Anyone got a 256 GB SSD from Dell?

If you do, please tell me what you think of it! Also, post some numbers, like average read/write speeds, responsiveness, startup times for Windows 7/apps, etc. Thanks!

 

Just search for reviews of the PB22-J on Google. You'll get tons of hits. It's not bad, but Indilinx and Intel are better.

 

Dell only offers the PB22-J right?

 

As far as I know, everyone who's bought a new Dell SSD in the past couple months has gotten a PB22-J or a derivative.

 

OK. I Googled around and some of the review sites seem to put it around the same performance as the Intel X25 or w.e, like roughly same read/write speed. Why does this keep getting recommended against by people?

 

The sequential speeds are similar, but the random write speeds - arguably the Achilles heel of modern SSDs - are significantly, significantly lower. We're talking up to 40MB/s for an X25-M, and maybe 8MB/s for the PB22-J. That's by no means slow when a conventional HDD won't pull much past 1.5MB/s, but still slower than the top of the line. Most Indilinx drives get random write speeds in the 15-20MB/s range.

 

Is sequential the speed in the middle of writing a huge file, and random the beginning?

 

that is true I own the 256 GB Samsung drive
i love it I have restarted 7 in 38.8 seconds
i shutdown takes 10.3 seconds start up in 25.6

i deleted my entire windows.old folder from my first upgrade in less than a minute i move files and no bars pop up everything is fast load times for games are almost cut in half or more depending on the game 210.6 MB/s read and 189.5 MB/s write with the crappy random write at 6.56 MB/s and read at 21.4 MB/s

best Hard drive i have ever bought and not the best SSD on the market but definitely far from the worst

 

Sequential speeds are the speeds you get when copying a few number of very large files from one place to another. They aren't really important, because even if you do move large files around constantly, whatever you're moving them to or from (that's not the SSD), will probably bottleneck the transfer.

Random speeds are what you get when moving a ton of very small files to and from the SSD. Random reads take data off the SSD (such as when you're loading Windows or applications) and random writes put data onto the drive (such as when you're installing an application or writing to your page files). These sort of transfers are common and are usually done to and from the system memory, which is why the SSD can still be a bottleneck here.

And then since random write speeds are generally slower than random read speeds (simply due to the nature of NAND flash technology), they are generally the limiting factor of modern SSDs. So this is like saying the worst case scenario for the Samsung is much worse than the worst case scenario for Intel or Indilinx.

 

But liek you said, the random speeds are still far better than that of a 7200 RPM 500 GB HDD, so if I wanted max performance Dell's relatively crappy SSD would be the choice?

 

Dell's (Samsung) SSD is far from crappy. It might be *only* 3rd, after Intel and Indilinx, but it's far superior to any current notebook HDD. Going from Samsung to Indilinx or Intel is hardly noticeable compared to the jump from HDD to Samsung.

 

yes if you only could buy from dell but also its the best Gb/$ ratio as well pretty cheap for a SSD and its not that bad you'll appreciate it like look at it like this you can drive an Audi R8(indilinix) or a Porsche 911 turbo(samsung) they both are fast one just costs more and performs better... but they are both way better than a Camaro (HDD)

 

Exactly. I had an even slower last-gen Samsung before my X25-M... and I really can't tell the difference. I'm still using those last-gen Samsungs in my desktops, and they're already great.

 

In that case R8 ftw lol my 2nd fave car

 

lol i seen that but that 911 turbo isntt bad at all right?

 

Top Gear says R8 and 911 are evenly matched but I don't like Porsche design. But #1 is Reventon!

And 1000th post.

 

Congrats and I will agree on the Reventon but car and driver rated the porsche second to the R8 and Vantage 3rd check it out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAa0Uh17BEM&feature=fvw lol but the point is the samsung drive isnt all that bad

 

i think persformance are better, or am i wrong?
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/256gb-samsung-ssd,2265-3.html

 

Anyone think performance are better than what?

 

OK different note, how does this Samsung PB22-J compare with other 256 GB SSDs? I see that the Intel X25s all have smaller capacities, and 256 GB seem rare.

 

The only other widely available 256GB SSDs out there right now are either JMicron or Indilinx powered. The Samsung beats the JMicron stuff by a long shot, and the Indilinx drives have similar sequential speeds, but faster random read/write speeds - about twice as fast if not more.

 

Dang, sure wish Dell had the Indilinx ones ...

 

Is the 128gb drive that Dell use still the Samsung PB22-J, just the 128gb version?

 

Honestly, it's not a big deal.

 

Also are the Samsung drives supplied the ones that have the very poor random write speeds?

 

have you read the thread?

 

Listen Fred just get the samsung and later on if you feel like upgrading do so but honestly its a great drive regardless of the poor random writes which are for me 6x faster than a normal HDD besides that a samsung SSD is twice as fast as a 7,200 RPM and i read some where that it would hold its own against a 10,000 RPM drive (1.5x faster than a 10k RPM drive i read somewhere else but cant find the site) and for the GB/$ ratio it doesnt get any better for example http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233085

which is basically a samsung drive marketed by corsair and costs $424 more

heres a review
http://www.gamingshogun.com/Article/5133/Review_of_the_Samsung_256GB_PM800_Solid-State_Disk.html

 

Yes but it was late when I did so and I'd missed the bit about the slow writes, sorry.