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

For the money, yes.

No. OCZ and the Sandforce controllers they use for their SSDs are bad news.

 

As saturnotaku said, yes to the M4, a VERY good drive overall.

Avoid OCZ and Sandforce drives, they are garbage (hate to offend people with them, but they are) that break a lot and should not have been pushed out to market without proper testing (there are still a lot of problems with them that neither OCZ or Sandforce seem to want to acknowledge, much less fix).

 

does anyone know that how the power comsumption of the M4?

i read some articles that saying M4 with 0009 firmware get a bit up of performance but raising the power consumption significantly... is this worrying for laptop system?

 

/10 char.\

 

0.15 working and 0.065/0.085 on idle. This is for old firmware.
For example OCZ has 1.5W and 2.7W

 

interesting... is this with LPM on?

if i'm not mistaken, the 009 firmware disable LPM to bring more of the ssd capabilities

 

Sorry, don't know. It is what specsheet says. BTW I edited my previous post. Check it.

 

i see that i didn't need to worry about battery life than... it is much lower than mechanical drives that i use now

 

No, 0002 and 0009 did not disable LPM, you do that through Windows. The firmware, to my knowledge, implemented some changes allowing it to work WITH LPM. My system has LPM on with FW 0002 and now 0009.

 

people, we got a problem. how can we compare and ego-out on our boottimes anymore in the future????!!?!?!?



How fast does Windows 8 Boot ? - YouTube

 

well it uses ssd... so it is not that surprising...

 

sure. but we can't get even faster ssds for even faster boottimes, that was my point

 

well, i think that's the windows 8 features... damn... i just bought windows 7 though for my PC

 

I was thinking about switching to MAC, but seeing that...

Now, that's what I call: computer is computing...

wow, indeed...

 

After a year of enjoying SSD goodness with my Kingston V+ 64GB I'm looking for a bit more space (and potentially speed). So the Crucial M4 128GB is tempting me, is that a worthwhile purchase for SATA II laptop? Also how easy are the firmware upgrades using a notebook?

Cheers.

 

Sure it will be nice and speedy, though being not too familiar with the V+ I can't say if it will be much of a speed improvement, certainly not a very noticeable one. But the drive will run great, I highly recommend it. As for upgrading the firmware, piece of cake, I did mine twice on my laptop (came with FW 0001 and got well before 0009, you should just go straight to 0009). The process is easy, you burn a small ISO to a CD (or you can try using a USB if you feel adventurous), boot from the CD and it goes through drive detection. If it finds an eligible drive, you type yes at the prompt, and the flash takes a mere handful of seconds. You don't even have to switch out of AHCI mode to do it, and you don't lose your data (backup beforehand still recommended).

 

don't.. don't switch.. don't drink the cool aid (seriously, don't! there's no gain, just costs money... but if you want to talk about that, PM, not in here)

 

Thanks, the V+ is low end but solid. Crucial appear to have ironed out their issues and I'm aware their support is excellent so it's not too much of a jump. Firmware update sounds really easy, I'd probably do it right away on a clean drive.

As I would be going SSD to SSD what's the best free cloning software that can also adjust the partitions? I've been happily using Paragon Free Backup and Recovery for regular backups but I'm not sure it does a straight clone.

 

Thanks for the advice people. I went ahead and bought the M4, and should receive it on Monday.

Other than flashing to the 009 firmware, are there any other things I should no, as a first time SSD user? I'm going to spend some time reading through the M4 thread.

 

Disable scheduled defragmentation if windows doesn't do it;
Try to not fill it more than 75 ~ 80% of it's capacity;
Enjoy the speed of your beast !

 

You can also try out SSD Tweaker, it'll optimize your SSD to work with the OS. Easy as pie to use: click auto adjust and reboot your PC In the paid version you've got some settings to play with, though...

 

I would not recommend any of these auto 'tweaks'. I don't even click Intel's one even though I know it is only limited to very few things.

Other than disable(or lengthen the interval) of scheduled defrag(even that is not such a big deal), nothing needs to be done.

 

This is pretty much all you need to know, aside from don't run benchmarks over and over and over and over...

Enjoy it. Definitely recommend FW 0009.

 

Apparently Intel is bragging that they will have the fastest SSD by the end of the year.... hope is not a sanforce based ssd, although by the sizes seems like it.

Intel Discloses Cherryville & Hawley Creek SSDs: Intel's Fastest SSD in Q4

 

I would doubt Intel would be stupid enough to start using Sandforce. My guess would be either a new in-house controller or a Marvell. I'd lean towards the new in-house one, I seem to recall that they were working on one for the 510 before deciding to use the Marvell.

 

I tend to agree with matt on this one; most likely a new in-house controller.

Time will tell though...

Countdown started; clock is ticking...

 

I would love Intel to bring a new (Intel 'proven') controller to the table, but I would not write them off immediately if they choose to use a SF based controller (with their firmware, of course...).

This is what I would expect to see in such an Intel based SF SSD (for me to consider it):

1) Intel, in-house Firmware supported by Intel SSD Toolbox.
2) No DuraCRAP enabled - at all.
3) High Quality Synchronous nand (not asynchronous nand chips used).
4) Most current 'tech' nand used and at the biggest (nm) production possible today (while keeping costs as low as possible and using the latest 'tech' nand).


If Intel can give us the above, then I may just have to start recommending SF controllers...

 

Where these the drives that where listed as 120GB/240GB/480GB?

If so, it's very likely a Sandforce based product.

