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

Looks like Intel, Cosair, Ocz, and Muskin all got Christmas presents. Hope the Samsung and Dell owners didn't get a lump of coal.

 

It's not just your system, it doesn't work for mine either and I tried in 3 different systems: M15x, Studio XPS 16 and a desktop. My current firmware is the mushkin vbm1901q.

 

The numbers aren't far off from Intel's. I've seen G2 numbers posted here and they're only a bit better than my Samsung and I don't even have TRIM. But I agree about Samsung, I hate them as a company. Don't ever buy their HDTV's because if you run into a problem they won't help at all.

 

What settings in the bios did you use? And did you use the Studio XPS 16 to flash it?

 

same with their ssds.. no help from them. and this imho is for something new and evolving like ssds, a big no no.

oh, and, yeah, numbers are okay for sammies. but experience is not..

 

Well fortunately my PM800 is an OEM Dell drive so I don't have to deal with Samsung. Not that Dell customer service is that great but at least they ship replacement HDD's overnight if for some reason it does go bad on me.

 

hehe yeah, at least that..

it's a crap disk. we send you a new one. it's still crap. new one. CRAP! NEW! CRAP! NEW!

and so on

 

No I can't flash the drive with SXPS 1645 (ATA and AHCI). But with old Lenovo I can (in IDE mode, ICH8).

BTW : I just flash my new PM800 that received today from Dell and woks fine too Now I have 2 PM800 OEM because during the call with the tech, I asked the technician if I could keep my old drive and he accepted.

 

OCZ says the updater does not work on VBM1901q.
maybe if you choose option 2 first and erase the FW it will let you flash?
wait, isn't 1901 and 19c the same? download crystaldiskinfo and see if TRIM is not greyed out.

 

01 was just GC no TRIM. I'll have to find another computer to try this again

 

Alright i guess i'll erase the firmware on it and try it..hopefully it doesn't brick it. Not that it's a huge deal, Dell will have one out to me by tomorrow

 

if you look at the firmware files you will see that VBM1901Q and VBM19C1Q are both there--maybe if you are on 1901 you have to delete the VBM1901Q FW from the file?

 

my crap still works fine and it feels fine, here are some benchs of my crap
benched under some medium torrenting

 

yours isn't crap if it's the SLC one. they are great.

 

Can anyone confirm the current state of AHCI drivers that support the TRIM command?

I currently have the intel rapid storage drivers installed, but have not found a definitive answer that shows they support TRIM in their current revision.

I would like to downgrade to the Microsoft AHCI drivers, but the intel ones keep coming back after I uninstall them? Any suggestions?

If I switch to IDE mode will TRIM be supported (windows 7 64)? I don't want to do this because I use my eSATA port all the time on my laptop and IDE seems to require a reboot to see the attached external drive.

Is intel going to support third party SSD's with their storage drivers or only their own SSD lineup (I'd be really upset if this was the case.)

I'm currently using a TRIM updated Corsair P128 SSD. It feels fast and I want it to stay that way.

 

if you have a setup, uninstall it from your programs. else, delete the sata-devices from your device manager. it will ask to "as well delete drivers?". do so, then.

all with caution, of course.

it might be that crystaldiskmark detects if trim actually works. it at least reports if your drive has trim, or not. might be a test to see if it works.

 

Quick question: I'm running fat32 on the boot drive but the flasher still runs. According to OCZ, if the drive isn't detected (which in my case it isn't) it's because the boot drive needs to formatted with fat16. Anyone know how to do this? I'm using the HP disk maker with fat32 but I didn't see an option for fat16.

edit: nm i see the fat selection..it was all in korean so i didn't see it last time

 

CrystalDiskInfo reports I have TRIM, but I haven't determined if this shows me that my drive supports TRIM, or if it means that my system (including OS, drivers, and SSD) supports TRIM.

I'm not brave enough at the moment to delete my drive controller from device manager. I'll have to do a good backup and give it a rip.

 

I think it says your drive supports it.
Nothing more.

 

Tested with fat16/32 OCZ, Corsair Flasher, Mushkin and my drive didn't detect on SXPS 1645.

With old Lenovo Laptop, OCZ and Corsair Flasher doesn't detect (fat16 and 32) but Mushkin flasher works fine.

 

TRIM was greyed out for me with VBM18C1Q and now isn't with VBM19C1Q.

 

What settings in the lenovo bios are you using?

 

IDE mode because this chipset dosen't support AHCI or RAID mode.

 

IT WORKED! Thanks for letting us know fr0x! I had to run option 2 to clear the firmware and then I ran the updated firmware and it worked fine. Here's the screenshot:

 

congrats

 

Nice. What system was that on? I can't get mine to work for the life of me.

 

I used my desktop matx (shuttle) system to flash it. It has an intel chipset. Settings were:

-IDE mode with SATA
-UDMA on auto

Everything else was left to default. I also cleared the NAND using option 4. I'm running the Windows 7 install disk on it right now and then I'll have to reinstall using Norton Ghost.

 

So, to get this working for a PM800:

Use mushkin flasher w/ Corsair fw (fat16 or fat32 for boot disk?)

If it doesn't initially work, try IDE mode in BIOS?

