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

Do you want to exchange it with a C300 Crucial ? It was bought on August 2010

 

Thanks but no, I need cash for it.

 

Can i just buy it if your review is good ?
Kidding, but i might buy it if you ship to Israel.

 

This was a 2-year old hardware so it had an "excellent GC" for that time, while the 470 are brand new. Such feedback that you and others have given made them to make a REALLY good GC and in the future we will see even better. So you cannot compare a 2008 SSD with a 2010 SSD and say "bahh, they are all the same".

 

Yes. I believe Seagate is one of them. Seagate 7200.4 did excellent in Vantage but no where near as good in real life. Makes it seem like Seagate optimized it for Vantage instead of for real life.

Another downside of Vantage is that it lacks multi tasking scenarios. And multi tasking is exactly the area where the SSDs do show differences.

 

I understand that. But for one, there's no way to truly prove it, do you have any anecdotal evidence what's changed in their algorithm and what effects its had? Samsung refused to even answer any questions about their garbage collection routine, even customer use and expectations when I inquired.

Think of it this way, if you bought a car in 2008 that had significant issues, would you go buy the same brand again in 2010 when looking for another car to replace it? Especially when they told you there was nothing wrong and wouldn't do anything about it? They may claim new and improved, and the body may look different, but the root issue was never addressed.

 

Click!

 

So 25 minutes in idle? How much data was written? I had a near full drive that just dropped performance to the bottom no matter how long it idled. Maybe that was my fault, but there is absolutely no user documentation to show limiatations.

 

Can anyone explain why it's necessary to go to the login screen(that's logoff from the desktop?) to start the Garbage Collection, or is this a myth?

 

No one knows. The SSD can only deduce 'no-activity' by not seeing any read/write. It does not talk to the OS.

So sitting at the login screen means any background task that ties to a login user would not be activated and has a better chance of ' no read/write'.

I have strong reservation of this form of ilde GC as it changes my natural way of using my machine. I usually reboot once for a month or two(depending on how frequent microsoft release security update, and it is getting fewer) and never logout. That is also the reason I don't care about how fast a SSD boot or load application and why I don't find it a quantum leap over HDD.

 

Thank you for the information.
I just pressed win + L key to logoff, login panel is displayed, but the HDD indicator is still flickering after 5 min.
Seems to me that there are still processes running and there is still disk activity. Search, Superfetch etc are disabled.
I just read the review of a Samsung 470, [User-Review] Koreanischer Leckerbissen: Samsung 470 Series SSD (Update 11.09.2010) - Forum de Luxx
The reviewer tested the GC and it seems to me he didn't logoff.
I'm pretty sure the need to logoff for GC to start is a myth!

 

About GC: Someone said in another thread that it would be better to leave the system at the BIOS screen. It sounds plausible because Windows can still have disk acitity when logged out.

 

when the GC will kick in and how it is done is up to the controller. It can be 'until no activity' or 'when the activity is below certain threshold' or anything. For Sandforce, the vendor advice logoff.

Personally, I would see it to be done via some ATA command(to kick start), similar to Window's defrag which can be scheduled in the middle of the night

 

A good implemantation does the job during normal work. There is enough time were the SSD controller is idle.
We live in the times of multitasking, multithreading and no longer in ancient DOS and Win 3.1 times.

 

This is my point that I made before. Samsung has not and will not share what the customer should do for GC to activate. It shouldn't be a guessing game. If anyone has any pull with Samsung can you please try to get some info and maybe let them know it's a good idea to share information about their products? This is the issue I have with SSD's in general. The drives are expensive, and a new tech, yet they provide little to no useful information.

Any way NBR could get an interview with one of the major SSD manufacturer engineers?

 

I tend to agree with you.

See:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...force-ssd-how-can-i-get-performance-back.html

 

I missed the post where GC was not abbreviated. What does it mean?

 

@chimpanzee. Apparently Intel puts that percentage out as a SMART value called "Media Wearout Indicator". Where'd you get that 7TB number?...i'm a little worried about being 3x that already.

As for the firmware update, i, apparently, already installed this update early this year, but still no sign of trim, possibly becuase of Vista? The SSD toolbox doesn't like it either, for 50nm drives..


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

 

Garbage Collection

OCZ and Indilinx Collaborate On New SSD Garbage Collection Scheme - HotHardware

 

That was my point, Intel measured it in a 'worst case' situation and the real life is actually much longer than that(and it depends on usage pattern).

G1 doesn't have firmware upgrade. What you should watch is actually the reallocation count in SMART which would show you how many of the cell is no longer usable and when you start to see continueous increase, you need to plan for upgrade(new drive).

 

About GC and Samsung: when I bought my SSD it had FW without GC or TRIM (VBM1801Q I think), then I updated FW with one from Mushkin (VBM1901Q) which had only GC and that GC was working perfectly. I tested it by filling drive to 100% and after deleting those files, while typing in MS Visual Studio, drive was restored to state better then new in very short time. After some time Supet Talent released FW with TRIM and GC (VBM19C1Q) which is latest FW and which I'm still using, but GC isn't that aggressive and drive perform slower in CMD.

