Dual OCZ Solid SSDs in RAID0 in my G50VT-A1 = Mind blowing.

O M G

My laptop (ASUS G50VT-A1) feels faster than my desktop in just about everything but sheer CPU and GPU power.

It feels snappier and faster than my EIGHT Raptors in RAID0.

Like, programs load INSTANTLY.

Like... *click*

*BAM IN YOUR FACE OPEN!*

Here are my benches:



It really is pretty amazing, no longer does the hard drive have to be the bottleneck of a modern computer.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227373 I got two of those for $210... best $210 I've ever spent.

Also of course they make no noise, are shock resistant, and use less power. My gaming laptop might be able to hit 4 hours surfing the web.

PICS!!!

SSDs and my old "slow" Seagate Momentus 250GB 7200.3s


Insides of my lappy for kicks



I'm like a kid in a candy store right now.

FYI I used these tips to configure Vista for the SSD

http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=43525

 

Nice job and congrats on your new setup Those speeds are absolutely mind blowing compared to the standard mechanical HDDs. I recently purchased a 256GB SSD for my notebook as well, and after using it, I don't think I could get back using the standard HDDs anymore

As for the 4 hours of battery life, I'd probably be a little doubtful on that. SSDs don't necessarily use less power than the mechanical drives.

 

Hmm well I can get 3.5hrs on the two old mechanical drives and I'd heard they use less power but we shall see I suppose.

But man, these things are blazing. So much more responsive than my desktop rig with eight WD Raptors in RAID0.

I will never go back. EVER.

 

Actually, I'm sure they will help Battery life. When NBR reviewed the X-25, they found that it actually increased the battery life of the 2530p by a whole hour compared to the time with a normal HDD.

Regarding Power consumption, SSDs actually use around 0.2-8 watts when under stress (say a DVD), compared to 10 watts of a Velociraptor HDD.

 

THIS will shed some light regarding power SSD consumption in comparison to mechanical drives.

 

Only 120GB of space I cant live with that just one raw video could eat up half my drive space.

Maybe just maybe I'll give up one HDD for a SSD when the time is right.

I wonder how much benifit raid 0 gives for SSD, its a big myth for HDD's and benchmarks always show 2x speed but SSD is going to handle it much differently I would like to find some really good real life test on that.

 

Well the controller on the laptop is maxed out, on my desktop in RAID0 they were hitting about 270MB/sec. But a single drive was around 150MB/sec so RAID0 does help.

As for space, on my laptop I don't care much, I have an eSATA external and I have a 10TB file server at home.

 

You dont understand what I was saying, the benchmark shows full speed but in real life use it is not the same as files are not handled the same way as the benchmark.

File sizes, file locations ect slow raid 0 down considerably based on its strip size. The location thing wont hurt a SSD much but the size is the worst enemy of raid 0 and it still has some impact I just want to know how much.

 

Oh I see what you were saying.

Honestly I've used RAID0 in my desktop for, well, forever and it is always faster than a single drive. But really, it depends on how good the controller is and if it has cache or not.

 

thebeephaha, could you possible run the crystaldiskmark benchmark?

For comparison, this is what I'm getting with the G.Skill Titan SSD.

 

Thanks

I think Crystaldiskmark provides a better better benchmark as it seems to better replicate real-life scenarios compared to HDTune.

I'm assuming your SSDs are MLC and are using the JMicron controllers?

 

For reference to throw another SSD in the ring, here's my single OCZ Vertex 30GB, latest firmware (1.10). 512K Write and both 4K tests really show the difference between JMicron and Indilinx.

 

You are correct good sir.

 

Impressive. Two 60GB Vertex were a bit out of my price range.

 

One 60GB Vertex was out of my price range.

 

Congrats on becoming a SSD user! My SSD is quickly becoming a relic and it wasn't cheap 18 months back lol

 

LOL QFT

There will be a big explosion of SSD tech and supply not too far away, when it starts becoming the norm companies will start competing in price for customers, right now they know they can pick off you enthusiast pretty much no matter what the price.

When that price war starts happening thats when I will probably hop on the SSD buss (no pun intended)

 

Congrats on becoming a SSD user! My SSD is quickly becoming a relic and it wasn't cheap 18 months back lol

 

ok what is the best controller and what do i have or where can i find out where it is

 

LOL QFT

There will be a big explosion of SSD tech and supply not too far away, when it starts becoming the norm companies will start competing in price for customers, right now they know they can pick off you enthusiast pretty much no matter what the price.

When that price war starts happening thats when I will probably hop on the SSD buss (no pun intended)

 

Ideally I'd have wanted a single 120GB Vertex and then be able to add one later but they really are expensive.

GOOD NEWS:

Battery life is much better, with my 9 cell extended battery I can easily get 4 hours surfing the web / word processing / music. Which is great because this gaming laptop now can actually be used on the go for things other than just gaming and high demand apps.

BAD NEWS:

I had ExpressGate working on the old hard drives in RAID0 but I can't get it to work now with these SSDs in RAID0. I tried downloading the newest version and it installs but when I go to use express gate it thinks it isn't.

Any ideas on this?

 

Any stuttering? I'm assuming the raid0 helps prevent that, but just curious.

 

Only if I install things while doing other tasks. Otherwise none at all.

 

Let us know if they start slowing down over time: http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3531

I'm keeping my eye on SSDs as a nice upgrade in the future.