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

Your alignment is probably out of whack -- dl and run AS SSD Benchmark, it checks alignment, SATA drivers and FW.
http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/showthread.php?58059-AS-SSD-Benchmark

 

Wow that was quick for Anand. Hmmmm... Jmicron's decent controller looks alright but WD lost performance. I agree with Anand it has to be cheaper to be a viable option for buyers. I give WD credit though for tying to bulletproof their drive in hopes of not running into nasty compatibility surprises or Intel firmware "oopsies."

Wonder what the Black Series will look like. SandForce controller? SLC memory (shutters at the price potential)?

 

I'll be happy with a 160gb G2 if the prices come down to <$2/GB when the G3's come out.

 

It's Maplestory. I've asked around and it seems it's only stable for the 64-bit version for win7, but they still disconnect at bosses/raids. My system has always been stable so I'm not comfortable migrating to another OS. Stability is more important than performance to me.

I just managed to switch to AHCI now, startup was faster by 3 seconds so that's already like a 10% increase. I was just curious as to what other tweaks I can do, besides moving to win7. Clean reinstall obviously but I think I'm generally happy with the performance as of now.

And @ sgilmore62:
I think my scores are not problematic, but I'll benchmark it anyway.

AS SSD Benchmark 1.4.3704.27281
------------------------------
Name: INTEL SSDSA2M040G2GC
Firmware:
Controller: iaStor
Offset: 31 K - BAD
Size: 37.27 GB
Date: 3/3/2010 11:07:04 AM
------------------------------
Sequential:
------------------------------
Read: 182.65 MB/s
Write: 40.84 MB/s
------------------------------
4K:
------------------------------
Read: 15.24 MB/s
Write: 27.84 MB/s
------------------------------
4K-64Threads:
------------------------------
Read: 117.24 MB/s
Write: 31.10 MB/s
------------------------------
Access Times:
------------------------------
Read: 0.178 ms
Write: 0.165 ms
------------------------------
Score:
------------------------------
Read: 151
Write: 63
Total: 290
------------------------------

 

Name: INTEL SSDSA2M040G2GC

Where it says Offset 31k - BAD means your partition is out of alignment.
http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/f...h-stuttering-and-increases-drive-working-life.

TomyB wrote a better guide, I think, here it is...
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=424509&highlight=partition+alignment

 

Alright, I've realigned and recloned. Thanks for the help sgilmore62.

AS SSD Benchmark 1.4.3704.27281
------------------------------
Name: INTEL SSDSA2M040G2GC
Firmware:
Controller: iaStor
Offset: 1024 K - OK
Size: 37.27 GB
Date: 3/3/2010 2:17:02 PM
------------------------------
Sequential:
------------------------------
Read: 175.13 MB/s
Write: 38.99 MB/s
------------------------------
4K:
------------------------------
Read: 14.84 MB/s
Write: 27.19 MB/s
------------------------------
4K-64Threads:
------------------------------
Read: 116.50 MB/s
Write: 31.65 MB/s
------------------------------
Access Times:
------------------------------
Read: 0.187 ms
Write: 0.168 ms
------------------------------
Score:
------------------------------
Read: 149
Write: 63
Total: 287
------------------------------

 

now you should install the ssd toolbox from intel and do a manual trim on it.

 

Going to get my Intel X25-M G2 SSD 80GB today. Anything I should do with the bios or should I just pop it in and pop in w7 and install and let w7 do it's own thing?

 

check if the bios is set to AHCI mode, or to IDE (or compatibbility or what ever) mode. set it to AHCI mode for highest performance.

 

Dunno what is wrong but 4k writes on the AS SSD benchmark tool is a low 3.6mb/s, seems to be too low.

 

The 25-V is a mid-range SSD, right? If that's the case, it may not be realistic to expect the same boost that the latest, greatest models advertise.

