ddrueding
Fixture
It would take a major screw up for one of the really large cloud folks to lose data considering all the redundancy in their systems. Even if they do fail, I have an agreement with Backupify (and have tested it) as plan B.
SSDs - State of the Product?
- Thread starter ddrueding
- Start date
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
I was toying with the idea of trying a Transcend cheapie since they're priced comparably to common 240GB drives. I just got a 1TB SSD, but M.2 is a straight pipe to PCIe, so I suspect I'd see a qualitative improvement over the drives I have now. It looks like the Samsung is alone at the top of the heap for M.2; the Transcend manages speeds just a touch faster than a standard 2.5" SSD (500MB sequential reads, 300MB writes) and the Plextor is more like 750/500.
I'd also like to say that Kingston V300s are about 25% faster than Crucial M100s for the task of making disk images. I was re-building system images today when I noticed that some of my source machines were finishing faster than others despite otherwise identical hardware. Since the Crucials are supposed to be the faster drives by a significant margin in absolutely all categories, I'm not sure what to make of that information. It seems to be true for .TIB and .VHD files. I should probably see what happens if I write with dd or something.
I'd also like to say that Kingston V300s are about 25% faster than Crucial M100s for the task of making disk images. I was re-building system images today when I noticed that some of my source machines were finishing faster than others despite otherwise identical hardware. Since the Crucials are supposed to be the faster drives by a significant margin in absolutely all categories, I'm not sure what to make of that information. It seems to be true for .TIB and .VHD files. I should probably see what happens if I write with dd or something.
Last edited:
I have a bunch of 1TB SSDs that are rarely used. I was planning to put a couple in the computer, but am now wondering how long they will be useful. I read about an even faster (1TB) Samsung M.2 SSD, but it's only for Apple or some other OEM purpose.
time
Storage? I am Storage!
I was waiting for the Samsung 850 EVO to become available, because it's clearly a huge step up from the 840 EVO. I was all fired up to pick up a 1TB model today, but then I noticed that the SanDisk Extreme Pro 960GB was less than 10% more. I'm still vacillating.
Many Anandtech benchmarks show the 1TB 850 EVO as one of the fastest consumer drives you can get. And their official endurance rating of 150TB is not too shabby (Sandisk only claims 80TB for their MLC implementation). But then I look at the consistency benchmarks and SanDisk's premium product slaughters Samsung's entry-level product. I'm not swayed by SanDisk's 10 year warranty vs 5 for Samsung, but even the reviewer stated a preference for the SanDisk product, given the small discount the Samsung offers.
Any thoughts?
Many Anandtech benchmarks show the 1TB 850 EVO as one of the fastest consumer drives you can get. And their official endurance rating of 150TB is not too shabby (Sandisk only claims 80TB for their MLC implementation). But then I look at the consistency benchmarks and SanDisk's premium product slaughters Samsung's entry-level product. I'm not swayed by SanDisk's 10 year warranty vs 5 for Samsung, but even the reviewer stated a preference for the SanDisk product, given the small discount the Samsung offers.
Any thoughts?
CougTek
Hairy Aussie
If you compare both with 25% overprovisioning, the results, particularly on random writes, are comparable. So unless you plan to almost completely fill your drive, you won't see much difference between the two. I would get the slightly cheaper, slightly higher capacity drive.
For some reason the Magician does not work on the M.2 drive. :cursin:
Stereodude
Not really a
I'm looking for a decent mSATA SSD myself. There appear to be close to no decent options on the market. Maybe a Samsung 850 Evo when they come out in a week or two.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
I buy Crucial mSATA drives. I know they're not the fastest but they're also not subjectively slower that the Samsung or Intel drives I've tried.
Stereodude
Not really a
The MX200 looks decent enough from the reviews. $120 for 250gB isn't too bad in a mSATA.
That is to be used in a laptop?
Stereodude
Not really a
Newtun
Storage is nice, especially if it doesn't rotate
$90 for a Crucial M550 256GB mSATA? TigerDirect??
Stereodude
Not really a
That's a pretty good price for the size. I'll add it to the pile for consideration.
Stereodude
Not really a
I decided to go with the 250gB MX200. I received it today and will get it installed when I get home. I just need to restore the Windows 8.1 install from the backup image I made of the existing SSD.
