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

Do you have a desktop that you can put your SSD in?

That would be the quickest and easiest solution. Just pop it in the desktop, flash, and put it back into the lappy.

I would just wait another month as Samsung is supposed to be releasing fw very soon. Do we even know what improvements (if any) the newer fw brings?

 

I used what Samsung suggests in that document file. I'm going to give the desktop method a try like some suggested.


Edit: It worked! Had to put it as a master drive on the desktop with port 0 and it did it. I only used mf.bin to flash it so I could keep my data; if.bin is only if I wanted to erase the SSD right?

 

My desktop has an EVA/Nvidia 780i mainboard with one PATA connector (two devices) and six SATA ports. I cannot hook up the SSD to the PATA connector as it uses the wide IDE connector. I can of course connect it to any of the six SATA connectors, but there is no option for "IDE compatibility or ATA mode", just a menu to turn RAID on or off for each individual port. I can turn on just 0, 0+1, or all six; or turn them all off. No other options to individually configure any particular port.

So anyone know if the Samsung flash utility (Maindiag.exe) will even be able to see the SSD on one of the SATA ports ? If I didn't already have two RAID arrays set up and if the nVidia RAID were a bit mroe robust I'd be lot more eager to experiment! I assume the only chance it has of working is to turn RAID off and try the drive on each port to see if one will map to where the flash utility can see it.

I'd be more willing to wait until the official FW update but it has been pushed back repeatedly now for months, and I have zero confidence of Samsung releasing it within any finite period of time. Hopefully I'm wrong and in a couple weeks everyone will have the latest and greatest, bug-free firmware to install without hassle !

 

I am not familiar with that mobo, so I don't know if it will work in AHCI mode or not.

Are you positive there is no "Legacy" setting or whatnot for the SATA ports?

I would just give it a try and see if it will work.

 

So about the GC mode, will it work if I let the system sit idle at the bios screen or does Windows have to be active?

 

That is a darn good question. I would imagine it would work regardless as Windows doesn't really have anything to do with GC (just TRIM, of course).

 

Actually, from what I've read, you either have GC firmware or TRIM enabled firmware, but not both. So, if you're running TRIM enabled firmware - no GC, right?

5150Joker,

Just want to point out that many SSD firmware updates are in two (or more) parts - I don't want to assume that yours is the same, but I would be a little uneasy running your SSD right now. Why?

Because if it is a two part firmware - you are running part new and part old firmware on your SSD. That's what I'm scared of.

Can you post a link to the firmware instructions for me? (Just curious).

 

http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0ATF7IHsmpdv5ZGRxZHJmeG1fMThnMzlzaGJkNQ&hl=en

 

Hmm... I might use the Clean All Nand setting.

That may be of some use to me once my system gets here Thanks for the link Joker!

 

Intel discontinues 50nm drives

 

To be expected in the end.
I can't see it being a big deal - ever since the 34nm versions came out the 50nm ones were obsolete, or am I missing something?

(That doesn't mean they should drop firmware support though)

 

Maybe prices will get dirt cheap.

Wouldn't mind picking up an older drive if the price is right.

 

Hey,

I have a simple question.

I am thinking of purchasing a SSD for my laptop. I dont know much about them.

Can you tell me which is currently a good SSD hard drive that is good (speed, etc) and placed at a reasonable price?

Thanks.

 

Intel G2 drives are really good.

You can't go wrong with any of the Indilinx based drives either.

 

Will try it tonight and report back.

No "Legacy" setting in 780i BIOS. But after reading up on SATA, AHCI, IDE/ATA, etc. it seems that the Nvidia chipset completely lacks AHCI support thus the SATA ports must already be operating in ATA mode. AHCI just enables additional 'advanced' features mainly native command queuing. So I probably just need to find which two of the six SATA ports will map to ATA 0-1 with RAID off; there are two ports are mounted at 90 degrees on the edge of the board which I'll try first. The other four are mounted on the front and I suspect are likely intended for RAID.

