SSD Thread (Benchmarks, Brands, News, and Advice)

Thank you.

Ewww, yuck. Pretty bad file copy. But for $400 for 256GB other performance characteristics look decent. I was debating between the SSD and getting the base HDD in the Envy 14 and going for a Momentus XT. If I'm not happy maybe I can sell it, should make a few bucks on it considering they're selling for $700-$800 new on eBay. Even if I can get $550-$600 the price difference would pay for my XT!

According to this article it uses the JMicron JMF612 controller.

 

does anybody know anything about the Lite-On LE-128M1S?

It seems Dell has gone cheap and is putting these in their Latitude laptops now when you order the SSD option, rather than the Samsung PB22's....unfortunately I just received a stack of them, and the performance is pretty disappointing. I'm probably going to look into a refund and purchasing the drives elsewhere if Dell is going away from decent SSD's.

I benched one out with HDTune around 140MB/sec and .4ms access times...a far cry from the Samsung and Indilinx performance I am used to.

They don't even have complete enclosures, they just have a skeleton cage and the PCB!

 

Yeah that's an updated version of the notoriously bad earlier JMF. (608 iirc)

Don't worry it won't stutter. And at $400 for 256GB it's a steal. It will outperform any HDD by a large margin.

 

Thanks. Of course since this is all speculation, since HP can't/won't confirm the brand of their 256GB SSD.

 

here's a picture. It's a 1.8" drive in a 2.5" cage.
Sorry for the crappy cell phone pic.

 

@ Dillio187: which controller does Lite-On LE-128M1S?

I can see that it's Marvell, but can't see if it's 88SS9174-BJP2 (this is the same as in Crucial RealSSD C300).

 

I'd take the WD (Jmicron and all) over the Seagate. 256GB for $400 is a nice price point, plus its power consumption (both idle and at load) looks to be lower than an Intel, SandForce, and Marvel

 

We'll see! I'll gladly run a few benches if anyone is interested. I haven't done many HDD or SSD benches in the past so you'll have to direct me to the proper tools, and best way to run.

 

This may sound strange but the only benchmark I really care about is your Windows 7 Boot time

http://forum.notebookreview.com/windows-os-software/459125-post-your-windows-7-boot-time.html

 

there is a sticker covering part of the controller chip that I don't want to disturb, but the part I can see says 88SS8014-BPH2 YPM23264

 

htwingnut, here's a couple if you really want to.

Crystal Dew World - Software - CrystalDiskMark
http://forums.legitreviews.com/about21729.html

 

One question regarding wear leveling. Once data is written, does it stay in that "position" (for lack of a better term) until it's told to be erased (and then GC/TRIM comes along and cleans it up so it can be written to again)? Or will wear leveling move existing data at some point so that those "stagnant" sectors filled with data are worn as evenly as other cells?

For example if you install 100GB of video files that are never deleted, on a 160GB drive, is the remaining 60GB of "open" space receiving the brunt of the wear then if it's getting files written to and deleted on a regular basis? Or will it eventually start to move these "stagnant" video files to those locations so that there is even wear?

Just curious.

And @ LaptopGun thanks for links.

 

I'm a NitWit. Did a system restore and bang, lost 50% write speed in CrystalDiskMark. Trim has got me back up to about 85 MBs from the 70 MBs it put me at but I never knew this would take such a hit. Worst yet, it took the hit so in vein I put it through another 4 restores too. Then I realized I was fine before doing the restore, D'oh..........

 

Have you looked at Anandtech.com SSD Anthology? If the answer to your question isn`t there you might have to dig deep into Google.

I believe however that the wear leveling algorithm works as you describe in the second sentence of the first paragraph of your question.Data moving around continuosly,never staying in the same place.

Feel free to correct me if you find that i`m wrong.Now I`m wondering too!

 

88SS8014 or 'Da-Vinci' is older Marvell controller, but I can't say how good or bad is it compared to Samsung or Indilinx.

Have You tried to run Crystal Disk Mark?

 

Hey guys, is this normal? After 5 months my read speeds have dropped quite a bit.

This is an intel 80GB SSD x25-M G2. Not sure what there is to do to make it any better. TRIM should be automatically running with a W7 fresh install right?

 

Information on a SSD is never static like a hard drive. Wear levelling is a very unique and simple process by which the firmware is able to monitor the total write count of the cells and move information around in the background to ensure all wear evenly. You can put a large file on your ssd and not touch it for years and may appear to us that it has not moved within the drive but really it has probably been moved on several occasions to prevent just a small segment of free cells from being used over and over again, thus allowing the drive to last much longer than we would see if there was not wear levelling.

How do we know this works? Imagine, if you could, that a ssd was filled 60/70/80 or even 90 percent and the information was static in a location because wear levelling did not exist. The ssd would die in a very short time because the same cells were being used over and over again.

Remember, as well, that, unlike a HD the ssd does not crash, but rather, its reads are infinite and the ssd is still able to be read even when its write life has been surpassed. Hope this helps.

 

Looks allright to me

Yes, trim should run right from the start - if you want higher numbers benchmark in SafeMode.

