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

If he has an original receipt (is that the right word spelled correctly?) which isn't tied to him in his name and he can give you that then you get the warranty too

Else... possibly not because you can't prove when it was bought...
Unless they go off the manufacturing date... (as Seagate seems to do with HDDs)

 

I think they use the serial number for warranty issues in which case you should be fine.

 

yeah it should work. i'm just not 100% sure, and understand les to not be as well.


edit: btw, det: install a spell checker in firefox

 

The big one for me right now is getting info on the OWC drive...It seems like a ghost. They put info out there and its available to purchase yet nobody has any background or adequate tests results for it; this being perhaps the top drive available performance wise as they claim.

I do know that it uses the Sandforce 1500 and thats about it...

 

indeed. for me, it's not even a ghost. i just saw OWC posted sometimes, not having a clue really what it's all about

 

First of all, I can't believe the Intel G2 drives are FINALLY back down to MSRP on both Newegg and Amazon! About time!

Second of all, though, is that the normal prices make me really want to upgrade my 80GB to a 160GB. But the possibility of the refresh is so close! Possibly in the next couple of months! And I could REALLY use that extra 40GB if they move to 200GB rather than 160GB, as rumored, or if nothing else, the speed increases the refresh will bring. What should I do, guys?

 

wait till you need one. or, wait, as long as the one you have doesn't hurt you with it's limitations.

 

Q410 is supposed to bring 160GB and 320GB 28nm drives.

 

yes you would believe, with them being a Mac sales company, the ssd would have to be a rebrand of another. The only problem is NOBODY else is trying to make claims anywhere of plus 250 read and write.

 

New article on Anandtech says Intel isn't doing a thing until the 28nm drives next winter.

This complicates things.

So here's my situation: I currently have an 80GB G2 with 22GB free on it, which I keep free purposely to keep performance up. This is on a Macbook. I could really use Bootcamp, Windows and Microsoft Office (the whole suite, including Access) for my classes, especially next fall when I get into some of my MIS classes, but after putting Windows and Office on the 80GB Bootcamp partition, I wouldn't really have much space left for anything else.

Nevermind. I'm doing it. I'll just put my documents and Music on an external drive.

 

no one? vertex LE does, not? still, yeah..

external drives.. so pre2000 style (love my network )

offtopic: hm lets check my sig. new track is out, nr 5 it is.. lets put some ad into my sig

 

Ok experts.....

Lets talk crucial C300 which is going to be released any day now and can be read about here...

http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=454&Itemid=60

Thoughts? Will this run in a normal every day laptop and still reach 6G SATA III speeds? Hmm see below...guess not...

256GB SATA 6Gb/s
• Sequential READ: up to 355MB/s
• Sequential WRITE: up to 215MB/s
• Random 4k READ: 60K IOPS

256GB SATA 3Gb/s
• Sequential READ: up to 265MB/s
• Sequential WRITE: up to 215MB/s
• Random 4k READ: 50K IOPS

128GB SATA 6Gb/s
• Sequential READ: up to 355MB/s
• Sequential WRITE: up to 140MB/s
• Random 4k READ: 60K IOPS

128GB SATA 3Gb/s
• Sequential READ: up to 265MB/s
• Sequential WRITE: up to 140MB/s
• Random 4k READ: 50K IOPS

 

Some info on OWC drive:

http://macperformanceguide.com/Reviews-SSD-OWC-Mercury_Extreme.html

 

it looks C300 is crap for max latency...



"While both Crucial and OCZ/SandForce offer incredible average write latencies, Crucial’s max latency is over a second! I haven’t actually seen max write latencies this bad since the JMicron days. "
http://anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3747&p=3

 

If one had the choice of installing a X-25M G2 160GB or a X-25E 64 GB (only 59.xx GB usable space) on a Toshiba M750, what would you do?

I find that I am frequently maxing out on storage on the boot drive (currently using the X-25E on WinXP TabletEdition as boot and have a 7200.4 500 GB Momentus as a second HD), but could do a Win7x64 install on the boot and program installations all on the secondary HD.

Which would you use for the boot HD??

 

SSD Decoder Ring - an SSD comparison guide (Rev 2.3)

http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=736

 

x-25v is more than enough.

 

@ SuperFlyBoy: if You already have X25-E I don't see a reason to switch to another drive, but if all You need can fit to 160 GB X25-M maybe that's a good choice so You can fully enjoy in Your SSD.

 

Thanks!

I'm trying out the 160GB now - let's see how it goes...

 

Where is the cheapest place to get SSDs now?

Im assuiming newegg? They seem to have the better prices as far as I can tell. Especially with their deals. There was that deal with the 160gb g2 with the 40gb g2 free, a while back.

 

Or Ebay, if you trust it.

 

Which wasn't any better than the lowest price...

Shop around - you know what you are looking for, don't let others do the work for you.
(And I have no idea which US stores are good/bad by the way - I'm in Europe)

 

there sure exists some pricewatcher style page for american shops. ours in switzerland is called toppreise.ch, where you quickly see the lowest prices for any product. found a similar one to discuss bad pricings of newegg in canada. there sure are american ones. (i know some for germany and austria.. )

 

idealo.de gives an idea for Germany...