That said, what you describe is essentially what I've experienced with my G2 X25-M. Boot times aren't super-fast. A little faster than with my original 5400rpm drive, but nothing Earth-shattering. The *huge* difference applies to almost everything I do once W7 has finished booting, and I get to work.

To connect this to another thread -- I usually leave well enough alone on my work machine. Usually. But once in a while I get restless and play with it. This time, I noticed the thread on boot times, so I tried to see how low I could get my machine to go.

Long story short, it was pointless. I didn't reach 11 seconds, but I got reasonably close But what's the point of booting that fast if things don't work (or don't work as well) afterwards?

So I'm back to :40 to :50 boots. But that's with all the eye candy, starting MySQL, connecting Wifi, connecting to network drives, starting a dual-engine antivirus w/ firewall, connecting to an external monitor, connecting an external (buckup) drive on my desk, connecting wireless keyboard/mouse, etc. etc. I figure if I can do all that and still be under a minute, it's fast enough for me. And when it's done booting, it's ready to go.

 

Samsung SSD? In all fairness to the Samsung controller with 128mb cache, it can handle 4k writes pretty well for several seconds. The AS SSD benchmark and IOMeter tests run longer than that, usually 3 minutes for IOMeter and AS SSD depends on how fast your drive can write 4k randoms. There are few scenarios where the average users SSD will need to write 4k randoms for more than a few seconds at a time anyway.

 

Hey. So I got my ssd from newegg OEM. The packaging wasnt amazing. It didn't even come in a box.

Anyway, I have a T500. I was wondering how to physically install/remove it. Just grab it straight out of the box, put on the side rails, and put it in? Ok, then how do I take it out. My HDD has a plastic tab that you can use to pull out the tab but the SSD doesn't. Any help?

 

OEM drives are cheaper because they don't come with retail packaging.

To install in your T500, you need to take the old HDD out of the caddy. The plastic tab is attached to the caddy and not the old hard drive. Mount the SSD into the caddy and then reattach the rails.

 

darkwish is right. If still unsure, you can also check the hardware manual for illustrations of doing it. (its pages 73-74 in the one I have saved to my hard drive)

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-70068

I'd also disable, uninstall, or just not install Active Protection in the first place. Doesn't do anything for a SSD

Edit on second thought if it helps here's the Thinkvantage programs I installed when I did a clean install: Productivity Center (the menu for the blue button), Power Manager, System Update, Keyboard Customizer, and Easy Eject. That's it...

 

Hi, I'm back from fiddling with it. I realized about the caddy mount when I came back and took a look at it.
First install went buggy for some reason with the system update, I'm not sure why. I reinstalled system update and used it to install only the things that I knew I wanted/needed, such as switchable graphics, the trackpoint drivers, and some other things i can't recall atm. A total of 8 recommended installs.

What i'm wondering now if I should install some of the other recommended/optional:

Windows 7 Update Module 64bit
Intel Wireless Wifi

etc.

I'll attach screenshots. I would appreciate if you guys tell me what I should install.

 

Not quite a week since my last manual TRIM. Computer still takes in the neighborhood of 50 seconds to boot though.

--------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 2.2 (C) 2007-2008 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
--------------------------------------------------

Sequential Read : 254.324 MB/s
Sequential Write : 102.310 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 196.630 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 70.943 MB/s
Random Read 4KB : 17.495 MB/s
Random Write 4KB : 24.373 MB/s

Test Size : 1000 MB
Date : 2010/03/03 22:07:57

 

I'm not at all impressed right now, I'll see if my SSD can impress me later on which other applications. My boot up time is definitely much faster, but really it's while using the computer that matters, not the boot up.

Firefox still not as quick because of it's own addons.
iTunes too...

