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

I normally use Avast but i got an old Samsung Q1 Tablet, it only has an single 800mhz cpu core and Avast is just too much, even though i have used nothing but Avast for years on my main computer and i dont even know it is running the cpu usage is so low, but on this old tablet, I will give Avira a go.

John.

 

When I install Avira, I install it without the Mail Shielf or the Web Shield.

I have an adblocker (ABP) and all I care about is a strong good file scanner which Avira is. This way, it has the least performance impact and doesn't make my internet crawl.

Mail Shield is problematic with SSL scanning so I turn that off anyway. If an email contains a virus and you downloaded it, the file shield will catch it anyway so no risk there.

 

I only use Windows Defender, and it's enough for me (I know what I'm doing and where I'm going). 100% compatible with the system.
1) I tried Avira and Avast on my old computer (Win 7 Ultimate), but they seem to have somewhat impact on the system (not much, but I noticed, especially when accessing external drive).
2) On my current laptop (Win 10 Pro), I tried Bit Defender AV Plus twice (2013 - 2014), and it "throttled" my internet connection. I contacted their customer service, but they couldn't see the reason. Uninstalling the program, my connection speed is back to normal. I even tried re-installing Windows, but it didn't help either.
Since then, I only use Windows Defender. It runs in default mode as Windows was installed. No need to tweak anything.

Is there a sticky thread showing things-to-do-with-an-SSD like disabling hibernation, error reporting,...?

 

I use my old Samsung Q1 and it is so low powered, I just installed the free MSE (Microsoft Security Essentials) it`s maybe slightly better than Windows Defender, But Avast and Avira are just to cpu heavy for my little single core 800mhz cpu.

John.

 

Agreed.

As usual; doesn't matter what the 'scores' say in someone's synthetic testing (any kind of testing). Real world results can only be determined by real world results.

I maintain that Defender/MSE is the best fit for Windows. Assuming the user isn't blindly clicking/browsing/downloading and running everything that the 'net offers to them, of course.

 

@tilleroftheearth even with ad-block, a misclick - which is especially easy to make when using a tablet - can lead to drastic consequences without real antivirus. Potential harm of such event outweights all pros of Defender/MSE, so it is better to get rid of them and let a proper app do the job. I personally use Avast Free. It has its downsides, mostly being overprotective and sometimes offering some crap - but it does the job, without slowing most modern systems to any noticeable extent.

 

We can agree to disagree about this.

A 'misclick' is a sign of a trigger happy mouse finger. Hasn't happened to me yet (with regards to a virus...).

 

240GB PNY CS1311 sata 3 SSD in a Dell Precision M7510.

 

Yeah, a Skylake i7 6820HQ with 32GB DDR4 RAM will drive any SSD nicely, brand new, out of the box.

Are you a teacher? I see you're running the Education version of Win10.

 

I am taking some college courses and as students we get free software from Microsoft and the Education version is the only W10 version we can get. I ordered my new Dell with Ubuntu Linux instead of Windows because it knocks $100 off the price.

 

Was there any cost savings going with Win7 (and then upgrading for free yourself)?

Save $100 and be forced to use Ubuntu is like getting forced to use the fruity company's 'os' for free.

 

@tilleroftheearth there's always OEM-preactivated "solution".

 

See:
http://www.windows10update.com/2016/05/windows-10-upgrades-will-cost-119-beginning-july-30/


That date should be July 29, 2016... July 30, 2016 and past will require $$$

 

Not sure how other manufacturers deal with it but Dell will install either W7 or W10 (whichever you prefer) and the price is the same. But lets say you already have a Windows license like I did, you tell Dell I don't want Windows so they install Ubuntu instead and take $100 off the price of the laptop because they don't have to pay Microsoft the Windows license fee.
Does it make sense now?

 

Sure, it makes more sense now (same price for Win7 or Win10).

But for myself, it is not worth the aggravation of having installed Ubuntu on my new SSD in a non-optimal way...

Can't you ask for no OS to be installed (and all the Dell garbage ware along with it)? Can't you order it with a HDD and install the SSD yourself (or, maybe that is what you did)?

In any case, it seems like you got the most you could for the least. Important points taken care of.

