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

BlackFriday offer?
(Not sure how exactly that works, I'm not from the US)

 

IntelUser,

Sorry, but that's what newegg does when they're sold out.

Edit: but I do see the $639 160GB G2 (not worth it IMO).

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820167024

 

Yea. I think the 160GB may not be on sale. If it was it should be in the low-500s at most.

I read it sold out in 30 mins!

 

Actually, it is - that price is with $50 off.

 

I think Amazon used to offer it for 480 or so $ - but they were sold out... I got mine in Germany anyway though... (cheaper than the UK)

 

doesn't change three things: it gets more and more hard to find free space on the disk, reducing performance. distances between valid data get bigger the more full it is, increasing average latency. and the ending parts of the disk are slower, there, where data gets written to last. => even when defragmented, you feel it. well, at least i did with my hdds. when ever i filled them to nearly 100% (for a system disk), it could even result in the stutterings and freezes so "wellknown" from ssds.

 

davepermen,


yes, as my testing showed on the Torqx SSD I tried, defragging made it slightly slower/worse - even when trying the Tony Trim method it made no improvement to the SSD.

On a mechanical HD, of course the more filled the slower they are, but the stutterings and freezes is what PerfectDisk 'cures'. It does this by not only defragmenting files, but also defragmenting free space (especially if you check the 'aggressive' option in the preferences for each drive). This saves the O/S from having the HD jump around and locate clusters to save a new file to.

The most obvious example to me was a 5 year old XP Pro system that the owner wanted to junk; 20 to 25 min boot times, IE load taking over 10 minutes, etc., - he installed PD demo and it was defragging for 36 Hrs! When it was done? Well, lets just say he's still using it 3 years later (and, he bought PD too).

Boot times went to 1 or 2 minutes, IE 20 secs or so (set to google as a home page!), still an 'unusable' system for most of us here, but for a working system that was resurrected so dramatically, its still impressive even today. Yes, PD10 is installed on all my systems.

 

perfect disk didn't "cure" it for me sometimes you overrate that piece of software (i hate it with passion after i praised it myself for years, not realising how much of a burden it packs on myself.. it's like smoking. yes, at first, it relaxes. but then you quickly get more agressive and need regular relaxation-pushes..)

but anyways, i don't care about defragmentation programs at all anymore anyways who should by today?

 

davepermen,

lol... you know, PD does offer a 'set and forget' scheduler, right?

Oh! And not overrated if it does what it says?

But, you're right, I too will probably never buy the next version - as soon as I'm on an all SSD trip like you.

 

well, overrated as, using it for years it started to actually lead to more performance losses than gains. i know the scheduler, of course, didn't help.

i now fully stand behind defraggler for any defragmentation needs. i personally don't have any anymore, yes, but others do that + ccleaner == ultra power tools. fast to download, simple to install, and free to use. perfect. and, doing their job well, too!!

 

davepermen,

I downloaded defraggler and yes, I too use/depend on CCleaner.

I'm surprised that it has many of the benefits of PD with even a couple of features I've always wanted in PD.

Benefits: free space consolidation, uses the MS API's to move/rearrange files and of course, free, free free!

The only 'downside' that I see is that it doesn't optimize the location of files, nor does it do an offline defrag? (Offline files moved/optimized by PD10: pagefile.sys, hibernation and MFT files).

Next time I do a re-install I will certainly test this free software (my system is already 'optimized', but I can see defraggler works very, very fast) against PD and if its interesting enough, I'll post my results on this forum.

 

windows by now does optimisation of location of files, and imho better than the harm pd did.

offline defrag isn't really needed much anymore. as said, most of pd is placebo style anyways


oh, and btw, there is no other way on NT systems to access the hard disk except trough MS APIs. obviously, there is, if you write some own low level disk driver, and an own reader for ntfs, and all that. but that api is, outside of that hack-around-work which would be hell of a lot of work, the only way to defragment. and it's made for exactly that purpose

 

Hmmm... now you got me thinking?