 

You know, I kinda feel the same way. I mean boot up is definitely a lot faster but I never cared much for this. An extra 30 seconds with an HDD isn't gonna kill me. The general computing is fast but it isn't night and day like some claimed. Maybe I'm just not using enough intense applications to notice a difference. I don't know how I feel about dropping $400 on this...I mainly just wanted to see what all the hype was about as I'm all about speed and performance

 

Right there with you... hopefully it'll impress me more with game loads, but it still doesn't matter for my games as I have to wait for others to load the map first >.>

Definitely not sure if it was worth a 240$ sink right now, hopefully I'll get the experience these amazing speeds everyone talks about.

 

I probably could have gotten away with an 80GB one, haha. Or a very new HDD.

But at least I know I'm going to be keeping this SSD around whenever I switch machines.

 

Well, my big problem right now is I don't have anything intense going on whatsoever. All I've been doing since I got the SSD is browsing and word processing. I have no games installed and no other applications really. I really don't use any...and I'm not a big PC gamer so I guess I need to find other avenues in which to test performance lol

 

Interesting proliferation of controllers:

recent/current:

Marvell for C300, or is it NOVA, I forget.
Indilinx for a few drives 2 flavors, I think
2 flavors of Sandforce
New JMicron
Intel controllers
WD will not tell

Seems like the channel/market is filling up and ready for a BURSTING price lower change!

 

Nice video, pity it's BS to what I've seen on my own system with Windows 7 RC v XP on two identical 7k320 hard drives, it is markedly slower than XP to the tune of 1 min per 7GB copied, 8-12 seconds slower booting [XP is far simpler to make much faster, but more effort to keep there], I won't even go into openGL as it's not relevant for I/O.

Never mind, we're on different wavelengths, you enjoy your super SSD optimized windows 7 18 seconds and I will enjoy my old crap 12 seconds for the time being,

BTW, ACHI comes on my OEM OS disc, disc paging can be disabled easily with 3GB's, disc paging can be reduced with simple registry change....it doesn't make any difference to performance..... Kingstons V+ series self healing seems to work very well [3 months] so I'm not peeing my pants over TRIM just yet.

--------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 2.2 (C) 2007-2008 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
--------------------------------------------------

Sequential Read : 195.084 MB/s
Sequential Write : 119.603 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 154.971 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 97.267 MB/s
Random Read 4KB : 13.002 MB/s
Random Write 4KB : 4.747 MB/s

Test Size : 100 MB
Date : 2010/03/04 18:52:21

 

hehe reminds me of this:

see above

i start and close quite a lot of different apps, thus the gain is quite big for me.

any office app is instant. visual studio is instant. ableton live is instant till hw initialisation, there it blocks a bit. itunes is quite fast. firefox now a matter of half a second. explorer is always instant. media center is instant. etc.

installations that happened to run for an hour sometimes only take 1-2 minutes now. adobe reader installs in a snap. etc.

once you move BACK to a hdd, you will miss the ssd, very much

but yeah, depending on usage cases, you don't have that much gain. esp. the ones starting the pc, opening the browser, and then sitting on facebook the whole day (majority of my friends by now )

 

Weegie....

You asked about visible diffewrence so I provided one of the many that show video comparing XP to Win7. You choose to call it a fake but the reality is I could have sent saerveral videos, all with the same result.

Can u send back a video or proof showing different?

Perhaps the best indicator in the difference of visible performance is you 4k random scores of 13 r/4 wr and comparing them to mine which are 18r/36wr.
The 4k random write is 4 times as fast and well, your system relies on the 4kr/wr draws more than any other.

This is how I came to understand the ssd I boughts true performance in comparison to other ssds that appeared to have higher scores (r/wr sequential).

Even you have to admit XP is somewhat hard on the eyes any more and has little to no extras. Its a dinosaur in the age of rocket jets....sorry...just tried to show what the tests relate.

It would be interesting for you t provide some comparison tests for your point of view.

 

Looks like those Sandforce drives are kickin' the bucket left and right... something about resuming from hibernation.
http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/showthread.php?69723-Vertex-LE-200GB-drive-DEAD
"I killed 2 LEs so far by simply closing the lid on my Macbook Pro and, thus, having the OS go to sleep."