 

Thanks, that's what I surmised but wasn't sure. +1 for taking the time to explain.

 

yea I have. Not real impressive.

 

Well finally figured out what they meant about 50,000 4K aligned IOPS, all 0's or all 1's. Here is the drives benchmark below.......

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 3.0 x64 (C) 2007-2010 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : Crystal Dew World
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]

Sequential Read : 268.075 MB/s
Sequential Write : 261.246 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 256.005 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 256.388 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 24.741 MB/s [ 6040.2 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 46.259 MB/s [ 11293.8 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 134.801 MB/s [ 32910.4 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 212.354 MB/s [ 51844.2 IOPS]

Test : 4000 MB [C: 21.7% (24.3/111.7 GB)] (x9) <All 0x00, 0Fill>
Date : 2010/07/14 20:02:49
OS : Windows 7 Home Premium Edition [6.1 Build 7600] (x64)

 

There ya go....doesnt that look better?

EDIT.... Any ssd and computer build experts in the house? Building a new desktop and am reading tons on the MOBOS but it looks like I will be going with the Asus P7P55DE-Pro. Any thoughts are appreciated although I am well aware of Intels lack of native USB3/SATA6Gb/s... I also have a HSPC Top Deck on the way...

 

I have had very good luck with my recent build with a GigaByte board. I liked the fact of solid state capacitors and extra copper. I got the H55M. I am not familiar, ASUS may have those things as well.

When I build, I like to have extra power/reliability built in. No cutting corners for $5 like Dell, HP, etc.

 

Right, looks great. Real world data is random not aligned. This thing can go down to 40MBs or less real world sequential write. That is just plain awefull! If I would have known these could get hit so bad by large writes I would have gone dual XT's.

I can't believe though with such high aligned numbers it should be hit as bad as it gets hit, especially with Trim. I would hope they can get this working better with a firmware update. I'd be more than happy if they could get closer to the original numbers I had of 140MBs, even 4K Q32 was doing 30,000 IOPS and that is much more than acceptable.

I can say this thing though is amazing on reads. Opens up everything almost as fast as if it were already cached to ram. With the rated read speeds this should be true of Intel G2's, SF2's and the C300's............

 

I can say its certainly true about my G2

 

I bought a second hand Vertex LE 50GB. Is there anything special I need to do with it?

I expect to receive it in 2 days.

 

Hi all, Got a Dell Latitude e6400 and at the end of the year, we have some money in our department that has to get spent. I am thinking of requesting a SSD. I need at least 250 gigs and would like something that is at least as fast as my failing WD Scorpio 320Gig drive. If it could increase my battery life as well, that would be a bonus.

Any suggestions? Thanks alot!

 

For battery life and cost per GB, the best are Samsung, Toshiba and Indilinx.

 

Here are benchmarks of my ssd with just the OS on it:

In Windows7

In Safe Mode

Any other tests I should run?

 

I don't think you need to do something special. What I would do since it's a second hand is to check if it has the latest firmware, I would secure erase it, run a couple of benchmarks to see if it performs as advertised, check the SMART attributes for any errors and then secure erase it again so it will be ready for a clean Windows installation.

 

Not impressive at all, but it should be faster then any 2.5" HDD.

 

Thanks. Will try. Can't wait to see if this drive will allow me to get back in the top 3

 

Looking to buy my first SSD for my T410 as a boot drive (with my current HDD in the a secondary bay for my other files). Now I'm just trying to decide on which SSD to buy! I've got my eye one one of these two models from OCZ

OCZ Onyx - 64gb - Indilinx
NCIX.com - Buy OCZ Onyx Series Indilinx 64GB 2.5IN SATA2 Solid State Disk Flash Drive SSD - OCZSSD2-1ONX64G In Canada.

OCZ Vertex 2 - 50gb - Sandforce
NCIX.com - Buy OCZ Vertex LE Limited Edition 50GB 2.5IN SATA2 Solid State Disk Flash Drive SSD - OCZSSD2-1VTXLE50G In Canada.

Now I'm giving up a some storage and about $30 for the faster Vertex 2 model, which seems to be quite a bit faster. But I'm new to all of this - is the speed difference going to be noticable, or worth the cost? Also, it looks like it consumes more power than the Onyx, but is that going to be a big difference?

I'm overall just looking for a reliable, decent value SSD, but don't want to give up any big new fancy advancements in technology. Let me know what you think of these two, or if you have other suggestions.

Cheers!

 

I wouldn't recommend the Onyx based on the reviews I've seen. Better get something with a Sandforce controller, especially when your OS is on it.

The drive you linked to is good, it's not a Vertex 2 though but a Vertex LE. Vertex 2 Extended Edition 60GB is good too.

For detailed comparison see Anandtech: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/152?vs=138

PS. I'm not aware of Canadian prices but that Vertex LE seems like a good deal after rebate.

