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

I've been wondering that myself. Their devices were pretty popular, and like Samsung, they had vertical integration. Now Samsung is the only one that does (and OCZ's pseudo-semi-sorta, what, diagonal integration?)

 

OCZ's I would call squiggly integration It's all over the map! I have hopes that the Indilinx will prove out as a good controller, but my experiences with OCZ's CS left a bad taste...

Intel went away from their own controllers last year with the 510 launch, and I have to agree it was a disappointment. The original thoughts were they just used the Marvell for the 510 to get a SATA 3 drive on the market while their in-house one was delayed. That appears to no longer be the case with their move to Sandforce...

 

Well, I know OCZ's ultimate intent is to have Indilinx design controllers, guess that's the next step after writing firmware for Marvell (Everest) and then customizing Marvell silicon (Everest 2). They've got their own branded NAND now....but there's this tiny little matter of not having their own fab.

Then again, they are one of the big 4 when it comes to SSDs. And I've got to say this Vertex 4 is great. They should be OK so long as they stay clear of SandForce.

I still keep hoping Intel will go back to their own controllers. They made nice drives. Samsung never impressed me much, and the Crucial is getting long in the tooth, but SandForce is really scary: I'd never trust those in the machines I support, even if it does have an Intel label on it.

 

Hi, I installed Samsung 830 256gb ssd to my laptop today.
After fresh installing windows, I tried a quick crystaldiskmark run and my random speeds seem off.
The bios is set to AHCI.
Please take a look and see if these speeds are acceptable.

 

Funny what a difference 2 weeks make. The 256gb M4 was $180 on Buy.com earlier today lol. I look forward to what the next 2 weeks will bring

 

I'm not sure if this is a late reaction to the floods, or if it's a reaction to HDD availability recovering, but I love how prices are being driven down to where ordinary mortals can get a reasonably sized one with their PCs.

 

Anybody got the Kingston HyperX 3K 120GB benchmark?

 

Hello, I'm about to buy a laptop. I have one question about which ssd I should get. I can choose among these three:

Intel 330 Series 120 GB SSD
Intel 520 Series 120 GB SSD
Plextor M3 Pro 128 GB SSD

I will have my OS installed on it aswell as some games. I will use a 750gb 7200rpm for storage of other files.

Which one should I choose? Which one is the best for me? I don't care how much they are, I just want the best.

Thanks

 

Of those three I'd pick the Plextor. But I'd normally not pick any of the three, I'd go either Crucal M4, or OCZ Vertex 4. The Crucial is older but cheaper and isn't all that much slower.

 

Woulndt rule out a Samsung 830 either....

 

I suppose if price is no object, maybe, but the Sammys are one of the most expensive consumer SSDs around (so much for vertical integration allowing them to offer better pricing). And most SSDs that cost less than the Sammys perform better in one test or another (I pay particular attention to random read/write tests).

 

Thanks for your answer. Why would you choose the plextor out of those three? And why wouldn't you choose any of them, if there were others available?

 

The Plextor uses a Marvell Controller, which is a proven stable controller. The Intel 330 and 520 use Sandforce controllers, and despite Intel's best efforts, there are still a fair number of BSOD issues floating out there with that controller.

Most people these days are liking the Samsung 830. It seems to be a very good drive, both from performance and reliability standpoints. The Crucial M4 is still a great drive as well, even if a year old, and that Plextor M3 is actually very similar to it. (same controller, just slightly different firmware). The only Intel drive I'd look at is the 510 (not to be confused with the 520 mentioned earlier). That too uses the proven Marvell Controller. It remains to be seem how the OCZ Vertex 4 turns out with the Indilinx controller, while OCZ is at least not using Sandforce, their customer support in handling issues with their previous drives was abysmal.

 

The Vertex 4 has also just got a firmware release which is supposed to have dramatic effects on performance - if figures are anything to go by, looks like a very fast drive....but looks like the firmware has a few kinks to be ironed out....

Vertex 4 firmware update inbound, doubles writes on 128GB model - TechSpot News

 

Keep in mind that that firmware is still in release candidate status though

 

New Plextool out for ssd's.

Plextor SSD

Plextor SSD

 

SanDisk Extreme 240GB CDM Random & 0 Fill Results..

 

This is from my Samsung SSD 830 256GB:

 

Is there a thread that has information for new SSD owners? Like an "everything you need to know" thread? Or how to set up an SSD?

 

I would recommend: The SSD Optimization Guide Redesigned - The SSD Review

But the best advice is:

Only point 1 from The SSD Optimization Guide:

Followed by tijo's advice:

And enjoy the speed of a SSD

 

If you run the WEI assessment while using an SSD, Windows 7 will automatically disable defragging and enable TRIM. Aside from running in AHCI mode, those are the only things I recommend doing.