 

that's why ocz has it as LE version?(limited risk )

 

Yeah, should have named it Vertex LL (limited lifespan)

 

What can I say? When Anand's drive died in a few weeks of 'normal' usage... and then OCZ basically 'dropped' that line (except for a limited number they had presumably pre-paid for) - I thought something like this might happen.

Too many flags going up too soon to even be considered for a production machine/usage scenario.

I'm glad for the early adaptors - they make the new stuff better for us, eventually (used to be one too, back in my day) - but when the signs are this clearly spelt out for us, I'm glad I don't feel like I have a day/week/month of my work/life to waste anymore.

I'll repeat here what I've always said: 'exciting' is marketing and marketing means nothing most times. Intel's marketing is/was boring: 'We want to make the most 'consistent' SSD for our consumers'... but after two years of actually providing that - Intel's 'boring' claims are what most people want/need in an SSD; in other words 'reliability'. And, because of the extended time period (over two years), we can and should believe them.

I hope SandForce/OCZ resolve these issues fast for their customers - but they (OCZ) obviously haven't changed their mentality of offering anything solid and reliable to their customers as a top priority - no matter what their marketing may currently state.

Once more: the SandForce controller as explained/explored on numerous websites is an accident waiting to happen. The 'supercap' that the shipped drives don't have still did not stop Anand's copy (which had the supercap) from death, eventually.

When a controller is modifying and selecting which data it will actually store on it's NAND flash - there is always the possibility these incidents will happen. Doesn't matter what firmware or fix is issued - to me (from a reliability stand point) SandForce controllers are not to be touched with a ten foot pole.

 

bad start for sandforce then in the reliability business... i stay intel, thanks

edit: and another one on oczs list about "if we can make money, we sell it. doesn't bother us if customers might have issues".

 

You should probably ask this question in the Lenovo thread, there's more knowledgeable people than me.

First

DON'T INSTALL THE INTEL Matrix STORAGE MANAGER, Trim doesn't work with it (yet). Stick with the default Microsoft ones. I'm sure Intel is working to get the Trim problems sorted out.

The Windows Update module is probably helpful (from Microsoft I guess) and the Intel Wireless probably need to be updated. I assume that's Lenovo's customized wireless driver, though for a while I had Intel's generic ones while Lenovo figured out what the heck was wrong with the XP drivers. Intel's 5 series wi-fi cards started out with really flaky drivers for both XP and Vista. You have W7 so I don't know its driver situation. If your Thinkpad has a web cam, by all means install that driver. I have no idea what the 2 separate IntelAMT drivers do. I don't use Lenovo's toolbox. The updates to the audio drivers help with sound quality. Intel chipset drivers are important overall. Access Connections is great for some, but I gave up on it because it caused a bunch of problems with my schools wireless network.

You are aware about the problem with W7 and switchable graphics, right? (actually the reason I use Vista) See the reply by sr1650nx
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=462242&highlight=Windows+7+switchable+graphics

 

Trim ONLY works with the Microsoft AHCI driver at this time.

 

Native TRIM only works with the Microsoft driver; Intel SSD ToolBox can manually TRIM the drive on IRST drivers, and you can schedule it to run daily.

 

How do I know if it uses TRIM? I do use AHCI.

 

How do u know if the drive uses it? Check the specs...

How do you know if it is working ?

Go to the command prompt and type:


'fsutil behavior query DisableDeleteNotify'

If it returns a 0 the commands are being sent successfully and TRIM is good.

 

) you mean 0? If so, yes.

 

Thats what I put '0' eheheheh.

 

Odd. I'm using IRST and I'm getting a zero for the TRIM check.

Unless I'm missing something.

 

I think it means the commands are being sent, not necessarily successful. The command prompt returned a 0 for my summit prior to the TRIM firmware update.

