SSDs - State of the Product?

Are the slots really new? They look like the type on the PCIe-based SSDs.
 
sechs said:
I was reading the other day that there are problems using benchmarking software on SandForce-based SSDs because: (1) they have no cache and therefore react different than cached controllers; and (2) they compress the data before write, so compressibility affects performance.

From that, one may guess that, if you are working with a lot of already compressed data, a Sandforce-based drive won't perform particularly better (and, perhaps worse) than an otherwise similar Indilinx-based drive with a cache.
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That's exactly true sechs. Anandtech, at least, has started adding uncompressible, random data tests to determine the worst case performance of the SandForce drives.

Look for the "random" data tests in this review.


The drive is still an excellent performer, even in the worst case. I'd probably take a C300 over it though if TRIM was available (i.e. not behind a RAID card).
 
Which C300? Reviewers mostly test the expensive 256GB model. The smaller ones are slower.
 
sechs said:
Wasn't the C300 the one with firmware problems?
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Yep, but they're fixed now.

With respect to speed, it's used performance, without TRIM, can be significantly worse than SandForce or Intel, but with an aligned filesystem (i.e. Windows 7) and an OS with TRIM, it's consistently the fastest disk available.
 
Like EPA gas mileage estimates for hybrids, I'm starting to get the feeling that we don't know how to measure the performance of SSDs.

In the real world, I don't think that there's going to be a lot of perceived performance difference in any of the current generation drives.
 
My Sandstorm drives have no TRIMs or alignments. If I understand you rightly, it is a good choice for uncomplicated usage.
 
LunarMist said:
My Sandstorm drives have no TRIMs or alignments. If I understand you rightly, it is a good choice for uncomplicated usage.
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Yep. They've been my choice thus far.

Although Windows 7 will align the partitions and activate TRIM automatically when doing a fresh install, so as long as you stick with the latest version of Windows even the finicky drives behave well (so long as you don't RAID them).
 
It is not surprising. Prices will continue to fall and that is an old model. The higher price of a SandStorm drive is really worth it. The old Vortex is fine for booting and reads, but bogs down with heavy writes. Sometimes it stutters on my page file. :cheese:
 
Pradeep said:
http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/14/leaked-intel-roadmap-details-sandy-bridge-cpus-expands-ssd-line/

Intel's SSD plans. Nothing exciting really. Micron recently released the P300 (faster version of the C300?), Crucial should have it soon enough.
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Almost pulled the trigger on a Mushkin SandForce 60GB SSD today. Given the capacity increases in that Intel roadmap, I'm glad I didn't. It will make 160GB drives ~ $$$ of todays 50-64GB drives. That would be a good thing.
 
I wouldn't expect parts based on next-generation, 25nm flash to be available in volume, and with price advantages until the middle of Q1 of next year.

I know intel roadmaps say Q4, but I doubt we'll see much quantity.
 
Naw. The old phosphates were good enough before they were banned. :cyclop:
 
I just got my second dead SSD. This time the victim was an OCZ Vertex EX 60GB SLC drive. In this case, the system will not even POST with the drive attached.
 
You misunderstand. The machine works fine the minute I disconnect the failed drive. If I plug that same drive in a different machine, that different machine will also fail to finish POST.

Well, for the two machines I bothered to try, anyway.

OCZ's support is not impressing me AT ALL.
 
Mercutio said:
I just got my second dead SSD. This time the victim was an OCZ Vertex EX 60GB SLC drive. In this case, the system will not even POST with the drive attached.
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What was the other one? I thought that SLC was supposed to be very reliable. Not that I'd trust OCZ for anything important. :eek3:
 
I called OCZ yesterday to try to get an RMA. They told me they have no process for handling an RMA by phone. I have to use their online system. Their online system is not automated. Every claim has to be reviewed by a human being on a first in first out basis. As of this moment I still haven't heard from OCZ.


Lunar, the first drive that went bad was an X25-M. Intel got me a new one two days after I sent the dead one out.
 
Mercutio said:
I called OCZ yesterday to try to get an RMA. They told me they have no process for handling an RMA by phone. I have to use their online system. Their online system is not automated. Every claim has to be reviewed by a human being on a first in first out basis. As of this moment I still haven't heard from OCZ.


Lunar, the first drive that went bad was an X25-M. Intel got me a new one two days after I sent the dead one out.
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That is good news. I wonder if you were just lucky not to have received a refurbished one. I have only one OCZ drive. It's 30GB and will be destroyed if a defect is observed. 240VAC should do it.
 
The reliability aspect has me spooked. I doubt that Mercutio has used that many SSDs? And the Intel failure is a timely reminder for those of us with blind faith in Intel.

I've just had a nasty experience with a Samsung SSD in a one-year-old Lenovo laptop. Apparently, the BIOS couldn't find an OS so started reinstalling from the recovery partition. Alarmingly, most of the data was missing when we ran a data recovery utility on it. After a fresh installation, the same thing started to happen a few days later, although we were able to abort it. When the machine was restarted, it booted normally!

Lenovo's diagnostic, PC Doctor, took 17 hours to complete, but found no errors. Apparently, it should have only taken about an hour. Fortunately, being Lenovo and not Dell, they cross-shipped a replacement drive despite the diagnostic result.

Has anyone wondered how these drives are failing? They're highly integrated solid state devices and I would have expected comparable reliability to RAM modules.
 
I've used an X25-E for over 623 days, even before David had any. :p There are no problems so far. :) Up until two weeks ago it held everything needing performance: OS/page/scratch/temp. Two weeks I pointed the temp and scratch locations to the twin RAID 0 Corsair Stormforce drives.
 
Is something eating you Timwhit?

1. The laptop isn't mine
2. It's a laptop, not a desktop
3. It's on the move, exact country unknown
4. It's currently on the other side of the world from me. When it isn't, it's still in another country.

So feel free to describe how you would implement your nightly 10-day cycle image backup, especially given that the user is one of the most computer-illiterate people I've ever known. For bonus points, explain how useful it would actually be if anything does happen to the drive.
 
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