edition is limited to 2GB of RAM. In all other cases, timwhit is correct.

 

[Fushigi]

Firmware update for the Vertex makes it even faster.

 

[timwhit]

Server 2003 Web edition is limited to 2GB of RAM. In all other cases, timwhit is correct.

Technically that's a soft limitation, not a hard limitation.

 

[ddrueding]

Firmware update for the Vertex makes it even faster.

Nice link Fushigi. Another interesting bit of info from that article:

Just before I left for GDC I got another SSD: SuperTalent’s UltraDrive ME. This is SuperTalent’s Vertex-equivalent, it actually uses the same Indilinx Barefoot controller. As far as I can tell, the drive uses the same firmware as OCZ’s 1275.

So the list of good SSDs now looks like this:

Intel X25-E
Intel X25-M
OCZ Vertex
SuperTalent UltraDrive ME

...with reportedly more to come using the Indilinx Barefoot controller. Can't wait. (Oh, I didn't )

 

[ddrueding]

Technically that's a soft limitation, not a hard limitation.

Is there an easy way to get around it? A reg hack?

 

[ddrueding]

And it looks like the UltraDrive ME is already available in 128GB form for $329.

 

[timwhit]

Is there an easy way to get around it? A reg hack?

No, I would never install that POS.

 

[Handruin]

No, I would never install that POS.

How come? I have the web edition on my cheep dell with 2GB RAM and it suits it perfectly. It's quick, small, and does everything I need.

 

[ddrueding]

For the record, that Supermicro 2.5" 8-in-2 hotswap thingy that I linked to earlier? The one where the version I bought is 50% crippled? That says it supports SATA and SAS? It only works off a SAS controller, not SATA. Crap.

 

[timwhit]

How come? I have the web edition on my cheep dell with 2GB RAM and it suits it perfectly. It's quick, small, and does everything I need.

Because, if I want to install more memory or install SQL Server I have to install a new OS. Sounds like a PITA to me.

 

[Handruin]

In that case, you're right. My machine isn't suitable for SQL Server so this OS fit pretty well. I really only wanted a basic server 2003 install and it worked fine for what I'm doing. Granted the price was right (free) since I'm able to use my MSDN at home.

 

[Mercutio]

2GB RAM is hardly crippled. I have to be doing some pretty major stuff with VMware and/or running an MMO client to get anyplace close to that, even with my habitual use of of dozens or hundreds of open Firefox tabs.

 

[timwhit]

2GB RAM is hardly crippled. I have to be doing some pretty major stuff with VMware and/or running an MMO client to get anyplace close to that, even with my habitual use of of dozens or hundreds of open Firefox tabs.

When I'm doing development work I use much more than 2GB. Just the IDE and the Java server use 2GB of RAM. Without adding in Windows, Firefox, Toad or SQL Developer, Outlook, Photoshop, etc. My machine has a Q660 and 4GB of RAM and it's still slow.

 

[Mercutio]

There's some bloat in them thar apps!