 

OK we have offically reached a flooding of the market in SSD's

Is it just me or are these the same drive minus one saying "pro" on the sticker
Newegg.com - G.SKILL Phoenix Pro Series FM-25S2S-240GBP2 2.5" 240GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
Newegg.com - G.SKILL Phoenix Series FM-25S2S-240GBP1 2.5" 240GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

 

Only the PRO is advertised with "Up to 50,000 IOPS w/ 4KB random write". So it is probably the faster one.

Whether one would notice the difference is a different question though.

 

The uncapped SF2's are supposed to be a bit snappier with their reads etc. I'd be wary of the write speeds. There are definate issues with the compression engine. If you do alot of MM file writing you are better of with a C300. I found out the hard way there may be other issues as well..........

 

Can someone give a good explanation about those three benchmarks?
This the pcmark vantage
Bench - SSD - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News

and this is the one from anandtech
Bench - SSD - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News

Desktop IOmeter
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/SSD/78

what do you think is more reliable and more realistic?

 

I don't really like any of those benchmarks because none of them measure real time. If I would have to choose anyway I'd go for PCMark Vantage for normal usage and Anand's bench for heavy usage.

I prefer real life benchmarks measured in real time. Techreport, Xbitlabs and Hardwareheaven have excellent SSD benchmarks.

For your usage I assume? what is your usage?

 

I use it for testing server setups as well as for everyday usage in Windows and Linux (I have the X25-E) and I am more than satisfied but I still don't understand how it is possible for an SSD as old as mine to be able to keep the first position on the Anandtech benchmark compared to newer ones that should outperform it according to the numbers provided.

 

Well I don't have a lot of faith in Anand's Storage bench for this reason: "This approach doesn't give us a perfect indicator of real-world behavior, but it does illustrate how each drive might perform if it were attached to an infinitely fast system. " (source: techreport)

So unless there are some real life benchmarks measured in real time, I can't say anything about C300 & Sandforce versus Intel X-25E.

Going by what I gathered from other sites I believe Sandforce is the way to go on a SATA 2 controller.

In the mean time I'm a bit dissappointed by the power consumption of the Vertex LE (SF1500). I loose some time compared with my Hitachi 7K500. Will do more testing though.

 

a big reason the X25-E is still ahead on some of those benchmakrs is because it is SLC and the others are all basically MLC. SLC is much better but since they cost more, everyone made a switch to MLC. So now SLC is seldom used, maybe for business servers and heavy duty stuff

 

Still though,even compared to other SLC...

Bench - SSD - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News
Bench - SSD - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News

and compared to an extremely fast MLC that according to other benchmark numbers exceed by far those of X25-E

Bench - SSD - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News

I am trying to figure out what benchmarks come closer to reality but at the same time are indicative of the SSD performance when not bounded by the system (ie slow CPU)
I have to agree with Phil though, real world performance will vary from those tests...

 

Hey guys, I've been out for a few months busy with work. How has the SSD landscape changed? Are my x25-E's still in on top for the consumer market? I have two 32gb SLC Intel's that I have in RAID-0 but haven't used primarily (still sticking to HDD for day-to-day use) but plan to when I want to get back into gaming.

 

Hey Hank, welcome back! My Corsair 128GB NOVA is holding out just awesome. Still fast! Although I do have my eye on a Sandforce of some sort, they seem to be the fastest so far. Corsair Force has my attention. I guess I could still get a decent price for my Nova to offset the cost a little.

I will never go back to spinners. I can open Outlook as soon as it hits the desktop and that is quite addicting. Makes it hard to wait and wait and wait for clients crappy computers to boot and settle in so I can open anything.

Dave

 

Hey Hank and Cape as well....

 

Well, its unfortunate that HP doesn't know what they're talking about. Several peeps that have received their Envy 14's with 256GB SSD say it's a Samsung MMDOE56G5MXP-0VB not a Western Digital.

Not sure if this is good or bad. Apparently OEM firmware doesn't support TRIM (wut?), but seems there is firmware out there that will (hoping).

Aside from that, is this a decent drive? Anything that it excels at or is horrible? Thanks.

How do I verify TRIM is supported or not and/or firmware version? I don't have the machine yet, but should be shipped next week.

 

A program like CrystalDiskInfo should tell you whether the SSD supports TRIM or not.

I know it'll give you firmware version, too.

 

The Samsung is a nice SSD. It doesn't excel at performance but has good power consumption.

The Intel beats the Vertex in every test there but it says nothing because the Vertex may beat the Intel in every real world scenario.

It's funny how many tests are performed that have very little indicative value, while one simple file copy test would tell more.

The two dominating controllers are Marvell and Sandforce at the moment.

Marvell has the upper hand when it's connected to SATA 3, otherwise Sandforce seems to be the way to go. OWC Mercury Extreme may be the fastest at the moment ( Storagereview.com).

I'm not sure if you would notice any difference with your current setup.

 

Phil what benchmarks would you suggest as more representative to real world scenarios?

I read as many reviews as I could find but due to the fact that it is quite an old model there aren't any comparisons to the latest SSDs. So far I try to understand how accurate are the synthetic benchmarks as well as the ones from anandtech and the rest of the reviewers out there.