Did anyone tried to go back from VBM19C1Q (GC and TRIM) to VBM1901Q (only GC)?

 

I just opened up a ssd with NAND of this number on it. Big Kudos to the guy that can confirm that this is 29nm NAND other than a guess. Its micron and I cant find any info but it is part of a Memoright 256GB ssd.

The number is:

29F128G08CJABA

 

Found following in

Firmware_Download_guide_DSRD310 dated 6-January-2010 by Samsung

9. Download tool will skip firmware update If the drive already has same firmware version, VBM19C1Q. (or VBM1901Q if you had VBM1801Q previously)

It seems that going back is not possible.

 

@maximinimaus:
Win + L is LOCK, not Logoff. You are not logged off when only locking.

 

Intel specifies a minimum lifetime of 5 years (at 20 GB a day) for both 34nm and 50nm drives.

http://www.intel.com/design/flash/nand/mainstream/technicaldocuments.htm
see Datasheet (50nm product line) section 3.5.4

So 20(GB)*365(days/year)*5(years) = 36500GB
or ~ 35TB

 

I read that before, but I remember that whit FW updater from Muskhin I wasn't able to update FW on my Super Talent until main FW was deleted, so maybe it's possible to delete VBM19C1Q and then write VBM1901Q.
I'm thinking to try that, but I don't want to brick my SSD.

 

Thank you, my bad. I'm not used to do logon/logoff as I directly boot into the desktop without a password.
Now I've done a LOGOFF and the result is the same. The HDD indicator light continues flickering.

 

Confirmed. I tried "log off" last night and the drive in use indicator kept flashing. I'm sticking with the BIOS screen. Easy to do at night.

 

I'm looking at getting the DM4 for school. Will the SSD really improve my performance that much over an 7200 rpm.

 

Most likely.

 

What school? What programs? What is your 'performance' criteria?

 

Check the review in my signature to get an idea.

 

Here is mine, looks okay I guess, running Windows 7

 

Intel's 3rd Generation X25-M SSD Specs Revealed - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News

Intel Slips In 120 GB Postville X25-M G2 SSD | techPowerUp

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/samsung-470-sandforce-best-ssd,2783.html article released 11/11/10

 

Hint - Use Alt+PrtScreen with the desired window highlighted will screen capture only that window...

Wow, thanks for links.

Finally have some numbers for the Kingston V series power consumption. The 30GB seems to be in a world its own, because the 64GB version I owned was horrible with battery life, and this shows I wasn't completely crazy, considering I owned a 40GB Intel prior to that. Now I have an 80GB Intel in there which is even better if it's the same power consumption as the 160GB.

Idle:
Kingston SSDNow V = 1.36w
Intel 40GB X25-V = 0.19W
Intel 160GB X25-M = 0.06W

 

is it just me, or is this a really good deal?

Newegg.ca - OCZ Vertex 2 OCZSSD2-2VTXE120G 2.5" 120GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

 

expsnsive, u should check the price from newegg in the US. for 240G, when there was a rebate, the final price was 399.

 

My Samsung 470 256 GB came in the mail yesterday. So far I'm impressed with it. It's a lot faster than their previous generation.

 

249$ - 20$ mail in rebate is expensive? Bope seemed pretty decent to me. Either way im holding out till the g3 comes out.... we saw its spec sheet... what i wanna see is its "supposed" lower price tag.

 

Speed up Firefox page loading time without using a RAM disk

http://www.downloadsquad.com/2010/11/11/speed-up-firefox-page-loading-time-without-using-a-ram-disk/

fewer writes to your SSD.

 

I think the handy tip has been posted before, but it is still relevant. Yes it works to speed things up and I suppose it reduces writes. I use it just because I have an MLC drive like most of us. I severely doubt most of us will kill drives with web browsing. I just am paranoid enough to be safe.

 

I posted it a while back on this thread somewhere but it's a tweak worth doing nonetheless. I does makes things quicker and saves writes to the SSD...

 

is it google chrome fast, or quicker?

 

Quicker in my experience. But that may be because I'm using a 5400rpm HDD at the moment.

 

may i ask where did you get it from?
i have been looking for one but they dont sell it at my local hardware retail stores.

 

newegg has 470 256G in stock

 

The battery life is crazy on that new Samsung. I got 8:11 hours, 2 hours more than with a OCZ Vertex 2.

I'm selling my review unit:
Samsung SSD 256GB 470 MZ5PA256HMDR - Solid State Drive - on eBay

http://forum.notebookreview.com/com...rite-ebay-listing-no-reserve.html#post6882466

 

Thanks for sharing. Good tip that. Seems to be working pretty well so far.

Thanks dlai for posting it eariler too.

 

Cant get it on new egg since i don't live in the states

i dont stay in de states, and the ebay listing seems to be in? not english? i cant understand the writing there

 

Thanks for mentioning. Here's the link on Ebay.com in English.
Samsung SSD 256GB 470 MZ5PA256HMDR - Solid State Drive - eBay (item 180587031819 end time Nov-18-10 07:49:57 PST)