I also learned that SSD is best operated in ATA versus AHCI mode. The Dell XPS Studio 16 came with a Seagate HDD with AHCI enabled by default. When I replaced that with the SSD I then installed Windows 7 without changing the AHCI setting in the BIOS. Afterwards, changing the BIOS to ATA causes BSOD during Windows boot. But... I was able to convert Windows 7 from AHCI to ATA operation without reinstall by:

1. Uninstall Intel Matrix Storage driver (then reboot)
2. Registry > HKLM/System/CurrentControlSet/Services/msahci (start=3)
3. Registry > HKLM/System/CurrentControlSet/Services/pciide (start=0)
4. Change SATA setting in BIOS from AHCI to ATA

Then Windows loaded without problem, and faster than under AHCI. Everything seems snappier and I occasional stuttering I had (most with audio and IE8 flash) is now gone. If you're running Windows with SSD with AHCI drivers, give it a try and see if it speeds things up in real life use. Seems that NCQ sucks for notebook/desktop SSD!

 

What happened to you has nothing to with AHCI lacking. You had AHCI enabled and installed windows, which installled the AHCI driver. Without uninstalling it, you got the BSOD because it was trying to use the AHCI driver for an ATA settiing.

AHCI does usually give better performance, except on nvidia controllers. And even then, using Microsofts AHCI driver will yeild better performance than ATA.

 

So how bad are these numbers for the Samsung? This is with the new firmware:

---------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 3.0 x64 Beta2 (C) 2007-2009 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
---------------------------------------------------------------

Sequential Read : 210.655 MB/s
Sequential Write : 129.215 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 165.144 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 118.071 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 14.660 MB/s [ 3579.1 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 6.501 MB/s [ 1587.0 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 28.892 MB/s [ 7053.8 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 6.999 MB/s [ 1708.9 IOPS]

Test : 100 MB [C: Used 33.2% (74.3/223.8 GB)]
Date : 2009/11/11 19:49:21
OS : Windows 7 Home Premium Edition [6.1 Build 7600] (x64)

 

Seems on par to me, joker.

 

Cool thanks.

 

Did you bench before you updated the fw?

Just curious to see if there were any seq speed increases.

 

Can not tell coz you are using 100MB test package， Samsung SSD has 128MB cache, so u are basicly testing the cache.
Try to use 1000MB or higher test package, and what is ur FIRMWARE?

 

Here is the 1000MB test:

---------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 3.0 x64 Beta2 (C) 2007-2009 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
---------------------------------------------------------------

Sequential Read : 222.557 MB/s
Sequential Write : 163.814 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 173.290 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 110.796 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 14.339 MB/s [ 3500.7 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 9.528 MB/s [ 2326.1 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 22.856 MB/s [ 5580.1 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 5.956 MB/s [ 1454.0 IOPS]

Test : 1000 MB [C: Used 34.2% (76.6/223.8 GB)]
Date : 2009/11/11 20:41:44
OS : Windows 7 Home Premium Edition [6.1 Build 7600] (x64)

 

It was a bit slower with the older firmware. I'm definitely seeing some improvement with this new one.

 

Cool!

And thanks!

 

Pretty good result, whats the Firmware on ur ssd

 

it has good seq. write and read.
but 4kb write and read speeds are not good as much as intel.

 

It's the VBM1901Q that I just flashed the drive with today. It originally shipped with the VBM19D1Q.

Yeah from what I've read, that's Intel's strongest point or rather Samsung's weakest.

 

my P256(with ICH8): (need to get GC working for a while)

---------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 3.0 x64 Beta2 (C) 2007-2009 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
---------------------------------------------------------------

Sequential Read : 203.449 MB/s
Sequential Write : 139.568 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 160.035 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 62.026 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 16.368 MB/s [ 3996.0 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 8.817 MB/s [ 2152.5 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 29.725 MB/s [ 7257.0 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 7.936 MB/s [ 1937.5 IOPS]

Test : 1000 MB [C: Used 35.6% (84.8/238.4 GB)]
Date : 2009/12/11 21:19:23
OS : Windows 7 Ultimate Edition [6.1 Build 7600] (x64)

the other P256(with ICH9):

---------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 3.0 x64 Beta2 (C) 2007-2009 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
---------------------------------------------------------------

Sequential Read : 208.237 MB/s
Sequential Write : 185.539 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 174.559 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 147.296 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 18.637 MB/s [ 4550.1 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 11.307 MB/s [ 2760.5 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 27.766 MB/s [ 6778.9 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 6.725 MB/s [ 1641.8 IOPS]

Test : 1000 MB [C: Used 9.2% (21.9/238.4 GB)]
Date : 2009/12/11 21:44:47
OS : Windows 7 Ultimate Edition [6.1 Build 7600] (x64)

 

Corsair has Beta TRIM Firmware :

http://forum.corsair.com/v3/showthread.php?t=83551

 

Nice, this should work for the PM800 Samsung OEM drives right?