...ciao.co.uk for the UK

But I still fall back either on Amazon or an actual shop.

 

yeah, i fall back mostly to the same shops myself all the time. but it's important to have this overview to see where the price's at, really.

and i think newegg loves how people don't compare prices, from what they see they change them about daily to sell at higher prices when they expect more customers to "just buy anyways". s

 

I think that's true too.

My Intel SSD was... I think 395€ or so - I knew the lowest Amazon ever had was 375 - and some places sell them for 480€...

So it definitely does help.

The other thing is, if you actually go to a small privately owned shop you can try to get a better offer and know what to expect at best

 

Guys, this review still supports my views 100% (depending how you read it ).

See:
http://anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3747


(BTW, my 'view' is that Intel is the only SSD company I'll consider buying/using).


First, with TRIM enabled firmware, Anand says Samsung SSD's are now worth the bother. The bother? You must completely erase your drive and start fresh (in order to flash the TRIM enabled firmware).

Second, Intel, with 2+ (2008 time frame) year old SSD tech is still 'hanging' with the best of the new comers. This speaks volumes to me. Forget the benchmarks, I'm talking real use - the G2 160GB Intel SSD is indistinguishable from the latest OCZ 'LE' and the C300 too. The 'plus' with Intel is of course we can now trust these drives - good luck with the 'LE' and the C300's.

Third, and most importantly; the test unit Anand had died on him in a few days - yay SandForce. (not).

That is the most important point here: the new units have better benchmarks (yet not significantly better real world performance) but are totally unproven. Intel is the most sensible/proven SSD to buy still - as a bonus their performance is still in the stratosphere of these newcomers.

When the G3 comes out, I'm going to be fairly confident (95%) that at that point Intel will catch up, surpass and dominate the SSD field once again for the next 2 or 3 years. If their prices truly are reduced, then I will consider switching all my workstations and notebooks over to SSD land.

Right now, everything makes for great reading and I'm glad that people are willing to spend equal money (to the Intel's) for questionable performance gains and greatly increased risks of your data and/or your system availability.

Glad? Yes; when someone does make a performance claim that can actually be confirmed, Intel will be there with its 'refresh' of the G2's or the G3's and/or a price drop and continue to be the best SSD company then too.

Anand said:

So to everyone still asking what is the best drive 'now'; it is the one you'll be using tomorrow too - with no real world performance differences either (no matter what the benchmarks say) - and that SSD is still the Intel.

BTW, Tomy B.,

Yes, my VRaptor/Raptor setups still kick even the Intel's behinds in some important aspects; but I would love to have even a percentage of that desktop performance in my notebook too!


To all:

The current SSD outlook is on a 'hold and monitor' pattern - at least on my SSD RADAR warning system. The Intel G3's seem to be planned for when a real jump in performance is widely expected to happen (SATA3, etc.) on our computing platforms. The SSD's released in the months in between seem to be just filler. At least for me.

 

from enemies to best friends, or what? i can just say thanks for the great formulation of what i try to speak out so hard i'm with you, 100%. even with the raptorcraptorbla i still wouldn't want one, i hate bruteforce approaches and yes, i'd get a bunch of intel ssds instead, and yes, it would cost me an arm and a leg... but your solution is quite cost effective, and delivers.

 

When I'm looking for 'real' and 'accurate' information, I may look like an enemy ; but true friendships are always put the the test - the ones that pass are called friendships, the others 'acquaintances'. (If they're lucky ).

If I had my choice, I too would be using multiple G2's instead of VRaptors right now. But the 'multiple' would be on each workstation! Add all the workstations that I would want/need all SSD's and you'll quickly see that the SSD is not the most cost effective upgrade for me; a new platform change is first (currently Q9450, 8GB RAM, 8x Mech HD for each workstation).

Thanks to you and sgilmore62 for the reps!

Hope others can see that chasing incremental improvements (again, mostly in benchmarks) is simply siphoning their money away. Not to mention that more 'opportunistic' players get attracted to this seemingly bottomless money pit of SSD land and thus more chance to be 'taken' by marketing or simply con men.

Right now, an SSD simply dying in a couple of weeks seems more towards the 'con' than (aggressive) marketing to me - even if the sample was 'beta'.

But maybe at my age I'm just not willing to take chances anymore? Or, simply - just got tired of being taken advantage of?

 

Indeed. my main goal for getting ssds was to get wowed by the performance gain i got from them. i got that from 4200rpm to mtron, obviously. i did NOT got that from mtron to samsung. i DID got it from samsung to intel.

and i know, i won't get it from intel to a sandforce. and this is what makes them so great for me: even while they don't have anything fresh to offer, their old offers still work well enough that they don't make any new offering important.

in other words, i still wait for the next bomb to drop since the first intel. there are great competitors, yes. but no bomb that makes me drop my current package.

i really can't wait for such a bomb another wow effect? it would b awesome

 

Really? I would think the Q9450 would still be more than holding its own. Me? I'm skipping Nehalem and waiting for Sandy Bridge.