 

i'm glad that, now that i'm on win8 (for testing), i had to realize there is zero need in a sata3 ssd anymore. nice to have? yes. important? not at all. my first gen intel ssd delivers a system that is always instant, always snappy, there's zero need to upgrade to high-end ssds.

this of course is not true for those that need the high-bandwith performance of ssds. but most don't, they want the snappiness of it. and on win8, any ssd is good enough to have a perfectly fast system.

as it seems, that samsung core i5 tablet with 64gb ssd integrated will be my next system. ssds will get commonplace in that generation of devices. i'm glad i was on that race long before it got common, but i'm glad, too, to see it getting a commodity.

 

Looks like Asus is the first big manufacturer to use Sandforce based SSDs in their laptops.

Hands-on: vijf Intel Ultrabooks | ASUS UX31 | Hardware.Info Nederland (dutch language)

 

Samsung 830 Review up:

See:
AnandTech - The Samsung SSD 830 Review


They're testing the 512GB SSD - lower capacity models will (might?) have lower performance than reported in the link above.


Having just finished reading this review - I'm sticking with Intel 510 (250GB) Series for now.

 

Seems a decent ssd, not what i was expecting with the record on the 470s, but atm i think the M4 with fw0009 are the best balance. Keeping my eyes for the new intels 520s, but for now the M4 256gb should hold me fine.

 

New Techreport SSD review: SSDs in the sweet spot: Modern contenders at 120-128GB - The Tech Report - Page 1

 

that conclusion is interesting and needless to say, this site is on my 'no need to waste my time in the future' list.

 

I agree, I ignore their conclusions. Some of the benchmarks are interesting though. And nice to see some good power consumption comparisons.

 

Interesting to see how well the Samsung 830 does real world compared to Intel 510 and Vertex 3 Maxiops.
Samsung 830 Series 256GB SSD Launch Review - HD Video Read / Write

 

Interesting, but I must be missing something...


Here, they say they install Win7 64bits IN LESS THAN 5 MINUTES (±280 seconds) on 1 SSD (be it the Vertex, the Intel or the Samsung) ???

Again, unless I'm missing something, that can't be: it takes me about 30 minutes to install it onto 2 Intel X25-M in RAID0;
even on SATA III, how can they ever be able to install it IN LESS THAN 5 MINUTES ??? (This is more than 6 times faster Pal)

HELLO ???


Either THEY, or I, smoke very good stuff here...

And if it's them, I want some !!!

Don't get it...

 

eYe-I-aïe, the difference is probably in the source they use.

If i install from USB I think it takes less than 10 minutes.

 

Hmmm interesting how did you get so much rep?
I confirm what Phil said and I can add that if you use 1 SSD to install Windows on another (it is possible) then I don't see why wouldn't it take 5 minutes. Also there are USB 3.0 USB flash drives. And even fast USB 2.0 are fine for installing it in 15 minutes I think

 

I can install Win7x64 Ultimate in around 6 minutes from an 'older' USB2.0 drive (Patriot RAGE 8GB). This is on an Intel 510 250GB SSD. On a HDD (Scorpio Black 750GB) it still only takes around 8-9 minutes.

You must be installing from DVD!

As far as I know, there is no way to install from USB3.0 drives yet? (They need the drivers loaded first...).

 

Drivers? Are you sure? Well in any scenario you can make an emulated CD-Rom on USB flash drive so at least Windows XP can be installed
Still I am not sure about drivers. Is this trusted information?

 

Yeah, drivers/BIOS/UEFI support (call it what you want...).


One example:

See:
NEC USB3.0 not bootable? - Hardware Canucks

 

I would be an idiot expecting NEC USB 3.0 port work because even Windows itself doesn't have default drivers for it.
But it doesn't mean that USB flash drive itself needs drivers. It can still work faster than usual USB 2.0 drives even in USB 2.0 port. It depends on manufacturer of course.
Anyway as I said you can use SATA port to install from 1 HDD/SSD to another one. HDD can give up to 100MB/sec or even more while installing. However I don't expect reading little files with such fast speed.

 

Thanks Phil.
Nice from you.

I dunno James, I realize I am totally noob when it comes to installing windows;
not that I did not install it at least 2743 times (all versions since 3.11) in all my
life, but for a reason I can't explain, never had the idea of copying my Alienware
DVD (that's right tiller ) onto a fast USB key or a USB'd HDD and install from there;
guess I could obviously install it in less than 5 minutes too then...

Thing is it would have been nice if they would have specified the source though...

But hey, thanks guys, as as I said, unless I'm missing something...
.

 

eYe-I-aïe,

I'm not sure if this is what you're asking for, but this is how I installed Win7x64 Ultimate onto a USB drive:

See:
Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool


Download your version of Win7 here:

See:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/win...-7-download-links-just-like-vista-before.html


As long as you have a drive that is 4GB or larger then almost any USB stick will be a lot faster than installing your O/S from DVD.


Combine this with one of the files in these links (only for Windows 7 Ultimate):

See:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/7900907-post25.html

See:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/7945521-post41.html


And you could also move the Users folder to another drive easily and safely too (if you wanted to - or, if you were installing a small SSD with a larger HDD in a single system).

Hope this helps.

 

I have VERY QUICK QUESTION and need an answer immediately!

I have 2 same SSDs. How to clone all from 1 to another?
I am thinking to use Acronis home director but will it clone everything on totally unallocated SSD?

Or else?

And will it be Aligned?

 

Clone Full Disk Automatic option in Acronis will keep alignement in order.

 

Thank you. Suppose my SSD will be bootable using this? Is it Home editor?

 

Sure. Home edition does the trick yes.

 

I just moved my W7 on x25m(80G) to m4(128G) using windows backup/ restore feature, quick and easy.