Although HD access and seeking noise does go down when I've installed/run PD, I too thought it felt slightly slower?

Guess I'll have to test this for sure when the 7K500 comes in next week!

 

Well I just tested out the new Intel Rapid drivers and they look quite fine. I didn't expect to have over 100 MB/s seq. write with 2CV102G9 firmware.



BEFORE:


AFTER:

 

Metsn,

Wow! Quite a before after difference, huh?

I guess 'fine' is an understatement for these drivers with a G2 Intel.

Do you actually notice it in real world use? Or, is the G2 so freaking fast that an 11+ times write performance increase in the 4K write scores don't translate into anything tangible?

 

what you feel is what is important in the end.. (that's why i love the intel )

 

The second one. I'm on fresh tweaked system with good overall specs, so it was already fast enough. I would lie, if I would say it makes some difference I'm sure about...but it "feels" better and e.g. the PS start-up "seems" to be faster Will have to test it for a bit longer time to know more...


edit: I should also mention that I was on stock MS drivers before....

 

Wow....

(Future Intel G2 user walking around in a daze, dreaming about all this speed, this power, why, I... I could take over the world with it! :yes: :laugh:

 

The software made your random writes go up 10X?!!!

 

Yeah, intel G2...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8TBmeK9Abg

 

11,3282X But wasn't 4MB/s 4K write relatively bad for this drive?

 

Metsn,

Actually, no single SSD can touch the Intel's 4K write speeds - 'M' G1 or G2 versions, actually G2 even beats the Intel SLC 'E' series.

 

Well when I saw this guy's post, I didn't feel that excited about my results. But it's true I would never go for a OCZ drive. While upgrading from Vista to 7, I also upgraded from Samsung 1G 128GB MLC drive to this Intel one. It makes some difference

 

Why won't that magic thing install on my laptop!!??
Do i need to remove the NVIDIA driver before installing that one?

 

intel is good, but its not big enough for my demand.
I have 420G+ raw file photos and HD video.

 

Thatoe, no, you need an intel chipset.

 

damn.
it won't work witih M17x then.


I demand a new firmware which "must" increase my write speed to 150 right now!

 

This just goes to show what a difference the specific system its in makes.

In my clients AMD Opteron desktop, the Intel G2 performs just 'ok'. There is no way to install the IMSM or the new IRST drivers on his system so, to me the Intel is wasted in that particular system (though he does see a big difference compared to his mech HD, I am not impressed, overall).

 

This is why SSDs are not good for storage - I think I can add all my photographs up to +250GB with duplication...

The question is really, do you need them on your laptop all the time?

I'm sure most of all people here don't.
You have on your laptop what you work on - if you need to show something you can bring an external 2,5" HDD along.

 

Well the Samsung drive was quite good as well. I still feel like I had slightly better battery life with that one, but maybe it's just Win7 fault. I just felt that with the install of new system, it would be nice to use fresh new drive as well. And hopefully TRIM soon. I had to wait for the whole month for the damn thing to arrive ,)

Exactly, I'm using my external 2TB WD HDD for all my photos, videos and music. The work I need to actually carry around all the time takes just a bit of space...

 

Where Is My Trim?

 

Thatoe, what chipset do you have?

 

Well pls correct me, if I'm wrong, but I believe that ironically Intel drivers don't support Trim yet.

 

Metsn, the 'G2' people that applied the firmware without any problem before Intel pulled it do have TRIM on Win 7, but yeah, most don't.

Max420, did you install the Intel Rapid Storage Technology drivers (searched quickly but didn't find any reference to if you did or not)?

Even though you don't have an Intel, you too should see some difference on your SSD (if I notice it on a regular, mech. HD).

 

That is apparently correct, from what this guys says http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/showpost.php?p=445126&postcount=45

I'm going to wait for intel to actually release a proper working version. My SSD is fast as it is and I definitely do now want to lose my TRIM support.

 

Well, new drives can also contain updated firmware...