 

No, you can't order it without an operating system. And I ordered it with a regular HDD to save money since I already had an SSD. Simply took out the HDD that came out with it, put the SSD in and installed W10 in it. I'm willing to do a couple of extra steps when I can save $170

And no, Dell does not install any garbage on their business machines, Latitude or Precision models.

 

PNY CS1311 240GB Sata 3 SSD in a Dell Latitude E6440 laptop.

 

If power over performance is important, check the power draw of the M.2 SATA drives as well, since they run cooler I am assuming they must use less power under load, IDK about idle power draw, you need to check both - maybe a good idea to re-institute the power option to turn off drive after N minutes to stop idle draw.

 

If they give higher performance (even sparingly), they don't run cooler.

A SATAIII drive based on MLC spec's of the lowest performance you can buy today is what will give you the least power usage from the storage subsystem. But that is not (highest battery life and worst storage subsystem performance) what anyone I know wants in their notebooks (anymore). Even if it is an 'SSD'.

Race to idle works great for components other than CPU's.

And if you have a workload that will push the storage subsystem to extended periods, it will give you the most work 'done' for the same amount of battery life capacity - even if the system running at full tilt will only give you an hour or so...

Getting a few minutes more from the most power frugal (and lowest performance) SSD would give you less work 'done' and still end up with a dead battery with more work needing to be done...

 

He asked for a low power draw M.2 SSD, and I suggested trying an M.2 SATA drive in place of a PCIE M.2 SSD, as it should draw less power.

If he is interested in long battery life over performance, he won't really miss the PCIE throughput.

The PCIE performance is usually not perceptible in every day use - unless you are doing a large data transfer the actual time savings are in the fractions of a second for internet browsing, text file access, starting applications, interacting with applications. Most of the time spent on the computer.

The cost savings are noticeable. Cost vs. capacity, reduced heat, and minorly for me - the power savings, all keep me away from the PCIE M.2 drives, at least for mobile.

If the battery savings aren't enough, the cost savings are

Sandisk SD8SN8U-1T00-1122 X400 1TB M.2 2280 Solid State Drive
$229
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA65C3RM4403

SAMSUNG 950 PRO M.2 512GB PCI-Express 3.0 x4 Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MZ-V5P512BW
$317
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147467

I haven't been looking for a while, so there might be lower prices for both, but I couldn't find a 1TB PCIE M.2 drive available anywhere. So, PCIE M.2 limits per socket capacity to a 512GB maximum currently.

Even if you had 2 M.2 sockets to fit 2 x 512GB M.2 PCIE, the cost would be $634 vs $229 for the M.2 PCIE vs M.2 SATA 1TB solution.

That's great battery savings

 

I have a very very stupid question. If I put an SSD drive in USB enclosure, copy some stuff FROM it, then return it to some notebook - will it break its TRIM functionality of this drive, and I'll have to reformat drive completely to make it use TRIM again, or not? The drive had some files deleted from it right before power was cut and it was removed from notebook.

 

Anything but a stupid question, really. And no, not unless you delete (or cut/move) files from the drive on a non-TRIM platform (such as over USB). But even then that would only apply to sectors actually deleted, not the entire drive. Plus, once these specific pseudo-empty blocks are overwritten (more slowly) and deleted again on a trim-enabled-system then these too will be back to normal.

Thinking about this ... not sure what happens to a 'to-delete' block when there's hasn't been an idle moment for that to happen and the system reboots (or crashes); does it resume where it left off (ssd stores the command), does the os resend the trim command (how would the driver know it isn't actually empty already?) or nothing at all? More than likely it's the latter, so ... a complete wipe or defragment actually makes some sense, as that'd clean up these left-over, non-emptied blocks.

On a similar note; have 4 or 5 spare mSATAs (small-ish) which would be nicely repurposed in older, non-mSATA systems or as fast external storage / scratch disk use. Problem was finding a usb and/or dual ssd trim-capable adapter, but have a verified, working solution now;

1. mSATA SSD to M.2 NGFF Key B Adapter
2. Dual M.2 NGFF SATA Adapter
3. USB 3.1 (10Gbps) Adapter Cable for 2.5" SATA Drives

Thing is that this specific M.2 adapter supports UASP which, in turn, means it passes on TRIM as well. Same thing applies to the USB 3.1 adapter, so ... perfect ! Only hurdle now it to hack UASP into Windows 7, which is officially non-supported. Plus, though Intel 8 is ok, it needs to be 'licensed' (<- yuck). Asus has a 7 driver, though, so if it's indeed merely a 'motherboard id' thing then this should be easily solved.

