SSDs - State of the Product?
- Thread starter ddrueding
- Start date
ddrueding
Fixture
MLC is worse than SLC, but they were able to mostly overcome the reliability and performance issues while bringing the price down. If they have enough redundancy and integrated checking to keep the reliability where it should be, I don't care what technology they use.
CougTek
Hairy Aussie
Usually, you power off your computer, plug two cables to it (one for data, one for power) and you boot your computer. After going to the "disk management" section of the "computer management" window, you create a new volume on the newly detected drive and then you quick-format it. It's just a little more complicated for a laptop (you have to find the hard drive bay and then screw in the new drive - you might also have to copy the content of the former drive to the new one in order to boot the system). If your computer runs Linux, it's completly different and if you run MAC OS X, you're hopeless.
mubs
Storage? I am Storage!
From various threads (the jtr's pc crapped out, the Merc's new massive build, etc.), I've culled the latest recommendations, listed below. Can you knowledgeable folks please rank them? Thanks.
Intel 320 Series SSDSA2BW160G301 2.5" 160GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) - OEM
Intel 330 Series Maple Crest SSDSC2CT180A3K5 2.5" 180GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
Kingston SSD Now V+200 KR-S3020-3H 120GB/SandForce/2.5" SATA/7mm slim
Intel Cherryvale 520
Samsung 830
Corsair Force GT
Samsung 830 (another vote)
Intel 320 Series SSDSA2BW160G301 2.5" 160GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) - OEM
Intel 330 Series Maple Crest SSDSC2CT180A3K5 2.5" 180GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
Kingston SSD Now V+200 KR-S3020-3H 120GB/SandForce/2.5" SATA/7mm slim
Intel Cherryvale 520
Samsung 830
Corsair Force GT
Samsung 830 (another vote)
ddrueding
Fixture
In terms of bang/buck, reliability, or pure speed?
mubs
Storage? I am Storage!
First of, all these were recommended by you guys, so I'm sure they are the best of the current crop. Personally, I would not split hairs over speed differences between these SSDs; the delta between any of these and a spinning HDD is going to be wide enough. I would rate reliability highest (for me), followed by b-f-b, with speed coming last.
There's a vendor here with several models of Intel's 520 listed on their website, with no price and a "Coming Soon" blurb. Most probably vaporware, but it'll be good to see them available here.
There's a vendor here with several models of Intel's 520 listed on their website, with no price and a "Coming Soon" blurb. Most probably vaporware, but it'll be good to see them available here.
ddrueding
Fixture
If reliability is high on your list, I would put the Intel drives on top. For price reasons the 330, 320, and 520 in that order.
Then the Samsung, then the Corsair, then the Kingston.
Then the Samsung, then the Corsair, then the Kingston.
mubs
Storage? I am Storage!
Thanks DD, that helps.
jtr1962
Storage? I am Storage!
I'm definitely not an expert on SSDs, but reading a lot of Newegg reviews pretty much confirms what Dave said. Intel is tops for reliability, and when they have shell shocker deals they're not much more than Samsung or Corsair.
I agree about not splitting hairs over performance. All of the name brand SSDs are going to be >2 orders of magnitude faster than mechanical drives in terms of access time. Most will come pretty close to saturating a SATAIII interface, at least when reading. To me it doesn't matter much if one drive is 50,000 IOPS and another is 70,000 IOPS. Both will be stupidly fast compared to anything with spinning disks.
I agree about not splitting hairs over performance. All of the name brand SSDs are going to be >2 orders of magnitude faster than mechanical drives in terms of access time. Most will come pretty close to saturating a SATAIII interface, at least when reading. To me it doesn't matter much if one drive is 50,000 IOPS and another is 70,000 IOPS. Both will be stupidly fast compared to anything with spinning disks.
ddrueding
Fixture
It is...convenient that you hold that opinion, JTR. 