I've got +rep going around to a bunch of you guys

 

Seems to be the correct formula, may as well start off with a fat16 disk to eliminate one variable.

Thanks for the info, I tried with a older HP desktop with a nforce hipset and couldn't get 'er to go. The fun continues

 

Joker

You had to run the Initial fw option first, then re-ran the flasher to upload the new fw (ie option 2, then 1)?

 

I just posted this for Dell/AW owners:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5654331&postcount=1

 

Thanks, joker.

One thing you might want to do is credit fr0x for his work in your post.

 

Done + rep given.

 

done, too (and to joker, and sleepy, etc.. good work everyone. a big gem now in this topic )

 

lol, yeah, I get it!

The setup they had was bad (for the $$$)? What would you have done better?

Myself, I certainly would only have one GPU inside, that's for sure - unless I got myself another two monitors for my already overcrowded desktop.

Why I'm curious about your 'bad system' comment is because the normal clocked Dec system is faster than the over-clocked previous system they built last. To me, looks like a good step up (I never O/C anyway).

 

for less money one could have had a similar performing system. the bang/buck relation isn't that well.

i would prefered to have invested in a 1500 $ system and got a 30" screen, f.e.

but obviously, it depends on preferences. but no big disks in my pc. noisy and useless

 

Hahaha...

I never consider the monitors, keyboard/mouse and/or Wacom tablets as part of the 'new' system cost - otherwise each workstation would be over $10K.

Just the 'box' as it sits seems pretty balanced to me - of course, I too would be thinking of 2x 160GB G2's instead of the 2TB drives in there now - my storage drives also move from the old system to the new system, eventually.

 

i consider them one of the most important part of a "new system cost". we're here in the ssd thread. why? because we care about stuff that matters for systems. a big high quality screen matters for a great experience. so does a fast response of the system (that's why i7 and ssds both rock).

but yeah, part of the whole is actually, i would never consider a new box "for it's own", espencially a handmade one. the handmade one always can reuse existing parts. i will invest much less for my next system. it will be i5 or i7 based, passive cooled, with an ssd, and in a drawer.

but for me, the gpu is unimportant anyways, so that's one cost factor less

 

Actually, from what I've been reading this is a pretty good time you had. How many restore points?

If you delete all but one, you should be in the 10 minute range, afaik.

 

found one 80gb in a store nearby, reserved it to catch it tomorrow.

so i will soon have 2x 80gb gen2..

hm..
no clue what to do with them, yet

 

davepermen,

Remember that $50 I lent you in '89? Well, send one of those puppies over and we'll call it even, 'kay?

 

nah, i don't think i lent anyone 50$, or had actually 50$ back when i was FIVE YEARS OLD!!

where you life? i could send it over for you for tests..

 

You may want to try the newest ones:

Rapid Storage Technology drivers (v 9.5.4.1001) for TRIM support.


Definitely no TRIM with IDE mode afaik.

The Intel drivers should support other SSD's, but the Intel SSD Optimizer Toolbox v1.2 will only work on G2's currently (manual TRIM), but will show info/properties of many different HD's, including mechanical HD's too.

To keep your Corsair feeling fast, try the Tony Trim method. You should only need to do it once. After that, assuming the TRIM command gets passed to the SSD, you'll stay at peak performance as long as you don't overfill your SSD too much (on a consistent/permanent basis).

Hope this helps. Cheers!

 

Man! I thought it was you, no?

Thanks for the offer, but too cold and too far away to accept your generosity!

Cheers!

 

colder than -17°?


btw, maybe as an explanation: the "tony trim" method is filling the whole disk with data, and then delete it. with that, trim should be sent to all free spaces.

just to clarify to your post.

 

I second considering the Intel 160GB G2 as your 'only' option right now if performance is your goal. The 320GB should be out soon and in the not too distant future (less than 12 months from now, anyway), the 600GB G3(?) will be waiting for the inevitable upgrade we will need by then.

Best value/performance is a road you should be wary of. Either buy at the top (Intel G2 160GB SSD) and get your money's worth - for the life of the product, or buy at the bottom (Vertex/Samsung?) and suffer the (potential) consequences. Buying in the middle means that you're paying the most for the least benefits.

Make sure that the benefits you seek are at least the most important to you now and in the foreseeable future.

 

Aargh... tried this so many times on my XPS Studio 16 and every desktop in my house with no go. My desktops all have nVidia motheboards which, like the Dell notebook, must be blocking IDE access via DOS.

Also tried ad nauseum to get the Lenovo flasher to work, it recognized the drive no problem but even with modding the FW.PRO file it wouldn't recognize the PM800 as a upgrade target.

Guess i need to try to find a PC that the Mushkin MAINDIAG.exe utility will work on. I can try my wife's HP dv2000t laptop. If that doesn't work, somewhere I have an old Sager 9880 that I think has SATA ports, which must be IDE since its predates AHCI. And it had an Intel chipset. Maybe that will do the trick, alas since we moved six months ago I have no idea where it is.

 

Thanks for the clarification! And, yup! -24° and going down...

 

I am sorry I don't have any more tips to offer for ya, ekovalsky.

It should work as others have done it.

 

It seems the nVidia chipset is the problem. I'll note this in the post I made so that others are aware of it. Good luck and let us know if you arrive at a solution.