For single mSATA to SATA it's a bit easier and cheaper; these no-controller, straight-pass-through thingies work fine with trim.

 

@t456 Thank you very much! Please tell me more about the adapter - what mode do you use, and is it possible to precisely overprovision each drive?

I had a similar Syba adapter based on JMS562, for dual mSATA drives, but couldn't make TRIM work in RAID0/RAID1/JBOD, and sold it - didn't even try SPAN mode, but since some SSD makers (Mushkin, OWC, etc.) produce drives with the very same controller and claim TRIM is working, I guess I should have just used SPAN like they do in their products.

Also, I tried adapter like on image in a B-type M.2 slot while powering the drive externally - and it wasn't recognized. Should I assume this slot doesn't have SATA wired (and pcie for that matter, since it's B-keyed), only USB, or it may be worth purchasing some dirty cheap m.2 b+m keyed drive to test?

 

ASM1092R and jbod. Though 0/1 might work, too, but haven't gotten around to testing that.

Have a dual mSATA JMS562 too; no trim, either. Hence the work-around with the M.2 adapter. Peculiarly, its 4k writes are much faster than the M.2 solution ... but that's n=1, so have to make certain that it's not something else interfering.

Well, at least it's not SATA, at least. That adapter would be transparent to the system, having no internal, identifiable components. So if the drive worked then it would've been visible (unless it was sleeping, non-spinning). Could still be pcie though, except x2 rather than x4, which would make it crimp the newer M.2 pcie drives. Still ... a fair bit faster than SATA III, so ... yes, why not. Barring a data sheet, that cheap ssd or something like an M.2 wifi card would give certainty.

 

@t456 in my system, in JBOD on JMS562 only single drive was visible when connected to SATA instead of USB, due to absence of port multiplier support by chipset. Do I get it right that JBOD won't work for both drives with ASM1092R either, connected to HM86 SATA connector?

 

Yes, it's the same with my mobile system. SPAN should work, but haven't tested that yet ... and not sure it's a good idea with ssds. With only a single drive visible to the system then we have, as you mentioned, a problem with op'ing; formatting 75% will make the first drive 100% in use and the secondary only 50%. So ... really, only raid 0 or 1 makes sense, as op'ing will then divide equally amongst the drives. And considering their expected lifespan (excepting faulty controllers ...), that leaves only stripe. Just to get the full storage size back, that is, speed being limited by SATA III or USB 3.1 anyway.

 

@t456 and TRIM doesn't work when you use the ASM1092R adapter internally in RAID0, does it? Didn't know OP'ing will divide equally in RAID0, by the way.

 

I just put a cheap SanDisk z400s 256gb in my Pavilion x360 and wanted to show the test results, for $63 usd I thought it was good bang for buck

 

I read windows 10 does this automatically when an SSD is installed? At least most of it if not all

 

I heard 7/8 were supposed to do that too, but I always double check, and have found tweaks not done... I would double check Windows 10 too

 

I did and turned them off, I want my ssd to last and it can speed boot up anyway

 

@DRFP no hibernation means no fastboot; system restore - YES indeed, no one needs it anyway; index search - you don't want to disable that, especially if you use insta-search software like Everything!; disable page file - YES, if you have enough memory - but this tweak has been around for years, and even more proficient on HDD or SSHD, improving system responsiveness greatly.

 

OP the SSD appropriately and 'endurance' isn't an issue for almost any workstation workflow you do.

System Restore is a non-feature since it's debut... disabled before I touch any system (I can feel it slowing it down just navigating the O/S).

No hibernation file needed because that is another useless feature. When a boot/reboot is mere seconds away, using GB's of (always) limited capacity is illogical and unnecessary too.

Index search, on the other hand, is a needed feature. Quite ridiculous to purposely gimp an O/S for an immeasurable (or at least, immaterial) lengthening of drive 'endurance'.