I'm rather of the opinion going for Intel or Samsung as well though my sample size is really small with only three G2 intel drives and now a 820 drive. Software sweet for each gets things done but the arconis that is customized for intel to get the right partition offset etc is a nice touch. Samsung included something as well but I never used it.
Micron P320h PCIe SSD (700GB) Review
Micron P320h PCIe SSD (700GB) Review up at Anandtech.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6371/micron-p320h-pcie-ssd-700gb-review-first-nvme-ssd
Micron P320h PCIe SSD (700GB) Review up at Anandtech.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6371/micron-p320h-pcie-ssd-700gb-review-first-nvme-ssd
sdbardwick
Storage is cool
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Slashdot had an interesting discussion earlier in the week regarding SSD reliability and associated behaviors. I only just got around to look at it and of course it's largely anecdotal, but Slashdot's comments are usually a lot higher quality than, say, Youtube's.
mubs
Storage? I am Storage!
The whole thing seems risky to me; I think I'll stick with hard drives for now. Maybe is a few years the technology will have matured.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
The advice that I've consistently given is that the benefits outweigh the risks. Add an SSD, but keep your important data backed up.
ddrueding
Fixture
It has been out for a whole bunch of years, and enterprise-grade drives are being released by bit names. These things don't happen to risky tech. And as Merc said, the rewards are staggering. Really horse and buggy vs. car stuff.
timwhit
Hairy Aussie
I like Jeff Atwood's analysis.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
The Stinson Scale is applicable in a vast array of situations. I've found myself using it in my classes a few times as well.
mubs
Storage? I am Storage!
Well, the current hw has been a nice big hit to the bank balance. Perhaps I'll wait a bit and then buy an SSD and port my OS install over to it. Thanks.
Thanks, I was looking at that last week and rejected it for reliability and cost reasons. I hope there are simple 1TB SSDs next year for around $800.
Chewy509
Wotty wot wot.
Reviews of the new Intel 335 are showing up:
http://www.legitreviews.com/article/2061/1/
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6388/intel-ssd-335-240gb-review
Same SF2281 sandforce controller, but with 20nm NAND does drop the power usage quite a bit (compared to Intel's other offerings). Similar performance to the Intel 520 due to it having the same controller which is nice. (This one would be nice in a laptop due to it's very low power draw - 350mW when active).
http://www.legitreviews.com/article/2061/1/
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6388/intel-ssd-335-240gb-review
Same SF2281 sandforce controller, but with 20nm NAND does drop the power usage quite a bit (compared to Intel's other offerings). Similar performance to the Intel 520 due to it having the same controller which is nice. (This one would be nice in a laptop due to it's very low power draw - 350mW when active).
CougTek
Hairy Aussie
I think people interested in Intel's Sandforce drives should rush and buy the older generation before the 335 and 525 series replace them completely. Whatever slim performance and lower power gain the new generation might have over the older one won't be of much use when the drive's memory will have crapped out.
Chewy509
Wotty wot wot.
Certainly, I wonder how far it'll go before we see SSDs are yearly replacement items. (most manufacturers only give 12mths on warranty, so what do they care that the duty cycle of drive will only last 18mth by design).
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
I should be ordering 60 Intel 330s by the end of the week. So that's good.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Because the market for 1TB drives in a 2.5" form factor is vanishingly small.
If they made 1TB SSDs, people would buy them.
I need the 2.5" FF for the notebook, but it can be 9.5mm in height. The Samsung 840 drive series is disappointing in that the max capacity is only 512GB, although all the chips are on one side of the board. I don't think space is the issue. My other option is to buy two 512GB drives or one 480 and one 512, but that mean the data needs to be copied off to the external bare SSD with something like this.
CougTek
Hairy Aussie
From now on, I'll start following your links just to find out with how much originality you'll be able to screw them up.
ddrueding
Fixture
That is a pretty amazing link to have copied and get in there...
ddrueding
Fixture
I don't know how that happened. There is something not quite right going on here, but I cannot put my finger on it. :dunno:
ddrueding
Fixture
Yeah, that looks pretty clean as well.