 

TRIM should be enabled automatically on a single SSD - best to check that scheduled defragging is turned off...I know I have re-installed in the past and it has not been auto-disabled. Also, it can be beneficial to install a single SSD under Raid in bios - it will allow you to add another SSD in the future without having to perform a clean install - if you install a single SSD under AHCI, to change to raid, you would have to reinstall as the OS wont boot after the bios change from AHCI>RAID.....the only difference would be that you see the raid config "ctrl&I" message at boot for a split second....

 

Yeah, it's best to check, it's always been disabled for me, but it didn't go that way for everyone.

 

I have ordered the computer in my sig without an optical drive and a hard drive caddy installed in the optical bay. The plan is to purchase an SSD when I get it and install it in the SATA3 bay and move the 750GB normal HD to the optical bay. Then use an external DVD drive to install the OS onto the SSD. Do you guys think that this will be feasible/ fairly easy to accomplish.

One more thing. I plan to get the Samsung 830 here BuyDig.com - Samsung 830-Series MZ-7PC128B/WW 128GB 2.5" SATA III MLC Internal SSD Single Unit Versn

Do I need the laptop version for the drive spacer here http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005T3GQM4/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&seller=

Any other tip/tricks for a new SSD user would be greatly appreciated.

 

I"ll be ordering ~256Gb worth of SSD space for my laptop when I buy it. Should I buy 2 128Gb Samsung 830s and install them in RAID 0 or one 256Gb? Would the raid be noticeably faster? I thought I asked this question in a different thread but I can't for the life of me find the post.

 

you would only notice in benchmark not real world usage

 

Dont do RAID 0 with SSD's.

Not a real world noticeable difference.
Reduced reliability as your data is striped over the drives so if 1 drive fails you loose all of your data. Double the drives used means double the chances of failure.
Loss of TRIM support means you rely on drive to do garbage collection which is not as resilient and can make your drives take longer to recover from reduced performance due to usage.

If anything I would recommend RAID 1 with SSD's. This way if you get a SSD failure you still have a copy of your data on another drive and much less of a chance of total data loss.

 

RAID 1 with SSD's is absolutely pointless, its just a waste of a valuable SSD - if people are too lazy to make regular backups of important data then I say more fool them if a drive fails.

Even if you have a single SSD, lightening can strike and then you are FUBAR'd if you havent backed up.

RAID 0 may not be noticeably faster to the human eye but we are talking computers here and we cant see half the stuff that goes on or judge how fast its happening. Data can obviously be written and read faster, otherwise the benchmarks wouldnt indicate this.

 

If a tree falls in a forest, does it make a noise? Only when being benchmarked.

The point isn't whether it makes a noise or not, the point is whether it MATTERS. If a performance increase isn't noticeably faster except in benchmarks, then who cares if the tree falls or not. Which makes RAID0 even more pointless than it always has been.

RAID1 on the other hand has a point: redundancy. Not "backup," redundancy. As in if SSD#1 fails, the system DOESN'T crash, and DOESN'T need to be restored from backup, because SSD#2 is still working, and when you replace SSD#1 the system still stays up. If what one needs is a system that stays up despite a HDD failure, then RAID1 or RAID5 is wonderful. If all one is looking for is a "backup" then there's much cheaper and more effective ways than RAID.

Real RAID (as in non-zero) is not about "backups." It's about redundancy and uptime. Which is why one shouldn't do real RAID without hot swap capability, by the way.

 

Point taken. Although I doubt that Raid1 is that useful to the majority of SSD owners as it really only appeals to those who absolutely MUST have data loss prevention at ALL times and need to be back up and running in no time at all (well, zero downtime to be exact) if drive failure occurs.

The majority of users do not need such drastic data loss prevention methods and from that point of view, having a Raid1 setup with two SSD's mirroring each other is simply money down the toilet.

 

For anyone interested, the Crucial M4 512gb is only 399 on amazon and tigerdirect right now. That's a ridiculous price for a good quality 512gb ssd.

http://www.amazon.com/Crucial-2-5-I...JL3Y/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1338683282&sr=8-1

Crucial CT512M4SSD2 m4 2.5 Solid State Drive - 512GB, SATA 6Gb/s at TigerDirect.com

 

AnandTech - Toshiba Announces THNSNF Series SSDs: 19nm NAND Is Here



7/9.5mm: 64GB, 128GB, 256GB, 512GB
mSATA: 64GB, 128GB, 256GB

Read: 524MB/s
Write: 461MB/s (440MB/s for 64GB)
4K Random Read: 80K IOPS (50K IOPS for 64GB)
4K Random Write: 35K IOPS (25K IOPS for 64GB)

 

Anyone have experience with the Plextor M3 Series (Marvel controllers)? Newegg has a rebate bringing the 256GB model down to $199. Newegg has 36 reviews averaging 5 eggs. I see it has a 5yr warranty, but the Crucial M4 has been even lower (though I don't think is anywhere right at this moment) and the Samsung is certainly going to hit $200 very soon.