But Trim for Vista and XP was part of the toolbox that was "pulled"

 

heh cool track have to get it, i always knew the groove of it, heard it sometimes in sets at parties. now i can integrate it into my own gig yay

 

Sorry, but its obvious that that guy and his friend don't know anything!

Besides, they were discussing a beta release over a month ago.

 

Must also incorporate Bittersweet Symphony by The Verve into your gigs.

 

I didn't mean the Trim support by fw of SSD, but by the AHCI driver. It seems that the Intel AHCI driver doesn't support Trim yet (as opposite to the MS stock one), but I believe (hope) that with the fw update from Intel, we'll hear about new Intel RD as well...

edit: so you're saying that people with 02HA fw and the Intel AHCI driver have the Trim support? That would be good news

 

LOL.
Still... I would rather wait and download drivers directly from intel.
I'd rather not mess around with untested drivers that "apparently" are from intel.

 

yeah, i should do that i will sure post a live stream link when i'm playing next time, from all the suggestions

currently trying to remaster (a.k.a. loudness war killing) that "i feel love" track

and the veils - leavers dance.. my most favourite track of all times (and it's non-electronic!! still my most favourite one)

i should call one track ssd, and make it REAAALLY fast

 

Okay, would you trust an Intel driver from Biostar?

http://download.biostar.com.tw/upload/Driver/Chipset/Intel/SATA/Utility/ICH7_10/iata_cd.exe

 

Metsn,

Here is my understanding on TRIM:

First, the drive needs TRIM enabled firmware.

Second, the O/S needs to send the TRIM command with every file deletion/move command executed.

Third, the storage driver needs to pass the commands the O/S sends to the drive.

Currently, it seems like the IRST drivers and the default MS O/S supplied drivers are the only ones that allow O/S initiated TRIM commands to be passed through to the SSD installed.

If any of these are not in place, TRIM does not happen.

In that case, Intel offers the SSD Toolbox to enable a manual or scheduled TRIM to be passed to any firmware capable SSD (just Intel SSD's?).

However, as has been seen by davepermen on his Mtron SSD, myself on my Scorpio Blue notebook system and my Vista VRaptor/Raptor desktop and a few others, the Intel Rapid Storage Technology drivers offer significant improvements even if we don't currently use an SSD (Intel or otherwise).

Just quickly repeating that I have always installed the IMSM by 'default' and now the IRST drivers will be my new standard' as they are what Intel is going to be using, going forward.

So yes, the lucky ones with the new firmware (G2's) and this driver are enjoying TRIM with Win 7 (and/or the SSD Toolbox on other O/S's 'manually').

 

i was just yelling randomly at Samsung, asked them where the f**k teh firmware for TRIM.

 

u called them?

 

I was set to get a Dell but after I did my research I became concerned with the lack of TRIM in the Dell/Samsung SSD. Now I'm leaning towards an Asus or Sager with an Intel SSD.

 

Do you guys think that the new IRST driver has some Flashfire (formerly called Flashpoint) type of buffer technology baked into it? In other words, turning small random writes into larger sequential writes? This would explain the increase in small random write performance...although the higher sequential write performance is still a mystery...

 

The Samsung SSD's Dell sells are afaik shipping with VDM19D1Q which has background GC. I would still get an Intel drive right now unless the 256gb Samsungs Dell has were priced right. They were $400 for 256gb at one time not sure what they are getting now.

 

DeweyJuice,

why not just get a mech HD with your Dell notebook and get the Intel yourself?

Jackboot,

yeah, I remember reading something about 'steadystate'? doing the same type of thing in XP, but also, how would that explain the mechanical HD improvements I'm seeing?

I just think that when Intel decides that a driver is 'done' as in fully baked, then they go in a do a super optimization to all parts that they know they won't change, in addition to adding the new 'special sauce' for the continually evolving new stuff. (Maybe they rewrite it in assembly, for speed)?

This view is further supported by their seemingly stopping development of the IMSM 8.9 drivers in July of this year and suddenly, we have IRST 9.5!