 

Hey guys, since this seems to be "THE" SSD thread, just thought I'd throw out an idea for discussion. How about a hybrid hard drive with a small size (i.e. 16GB) and reasonably fast SSD in the same enclosure as the hard drive? This would allow you to install OS on the SSD and carry everything else on the hard drive. This would offer the snappy I/O of an SSD while still allowing for the capacity of a hard drive, and keep the prices reasonable.

 

no, Hybrid hard drive can not compete with SSD. IMO, Hybrid hard drive fails.
When Lenovo introduced its what ever called Hybrid hard drive, I was laughing.
Hybrid hard drive solution is only for ppl who just use its laptop for internet, word process ect. If you play games, do photpshop/lightroom, you definitely need to put these program in ur SSD.

 

Well that's what I'm talking about. Any SSD of decent capacity costs more than most people can justify spending the money on. I mean even my decently powerful Sager/Clevo notebook that cost me $1500 I can't justify an additional $700 to the price for a 256GB drive.

No, I don't expect it to compete with SSD's, but if you could have a 16GB SSD integrated with a traditional hard drive in the same 2.5" enclosure, then you could have your OS and common apps like Office or PhotoShop on the SSD, and storage on the hard drive. You don't need games on an SSD either.

Most laptops have a single drive bay. So you either have to spend hundreds of dollars for a decent sized SSD, and a reasonable size is at least 256GB IMHO, so you're talking at least $700. Or a hybrid which will offer a limited amount of SSD for speed, and only cost maybe $100 more than the traditional hard drive, plus give you the storage of a hard drive.

 

If they make it to appear in BIOS as two separate drives then it could be good idea and perfect solution for notebooks that can accept only one drive, but I think it won't work over just one SATA connector.

 

I think a hybrid solution would take more time, money, and effort to implement than just waiting 1-2 years till SSDs drop in price.

 

DavePerman!!!!

You win! You are my God! I broke down and...yes....wait for it......(drumroll)...

"Tell him what hes won Bob!!!!!!"

Yes....I am the proud owner of a Intel X-25M 160Gb OEM ssd that should be here in a few days.

In the end, after all my checking I couldn't find a better drive for my money...

 

Is that a realistic timeframe for SSD's to become a reasonable price compared with hard drives? I don't know what's reasonable, but I think 2x the cost of a hard drive of the same size is reasonable (i.e. $200 for 500GB SSD).

 

well, instead spend money on a 1000$ laptop, and spend 500$ on an ssd, and get more bang for the buck, that's the way to go

hahaha my only hope is that YOU win. i hope it serves you well, as that's the purpose of it. i only win if you win... i wish you all the best

 

Les rules!

 

Hey Cape....long time for us my friend.... How come I cant se an ssd reflected in ur sig?

and hey...can anyone solve this???

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5920659#post5920659

 

I'm falling behind the curve... I need them to release 600GB Gen 3 or postville-refresh drives for $600 so I can replace the old tech 7200RPM and have a single source of storage.

My only worry would be if I upgrade I wouldn't have space to back up all the data.

The reason Hybrid drives failed is because if you stick OCZ Core 8GB on a 7200RPM drive the final equation becomes slow+slow. Maybe if they stuck a 8GB X25-M there...

 

Get an external enclosure 1TB drive for $100 for backup.

And that's why I'm saying use a small storage SSD so you can utilize a fast I/O that's relatively inexpensive. I'd buy a 500GB drive with a fast 16GB SSD (~ 150MB/sec) for $200.

 

It had a limited number of write cycles and you used them up -- Windows can still read from it but... no mo writes.

btw, congrats on the x-25m 160gb Les, I hope to be joining the club soon too but considering one of the Sandforce drives. Either way, do you think I will be better off using my OCZ Summit as a data drive or one of my 320gb Hitachi 7200rpm HDD's?

 

Are you asking once you get the new drive? Will it then be an internal or external as u can swap the DVD with the right kit? I say this because even DVDs are very past tense now adays.

If I was doing that I would go with the two ssds inside the system myself....cats %^& that would be.... U know u can afford it when...eheh

 

Yeah, when I get the new drive and yes, I have two drive bays in addition to the one allocated for cd/dvd but no BIOS RAID support

Yeah, was just thinking that I can't believe contemplating spending +$400 for a notebook hard drive even though that is the weakest link of any system by a long shot -- maybe that is the attraction to SSD's.

 

For me that was the key to everything. I waqnted a system that stood up to what I had in bigger systems and replacing the hard drive in this with the older Sammy did wonders. I understand that I may not notice a big jump with the next level ssd but it is more space, allows me to create and encrypt/password protect a physical drive (which I need) and well...it really is a step up.

Its really the finishing touch on this system Win764Bit-4Gb-ssd

 

What is going to happen to the $799 price tag on the 64gb X-25E now that the MLC Sandforce drives are slightly better in benchmarks? Anands remarks about one dying certainly didn't help prices come down.

 

Or what is going to happen now that the door has been opened with SATA 6Gbs ??

 

I will stop shopping SSD until I get a new laptop with SATA6.0G and USB 3.0