A Pagefile is something I have found useful again for 'snappiness'. On most systems 1024MB (fixed) is all that is needed to give a noticeable difference in responsiveness. On my hardest working systems I use up to 4096MB (fixed) for the smoothest multitasking workflows. And I can almost always tell when a system is running without a pagefile now (with Win10x64Pro). It feels like an SSD from 2010...

I also test the 'Turn off Windows write cache buffer' setting for each individual system I set up. A week of normal workflows with it 'On' (unchecked box) vs. a week of the same/similar workflows with it 'Off' (check box). Each SSD and system/platform seems to respond differently to this setting. Note that this is only done on platforms with their own battery (notebooks) and/or UPS's directly attached.

Disabling animations and 'effects' is also high on the list of what needs doing to make the system more responsive. Seeing those animations once (since 1995... ugh...) is enough for a lifetime.

P.S. Make sure you 'Save taskbar thumbnail previews' too.

 

OK Index searcher back on

 

What about sleep ( no hibernate) since its ram not HD should be ok?

 

@DRFP yes, it's OK. On my machines, in power options I set hibernate to never, but don't turn off hibernate on system level - it provides almost instant boot on newer machines.

 

But why? Does having the computer 'boot up' 10 seconds earlier justify a possible crash, loss of work, browser tabs, etc. vs. just booting up the system (clean) again?

How many times do you wake up a system from sleep during the day? None of my systems ever sleep; they are efficient enough to keep running when (I'm) idle (desktops...), or, are shut down right after use (notebooks).

Even if you wake up a system from sleep a half a dozen times in a day; it is probably better overall to keep it running instead. Assuming some minimum time of use during when it's 'on'.

 

@tilleroftheearth on my Fuji both sleep and fastboot work flawless; on Lenovo, there are fastboot problems seemingly caused by outdated WWAN, so fastboot and hibernation are disabled system-wide - but sleep works just fine. I do not see any point in hibernation, but sleep is really OK, no reason to avoid it. Our workflow and requirements are obviously different, though.

 

Hi guys, I need your advice .

I'm looking for SSD for my Samsung RF511-S04PL from 2011. Short specs: Intel Core i7 2630QM, 2x4 GB RAM DDR3, Intel HD Graphics 3000 & NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M, Western Digital WD5000BEVT (500 GB) and currently on Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) but I'm think a lot about update to Windows 10.

I need around 500-512 GB capacity. It will be my main drive (for system, software, photos, documents etc.) so I really care about durability and reliability. I have Intel HM65 chipset and I know that I have SATA 3 interface in my laptop. I use my laptop a lot (from morning till night) for web browsing, programming and in free time for image and video processing.

I'm thinking about these drives:

• Samsung SSD 850 Pro (MZ-7KE512BW) - little expensive but supposedly durable, I heard about problem with unlucky update and problems with TRIM (but that the issue supposedly is not related to Samsung SSD)
• Samsung SSD 850 EVO (MZ-75E500B) - less durable TLC NAND flash chips
• Crucial MX200 (CT500MX200SSD1) - I read that it sometimes "disappearing" from the system, lost all partition etc.

What do you think about it? Maybe you have any other suggestions? Which drive should I choose?

English isn’t my native language, so please excuse any mistakes.

 

@streamck I would strongly suggest getting a 1TB drive instead; otherwise, get the cheapest of three - they will be obsolete well before they get close to their MTBF anyway.

 

@streamck I would strongly suggest getting a 1TB drive instead; otherwise, get the cheapest of three - they will be obsolete well before they get close to their MTBF anyway.

 

I do a lot of document work, since win 7 I have never had a crash from Hibernation, but this is my first SSD system and so far sleep that was buggy with the old HD is working well with SSD and win 10

 

I agree. always get a larger size then you think you will need hence
if you think you need 100gb then get a 256gb
200gb then a 512gb
and so on

 

Get a 1TB drive, OP it by 33% or more and 'expand' the usable capacity as needed...

Then, when you run out of drive? Buy a new system with a 10TB+ SSD inside.

 

Of course, use whatever works for you.

But for me, a desktop system that isn't always 'on' and ready is a useless system (if I need to wake it... it most likely needs some system maintenance done, right away).

