M17x r2 should i get an ssd

I'm currently running a m17x r2 with 2 seagate momentus XT (hybrid drives) in Raid 0 and I started thinking of upgrading to an ssd in one of the drives. I have attached my Crystaldiskmarks results bellow so you can see what i'm currently getting.

my question is

1. will I notice that much of a difference
2. as fare as i know the r2 is only sata 2 so 3gb/s and is a sata 2 ssd much better than what i'm getting
3. can you give me advice on which ssd to get is a sata 3 ssd better even though its limited to to sata 2
4. also if anyone can explain what each of the benchmarks mean that would be helpful

I do transfer a lot of files 10s of GB regularly to external drives if this makes any difference.

 

SSD is far better than Momentus XT, see it for yourself, this is my score just now finished,
I have Kingston HyperX 120GB

 

I just did this very thing.

I was running two 500GB Momentus XT hybrids in a Raid 0, and switched to a 256GB Crucial M4 SSD and a 750GB Momentus XT hybrid as my data drive. Makes a HUGE difference.

 

so i've been looking on scans and there are a lot with different read write speeds is this important and if so which is more important as some are read 500mb write 170mb while others are 500/500 so then crucial m4 256 is 500/260

so which one should i be looking at

 

Keep in mind with the R2 you will be limited to Sata 2 speeds, even if you use a Sata 3 SSD.

Sent from my Samsung Captivate/ICS using Tapatalk.

 

My Samsung PM800 gives me this;

Clicky here

Those numbers seem significantly lower than yours flingin! Are they? ... as in, if I upgraded to the same SSD as you, would I see any/much difference in things?

Is there still an advantage to sticking a Sata 3 SSD into an R2? I keep hearing how awesome the Crucial M4 is

 

I just put my Intel 320 series 160 GB in RAID 0 today, pretty happy with the results. Reboots are noticeably faster, and programs DO open faster.

 

Are you sure about that, I thought there was no real-world benefit to SSDs in Raid 0

 

I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not.

edit: I think I get what you mean now. Didn't notice "real-world"...I guess by that you mean normal, everyday use?

 

I got in my R2 a OCZ Vertex 3 240GB SSD drive. Finished Installing windows in 20 minutes

This thing is now a beast, my laptop now have a WEI score of 7.1, the lowest are my GPUs which are HD4870ms in X-F. Gonna upgrade to HD6870ms soon.

The SSD scored 7.7 Over clock the RAMs and CPU with setFSB might yield better results too.

Cheers, Huniken.

 

so again can anyone tell me what these benchmarks mean and which is the best one to get

 

You should check out the RAID 0 setup I have linked in my sig. I tweaked it, and the results were impressive. You may find some tweaks that help you out. Particularly the Intel® Rapid Storage Technology tweak I mention. That one helped a lot.

 

started reading somthing about problems with TRIM when you put ssd in raid0. is this a problem or not?

 

You lose TRIM when you put anything in RAID 0. Honestly it's not a huge issue.

 

doesn't that shorten the lifespan of the ssd?

 

As long as you creat image backups, you can secure erase the SSD's and reimage them and bam, your good to go again. That said, when I used a RAID 0 SSD setup, I never noticed a slowdown. Though I reimaged a lot for other reasons. I also split the RAID 0 setup. Now I have one OS/Apps SSD, and another SSD where I install my games. My Gaming SSD is at 90% full, but it doesn't really matter, because games are mostly reads, and not writes, so having it so full won't really slow me down.

 

There were SSDs without TRIM you know, they just had a special firmware to deal with GC. I've owned 2 x X25-M G1 80 GB SSDs with no TRIM.

 

highfly, i will try my best to explain what the crystalDiskMark bench does.
I will use Tsunade_Hime's benchshot above and explain that.


First off, CrystalBenchMark tests using incompressible data. SSD manufacturers like to use compressed data tests...it's much faster to move compressed data than uncompressed data. As a result, numbers from a CrystalBenchMark are usually lower than the manufacturer's claimed numbers

in the screenshot, you see "2" next to "1000MB". This means 2 tests moving 1gig of data and they take the average of the 2

Now the other numbers means what chunks or how the 1000mb will be moved:

SEQ means SEQUENTIAL. This is usually the easiest and therefore it usually results in the highest numbers. Seq usually means moving a large file (in this case 1gig size) and reading from the large file. Usually this is indicative of file transfer speeds like reading an ISO or writing an ISO to disk

512K means reading and writing random data in 512k chunks. The test completes when 1000mb is completed

4k means reading and writing random data in 4k chunks. The test completes when 1000mb is completed

4k32 means reading and writing random data in 4k chunks, but the test spawns 32 threads that work simultaneously in a universal goal of reading or writing 1gig of data in 4k chunks. Each thread works at moving 4k chunks. The test completes when 1000mb is completed

The most important numbers is 4K...this has direct correlation with how fast window's load and the general snappiness of your system

 

Wow, thanks for that, +rep!

Which of those numbers correlates best for gaming? ... load times et al? Is it still the 4k?

I only have a first gen Samsung PM800, and my numbers are way down on Tsunade_Hime's awesome SSD raid 0 setup... except the 4k read is basically identical... so my windows would load at the same speed as his if everything else was equal?

 

Hey wonderpookie, thnx

4k is indicative of how fast windows will load but it isn't linear. your 4k read is very similar to Tsunade_Hime's so assuming that you both have similar Window's processes on startup, your boot time will be very similar.

 

Thanks a bunch for that Slick. I've been looking around for a simple but informative explanation like that for a while. +repped.

From what I see with raid 0 though, am I correct to say that there's virtually no improvement in the 4K scores? And how does TRIM translate to real-world?

 

I would like to know this too! Seems like I'm better off getting a new gen SSD to replace my old PM800 than to try and pick up another on the cheap and RAID them.

 

There are some tweaks I did that helped 4k scores for ssds in raid 0. Click my Raid 0 setup link in my sign for the tweaks and benchmarks.

Sent from my Samsung Captivate/ICS using Tapatalk.

 

Thnx Tetsussaiga

TRIM has a huge effect on write operations for a ssd. It promotes garbage collection operations that would slow down future writes. SSD's are too fast to notice a difference for everyday operations, but if you do a huge write of many gigs, you will notice a difference in completion time

from my experience with 3 different kinds of ssd's RAID 0 increases the 4k write significantly, but ony marginally increases the 4k read...however, RAID 0 has a huge effect on performance. Here is an example:

single 128gig M4


RAID 0 2x128gig M4's

 

Ah, I see. It is all clear to me now. Thanks again. Those results look fantastic, time to find another drive!

 

Regarding windows boot times, is there a utility that can measure that easily for you?

 

you can try Windows Boot Time Utility...download link at bottom of the article below. Ive seen boot time screenshots of this utility from various m17x R3 owners

How To Know Your Computer’s Boot Time

 

Aww, awesome, ty! +rep

edit:- "You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to SlickDude80 again."... or later!

 

LOL...its ok mate

Its the thought that counts

 

I did some tweaks in DR650SE's links.



Much improved scores in my Intel 320 series 160 GB RAID 0 scores.

 

Those scores look much better. Especially 4k writes. But overall much much better. Even so, not sure it will be much of a noticeable performance increase. Does it feel faster?

Sent from my Samsung Captivate/ICS using Tapatalk 2

 

Ha not really, those are just benchmark scores. Overall the benefit of RAID 0 SSDs is seen, but even "faster" is kinda...eh.

 

I think that Getting an SSD is the best upgrade ive ever done, speed wise 13 second cold boot with a 7.8 wei