Thoughts? I've never even heard of Plextor.

EDIT: Amazon currently has the M4 at $199, plus I have a $10 gift card and am on my 1-month trial of Amazon Prime. Hmmm. Still, I'd rather have better drive and be patient. Is the Plextor better? Also, all the cool kids have the Samsung 830, is Samsung worth the extra money (best deals on Samsung have been $220 recently, but not right now).

 

I've tried searching but for some reason the site is giving me a "invalid_search_query" error.

I was wondering about video streaming and how it caches to the SSD. I use Veetle a lot, as well as Netflix, for a few hours a day and it usually streams at 1200 kbps (for Veetle). I've moved my cache for chrome to a 1.5GB ramdisk via this command --disk-cache-dir="E:\BrowserCache" in the chrome shortcut. There's also a special plugin that I installed to view the Veetle streams in HD (I'm pretty sure it's just used to make me act as a sort of repeater and reupload the stream I'm watching to decrease the load on their servers). I'm not sure how the plugin handles the cache though.

Basically is there anything else I need to do to make sure the streaming is not being cached to my SSD? I have a crucial C300 256GB.

Thanks

 

The Plextor is quite good and originally made CDRW drives.

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plextor

Some Plextor SSD reviews: AnandTech - The Plextor M3 (256GB) Review
Plextor M3 256GB SATA 6Gb/s Review - Another Win for The Marvell 9174 Controller - The SSD Review
Plextor M3P 256GB SATA 3 SSD Review - Absolutely Marvell-ous Performance - The SSD Review

So it looks like a great drive if the price is right.

 

I just got the Plextor M3 128gb, warranty, Toshiba nand and not a sandforce controller is what got my to buy it.

I had a Vertex 2 two years ago which died on me after 30 days, so trying this SSD thing again. My laptop is showing its age though so this will hold me over a bit longer.

It has the ICH8M-E/M Chipset which is decent for its age, can only use 10.1.0.1008 RST Drivers, I can mod the newer ones to work, but Ill see after I install the SSD.

 

Anyone know when Micron/Crucial will start offering its mSATA drives to retail buyers? Looks like in April they started offering to OEMs (see Micron Announces mSATA Solid-State Drive for Ultrathin Laptops (NASDAQ:MU)) and said that they will start offering retail during the same calendar quarter but I haven't see anything yet (I suppose we have until the end of the month =)

 

Alright, I have a few questions about SSDs. I'm thinking of putting two hard drives in my soon-to-be-purchased laptop. I was thinking a 128GB Crucial M4 SATAIII SSD and a 750GB 7200RPM HDD. Other than the OS and program files, what should I put on the SSD to utilize it to its fullest potential? I was planning to do some gaming, so would I put my games program files on there too? What else? I know a while back I read about SSDs, and it said something along the lines of "Don't use the SSD as normal storage. They have a limited number of writes, and if you're copying and moving files to and fro all day, your drive won't last very long." Is this still true? What should I know that I might not already?

 

I +1 this as i would like to know all those things plus what do yall think of the Samsung 830 256GB and the Corsair Force Series GT 240GB for a M17x R4

 

I just got my Crucial M4 256GB installed last night. I cloned my HDD to my SSD using Acronis. My laptop is SATA II, so I don't really know what to make of this.



Is that what you would expect with SATA II?

The only thing I did was to confirm that AHCI was enabled in BIOS (or whatever). Is there anything else I should do? It seems to be running well. I especially love the speed with which AutoCAD loads and opens drawings.

 

Looks pretty close to the numbers i was getting when plugged my m4 into a sata II port

Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk 2

 

Yeah, pretty much.

I just posted this, which was quite tedious to debunk/confirm/validate. There may be some tidbits in there for you.

 

below is my benchmark score of my new Crucial M4 256GB installed on a SATA III-enabled laptop.


is this an acceptable performance?

 

Looks just fine, to me. How does it 'Feel'?

 

fast but i'm coming from a regular HDD.

 

Now, make a persistent RAM drive, move your page file and temp stuff over to that, and see what it feels like.

 

waiting for new laptop(p150em) and crucial arrival. what is the first thing i need to do to install os into new SSD?

 

^^

Verify it for the most recent firmware and update if needed.

 

but before that,i would need to install OS first and set the BIOS to ACHI or the other way round?

 

^^

Read the label on the SSD. On the Crucial SSDs, the firmware version is printed just above the barcode that indicates 'P/N' (part number). Left side of the label, about half way down.

Do that before installing anything.