The existing SSD has 3 partitions and one of them is a ~6gB recovery partition that is about 2/3rd full. I did some Googling and I'm not entirely sure what is in the recovery partition. It seems that it is some sort of OEM recovery image. Can I simply omit this partition since I have my own out of the box backup or does that recovery partition have other uses?
CougTek
Hairy Aussie
I normally delete the recovery partition and use the space to increase the size of the primary partition. In my opinion, it's only useful if you need to reset the system and you either don't have a Windows installation media or missing drivers.
Howell
Storage? I am Storage!
If you care about the os installation as it arrived from the factory and you do not have a way to make physical recovery disks then you need to keep the recovery partition.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
The bigger annoyance in that case is usually recovering the OEM-assigned Windows key. There's actually software available for regenerating the recovery image and I do have tools that can make a universal OEM install, but unless you've done the work that's a huge hassle.
Stereodude
Not really a
I thought the Windows install media was supposed to pull that from the BIOS automatically.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Not unless you have OEM-specific media or a prepared universal OEM disc. That's why sed lost the legal Windows 8 install on his laptop.
Stereodude
Not really a
Oh. Are the keys in the BIOS device specific (like each PC has it's own unique key) or is it like Windows 7 where each OEM had a unique key? FWIW, these Zotac boxes came with some sort of Windows 8.1 DVD. I haven't put it in a drive to see exactly what it is.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
The keys are OEM, edition and product-specific. For modern machines, there's Windows 8.x, 8.x "with Bing" and 8.x Pro, with only one of the above aforementioned and available for activation in firmware. Even if you fish the key out, you can't active an OEM key on a retail media installation, something that was possible on Vista and 7.
I went around and around trying to find a way to use a known OEM key without a specific OEM's media. In the end I went off and found the Universal OEM Media Project that I discussed in the Merc's Tools of the Day thread.
I went around and around trying to find a way to use a known OEM key without a specific OEM's media. In the end I went off and found the Universal OEM Media Project that I discussed in the Merc's Tools of the Day thread.
Here's one for the solid state dudruding.
ddrueding
Fixture
That is damn sexy.
Stereodude
Not really a
Indeed
sedrosken
Florida Man
I'm salivating. Is that normal? I... think I'm getting dehydrated over here...
What is the deal with all the Crucial drives?
Is the MX200 the successor to the M550 or something else? The BX200 series seems cheaper than the MX200, but how do they differ?
It's disturbing that prices for 1TB drives seem to be about the same as 1.5+ years ago.
Is the MX200 the successor to the M550 or something else? The BX200 series seems cheaper than the MX200, but how do they differ?
It's disturbing that prices for 1TB drives seem to be about the same as 1.5+ years ago.
Newtun
Storage is nice, especially if it doesn't rotate
How do they keep prices so low, use reject flash memory?
Final Tech Report update: "The SSD Endurance Experiment: They're all dead"
ddrueding
Fixture
Evo 840 ~250GB
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
As a rule of thumb, the more often the word Enterprise is used in a press release, the more likely the product is to have a price that can be likened unto the Flagship of the United Federation of Planets.
Hopefully with Intel's announcement of layered 3D NAND in H2'15 maybe we'll see prices start to drop as competition increases with Samsung's 3D V-NAND technology. There are several articles around covering the news from a few days ago.
jtr1962
Storage? I am Storage!
It sounds to me like 3D NAND will eventually result in dramatic price reductions per GB. The article did mention 10 TB SSDs in the next few years. If they were to cost the same per GB as today's SSDs there wouldn't be much of a market for them. I'm reading between the lines and assuming a 10+TB SSD would cost about what a 1 TB SSD costs now (~$400). At that price I'm in. I'm also hoping the price may drop even more than the scaling of die capacity would indicate. Being that 3D NAND uses a larger process size, it may well cost less than current NAND using smaller processes. As I've said already, this could be a game changer which obsoletes mechanical drives. A hypothetical $300 or less 10TB SSD would be cost competitive with anything mechanical, even three years from now. Remember mechanical drives aren't growing in leaps and bounds any more. Once SSDs catch up in capacity the final barrier is cost. I feel 3D NAND gives us a good shot at getting costs on par with mechanical drives. For that matter, they don't even need to match. I'd say if they're 50% or less higher per GB then mechanical drives are history.