Like you said, the drive has to support TRIM, the OS has to support TRIM and the SATA drivers have to support the TRIM command.

 

Where are my manners? I would like to formally welcome WD into the fray! http://www.tomshardware.com/news/wd-ssd-slc-siliconedge-n1x,9799.html

They have considerable force to bring to bear upon the SSD and decades of experience in the storage industry. i have used their drives about 75% of the time.

And, they are really the first storage retailer to enter the SSD arena. Can you say "Seagate"? Oh, forgot, the CEO there does not think SSD's will amount to anything

 

Okay so If i am using M$ drivers I dont have to run intel ssd toolbox? If im using irst drivers instead of M$ then I should also run SSD toolbox? Ive been using M$ driver and running intel ssd toolbox once a week....

 

I would run the SSD toolbox -- TRIM needs a fully optimized drive to begin with. If you take a borked drive and enable TRIM it will still be borked. If the drive is optimized and you enable TRIM, it should stay optimized. Any time you uninstall a large app like a game or something, it is a good idea to run the toolbox. I would not run it every day or week if the drive is already optimized.

 

I run my once a week (or two) with TRIM enabled...just as safety...

 

Pleasantly surprised WD also designed an SLC drive. Probably another Jmicron Saturday Night Special... I mean Toshiba branded Jmicron. I can imagine the prices will not be pleasant.

 

Can anyone tell me whether TRIM is truly enabled on my drive or is there something else I should have done with installing the SSD? As in, the firmware update or... is the firmware I have the most up to date, straight out of the box from newegg? (How do I check?)

 

How can we TELL you WITHOUT getting information from you???

 

Sry it was talking about it like 1 page behind.

I have an intel x25-m g2 80GB ssd, lenovo t500.

I installed W7 normally and let it update itself. Haven't really tinkered with any software for SSD.

Should I do anything? Disable write cache? Indexing?

 

Enabling AHCI mode would see bigger gains in bootup time. AHCI provides a huge boost in 4KB multithreaded performance on Intel SSDs that the boot process uses. See here for some performance differences IDE vs AHCI mode.

 

Les.
Do you really want me to link you to sites showing XP being faster than W7, Vista being faster than W7 or basically anything you want to see, you can find anything support whatever your personal view is on the internet....try googling "slow file copying with W7" for example, I don't believe anything unless I see for myself or someone I know who is objective enough not to slant results does comparisons.

Don't have any physical test results that I did to give you, what I said is what I remember, I no longer have windows 7 RC to do a comparison on my SSD between the two, that's why I asked the original question about what these windows 7 optimizations meant in reality with a stopwatch when you and daveperman keep going on about the huge advantages of not using XP on an SSD, I've seen nothing but good things.... neither of you have actually done the test [by your own admissions]to provide a real answer apart from showing 1 youtube video that supports what you want to believe, I can at least say I've done ground up comparisons on identical hardware between the two to make the comment [on hard drives but not SSD's yet] i don't expect you to believe me [especially as I no longer have a record of anything apart from whats in my head], fact is, why would I keep using XP if W7 were faster, it's the primary thing that I care about.

Your intel SSD is faster than mine, is that really a surprise ?, whats it got to do with the OS? even if the OS is responsible for better benchmarks, you still have a slower boot [lots of 4k R/W with booting right?]despite obviously spending a lot of time trying to speed it up compared to the very little I did....XP might be an ugly dinosaur, but considering all these "made to run on modern hardware" and "optimizations" windows 7 supposedly has....it doesn't seem to be equating to anything in reality speed wise from what I've read in this thread so far.

I will certainly advise you of my findings when I buy my new PC, but it may be a couple of months away yet.I hope I'm totally wrong with W7 and SSD, but can't see it considering the bios still see's an SSD as a hard disk, and the only OS optimizations seem to be maintenance and wear related.

I like basic looks, windows and Linux, so is not important at all.

Do you think the retail version of Windows 7 is improved compared to the RC ?