 

I think GC is better than TRIM tho,

 

Thanks. Seems like you're okay, boy Samsung does things different, huh?

BTW, your 1000MB CDM scores look very similar to my clients Samsung with the old firmware, but good to hear you noticed a speed boost with the new firmware!

Out with the old in with the new... Wheeee!

That is old advice given to OCZ SSD owners when they not only had bad SSD's (JMicron controller), but also some/most customers complaining were using other than Intel chipsets.

As others have stated, AHCI is faster and the preferred mode now; even on a notebook with an SSD. The problem is your chipset not properly supporting AHCI mode with the advanced NCQ features it provides.

 

How so?

At least with TRIM, you won't have to run a program all the time to get performance back.

 

You dont need to run a program all the time to get performance back with GC.
all u need is put computer idle.
and GC is OS independent, so u can get performance back in Vista, XP, which means u have more choice with OS.

 

With a TRIM enabled system, you don't even need to do that though.

 

Yeah, I was thinking of wiper. My bad.

Does gc somehow work better than TRIM (less overhead)?

 

I believe if u upgrade to TRIM from untrim SSD, you need to use as cleaner to fill up the entire SSD to enable TRIM on the drive, otherwise TRIM will not clean up freespace from old drive. its just my guess.

 

With indilinx GC , is much better than Samsung GC.
As I heared, Samsung GC only works for NTFS format, so if u have Raid or use Mac, sorry for those guys.
For indilinx, GC is enable with any format, NTFS, Raid and also for Mac.
So if U have Indilinx with GC firmware, u are more flexible.
I have Vertex with 1.41 GC firmware, and this intel is TRIM.

 

Has anyone with a P256 emailed them for the TRIM bios? I did.

 

I believe you're right about this. Yup!

What I don't like about GC is that it's a specific 'mode' you put the computer in and also the fact that it is taking power (when on battery this matters most, of course) but more importantly it is using up cell life span.

The newer GC algorithms may make these points moot, but that is my understanding of GC.

 

I never put my hard drive in specific Mode, I never logout the system.
If I dont use the PC, I just leave it there until I come back. lol
With my E6400, it is on 24/7, I am abusing my SSD and Laptop.

 

That doesn't seem right to me.

TRIM should automatically detect cells that need it. When a file is deleted, TRIM kicks in, regardless of free space (at lease that is how I interpreted it).

 

Before you Flash TRIM firmware, Windows7 has enabled TRIM command, and when you delete the files, TRIM command is sent to SSD, but old firmware does not support trim function, so OS assumes SSD has taken care of the command, but actually not, and this is why old ssd has degradation.

 

Still not understanding why you would need to fill the drive up for TRIM to work.

EDIT: Maybe I am reading your post wrong. lol

Are you saying you need to wipe the drive clean first? That would make sense.

 

well, if you upgrade to TRIM, then all the data that got written without trim never got deleted, so that is still reserved. one way to fix that is to overwrite all free space, and delete it after trim is enabled, which then results in trimming/freeing all that previously written space.

or use a manual trim tool that directly re-frees all space.


but all not-released data from before trim doesn't magically get released when you enable trim. trim only happens on deletion of NEW data.

 

Thanks, Dave.

I am assuming that is why the new beta fw from Corsair states the upgrade will erase all data (some fw doesn't do that but they most likely want that to happen so users don't come back and complain that TRIM isn't working).

 

nah, that's more likely because something in the ssd data layout structure of the new firmware is incompatible with the old one. like an old word file in a new word app. and they don't care about writing a "converter", instead they just wipe it. common practice when one does firmware updates.

 

the Intel Optimizer would be a manual TRIM tool, yes? BTW it works great for me, no issues. I cannot tell if it is helping at all, but it is not hurting

 

What should my page file size be?

 

Let the OS manage it.

And KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF the manual settings.

(Sorry for digitally shouting but if you searched the forum, you'd have found this too)