A notebook that sleeps is also a waste of battery power. It almost takes me longer to find a place to put down my notebook bag and get the notebook out than it takes for it to boot up and be ready. I'd rather have maximum battery power when actually needed than save a few insignificant seconds.

 

Everyone has different experiences when it comes to workflow and enabling / disabling background services.

I have found that I can easily live with disabling indexing, I have no trouble finding things on a 1TB SSD from the top level all the way down. It might take a few seconds, but then again when I search I am doing other things, multi-tasking is second nature.

When indexing bothers me is when it kicks in and I am trying to do something. It happens enough that I find that is the annoyance rather than a short few second delay - if any - when I occasionally need to search for something.

Pagefile feelings aside, it does nothing if you have plenty of memory, unless your software uses it. When that happens, enable just enough for it, and I usually enable it on the fastest drive - usually an SSD - my SSD's seem to last a long time, and I rarely use a pagefile / hiberfil.sys.

I also disable msconfig dumpfile saving, as there is nothing to save without a pagefile - set it to 0.

Using RAID0 and caching can be problematic, but I do chkdsk's on crashes, and rarely find a lost file.

I would also recommend doing a little research on what background services you can disable.

It may not make much difference, but it's nice to know what is running on your computer, whether you need it or not, and take control of it's activities. You might be surprised what you find

Also, disable all the processes and scheduled tasks for MS telemetry metrics and reporting that get sent on to MS. They don't need it, and you don't need to waste computer / network resouces gathering and sending it.

The more you know, the more control you have over what is happening on your computer, the less mysterious it will seem

 

I understand, I work all day in multiple places so it depends on what you do

 

Thanks for your replies. I'm little bit confused because I wonder whether I should choose Samsung SSD 850 Pro 512 GB or Samsung SSD 850 EVO 1 TB. More durable and reliable or larger storage capacity - it's very difficult choice .

 

What is more important for you 500MB or 1tb capacity. Which ever the case get that. Moreover you should be backing up anyway so reliability should not be of much concern. Evo is plenty good, but if you think you will be writing a few terabytes of data every day then invest in a pro drive.

 

You 'need' ~500GB of space as you stated yourself.

Rule #1: Never, ever fill up your storage device (HDD or SSD).

Depending on your usage, you will find much lower performance and effectively at or below HDD levels depending on which SSD you do this to.

Rule #2: Every SSD needs OP'ing to have a chance of giving the performance promised in real world workflows.

(And even then, it won't because it can't - except for low duration synthetic tests that don't indicate anything except how good the drive is in getting those mostly useless, synthetic 'scores').

Rule #3: All SSD's are durable vs. any HDD. Pretty hard to jiggle a solid state device's connections loose.

While at the same time a seemingly innocent shock to an HDD may render that drive inaccessible, immediately, or, in the near future.

Rule #4: No storage subsystem has proven reliable, indefinitely. Even the crème de la crème can arrive DOA or die unexpectedly within a few days or weeks of being deployed.

This is why multiple backups to multiple media (rotated, secured and occasionally offsite) are REQUIRED.

Rule #5: With almost any productivity 'solution' with a storage subsystem involved; capacity trumps sheer performance.

(Given a certain level of performance of the storage device, of course).


Given all the above, the 1TB SSD with 33% OP'ing or more, if not needed at this point (remember; you can always 'expand' the usable capacity as needed) is what I would recommend. Yeah; even the TLC EVO option (shock!) - but make sure you OP...

What I would recommend for the best productivity with your stated uses is an 960GB SanDisk Extreme Pro instead and upgrading your RAM to 16GB vs. the 8GB you now have.

Furthermore, upgrade to Win10 on the HDD. Then, do a clean install of Win10x64 directly on the SSD (once you connect to the internet, the O/S will activate itself automatically.

See:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10


Scroll down once you click on the above link and download the Win10 media creation tool (make sure you select the same edition you upgraded to) to create a USB, DVD or ISO.

I recommend you download and create an ISO and then use Rufus to create whatever media you want (it is also more reliable and faster too).

See:
https://rufus.akeo.ie/


With an OP'd ~1TB SSD, 16GB of RAM and a clean install of Win10x64 (Pro, highly recommended), your system will feel better than when it was brand new.

See? The choice wasn't so difficult after all.

Take care.