Samsung 830 SSD

Not 830 related, but there are some "gotchas" you may want to cover.

Shoot vicvelcro a PM or better yet post to his thread - http://forum.notebookreview.com/sol...s-7-hdd-ssd-optimizations-fresh-vs-clone.html

 

Just bought the 256GB Samsung 830 SSD for my new Chronos Z5C with core i7, only $225:
SAMSUNG 830 256GB SSD 2.5" SATA 6.0Gbps SSD MZ-7PC256D BARE DRIVE NO KIT | eBay

 

I bought the 830 256gb for my Alienware m14x. I just realized my order doesn't come with the spacer for the drive. It's too late to cancel the order. I don't have my hands on the m14x yet, so I'm not sure if I'll need the spacer or if I can just use screws to secure the drive.

Just wondering if there are any suggestions anyone has for making a spacer. Cardboard? Plastic? Any adverse effects from using cardboard?

Thanks!

 

can someone please tell me which models are for laptops?

MZ-7PC128B/WW
MZ-7PC128D/AM
MZ-7PC128N/AM

Or can you use each of those for laptops?

 

All of them are suitable for laptops, as long as they are 2.5" drives, may be the difference is that some come with upgrade kits and others are not or some models are for worldwide market and some for American market.

 

Just got it, first time using an SSD coming from a 5400rpm HD. Wow, I am speechless.

That said, do I still need to update firmware? Where can I find it? Thanks.

 

I didn't use the spacer when fitting mine, so I think you will be fine without one.

 

Cool! Good to know. I will finally get mine tomorrow.

 

You will find the firmware upgrade from within the Samsung Magician software that you installed. You did install that disk, yes? You can optimize the OS, do a performance optimization, over provision the SSD which needs to be done, and find other features within this software.

 

What ellalan said. B is bare drive, D is a desktop kit (comes with the 3.5-2.5 hdd bracket), and N is a notebook kit (comes with a transfer kit). The later two come with Norton ghost & a free game code.

Edit: My 128GB 830 for $90 from the Egg just got here

 

Just received my 256GB Samsung 830.

 

Pretty much exactly the same as my numbers after install a week ago. I've never used an SSD before so I'm pretty blown away by the performance.

 

SSD is great in concept, but not all SSDs are made alike. I had an OCZ Vertex three years ago and didn't notice much of a performance improvement. With the 830 I just got, my faith in SSDs has been restored. This little black box is a BEAST

Seriously, if you get an i5 or i7 processor you are throwing your money out the window if you don't have a good SSD. Did you guys know that Samsung sold its HDD business to Seagate? That's right, Samsung no longer makes or sells magnetic hard drives. They obviously know what you guys in this thread know, HDD are dinosaurs on their way out. All computers from entry level to high performance will come standard with SSDs within about 5 years

 

I grabbed myself the 512GB. Thinking of getting another one in the future for some RAID fun.

 

A little OT but what's the point of RAID? I see guys all the time setting one up but to me it serves no purpose especially RAID 1 which is just burning a drive for nothing when you can do online backups

 

Depends on what you're trying to accomplish.

RAID-0 : Striping for performance (w/ out any benefit of backup capabilities). Reads / Writes are spread across up to 2, 3, or 4 disks in a laptop. Performance is king, but one disk failure wipes out your entire RAID array.

RAID-1 : Mirroring for duplicate data. Minimal downtime. Yes, you have a backup, but it takes time / effort to restore backups. With mirroring, there is no downtime.

RAID-5 : Striping w/ checksum (or parity) involves three disks. Still has minimal downtime when losing a single disk. Reads are pretty fast as well. Writes will have a performance hit due to the checksum calculation.

See RAID - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia for more in depth descriptions.


In regards to mirroring, I myself don't want to mess w/ the downtime. Assuming I ever do lose one drive, I know my data is on the spare, and I have a third drive sitting unused in my office. Just pop it in, and operational in about 5 minutes or so. I guess you can ask yourself, is it worth the extra $$$ vs. the time it takes to restore from backup. Answers will vary depending on user to user.

 

I think the move to SATA 6Gbps was the game-changer. My first SSD was an Intel X-25M 160GB. Honestly didn't notice much improvement, if any, over my Caviar Blacks. Later, when I moved to systems with SATA 6 ports, is when I really noticed the difference.

 

As someone at the company I used to work at would say, "RAID (1) is not backup". If you delete a file, overwrite it, have some nasty virus/trojan, something that deletes or corrupts files, etc. it's going to happen to both drives.

I'm not so sure that 6 gbps SATA is the real game changer.

I built a new i7-860 machine w/an Intel X25-M G2 >2 years ago and love it compared to using machines w/crappy spinning hard drives. My mobo has no support for 6 gbps SATA.

I put a Samsung 830 SSD in my Lenovo T61p which is crippled to only support 1.5 gbps SATA even though the hardware can do 3 (but can't do 6). It's WAY better than the 7200 rpm drive it came with. I had copied over the entire contents of the 7200 rpm drive over so it's not like I installed clean on the new drive and had fewer things running on startup.

 

Yeah, SATA 6Gb/s is just mostly nice for benchmarking and working with big files. In general usage, my Samsung 830 feels pretty much the same as the SATA 3Gb/s SSD I replaced.

I want to move to all solid state. If I add another SSD, might as well RAID 0 it with my current one. I have no worries about Samsung's SSDs failing.

 

Agreed. And my post never talked about NOT having a backup, but rather recovering from a disk failure and downtime when recovering from a known good volume. Backups serve a different purpose, and are a necessity.

In regards to the actual "RAID (1) is not backup" quote, is it possible your colleague picked it up from here at NBR? There is a some advice regarding ALL versions of RAID in the last paragraph found in an older post from a sage of computer advice posted here - http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...64036-momentus-xt-raid-5-a-2.html#post7285894

 

Any issues with using TrueCrypt on the 830?

 

Related, I've been reading that enterprise version of the 830 comes with 256 bit AES encryption, and that this is just a firmware difference. Does anyone know where to get the enterprise firmware?

Also, I bought my 830 on eBay and the guy says that the firmware can't be updated and the drive won't work with Magician. Also, there is no small orange box on the cover of the drive in the corner. Could I already have an enterprise version? How can I tell?

 

Hey everyone,

I've had my 830 for about two weeks now and everything seems to be working great. I love how fast it is. But I do have one question: What is drive indexing and how do I turn it off? I heard that it is beneficial for a SSD to turn it off, but I do not know how to do this properly. In the SSD Magician software whenever I click tune it says it turns it off but the next time I open it up its on again. What should I do?

Thanks for the help guys

 

A Google search turns up AddictiveTips » Blog ArchiveDisable Search Indexing In Windows 7.

I personally don't care. I leave it on. Heck, I leave Superfetch on too.

BTW, if you're into this stuff, Can You Get More Space Or Speed From Your SSD? : Optimizing Precious Solid-State Storage might be interesting.

 

You don't need to disable Indexing, just use the optimization in Magician utility and make sure scheduled defragging is turned off.
In case if you want to switch off Indexing, right click "C" drive, Properties and you can disable under general tab.

 

I'm a minimalist when it comes to installing programs on my computer -- is the Magician Software any more useful/better than say Windows' TRIM?

 

There is absolutely no real world benefit to disabling indexing. It's an important feature of Windows and enables you to search from the Start Menu. It gathers info on the contents of documents, making files searchable by the words they contain.

Indexing is not a large enough process to even remotely have a noticeably negative impact on your SSD.

 

I have Samsung 830 64GB SSD in my laptop ..
Since I live in Indonesia (Southeast Asia), Samsung Indonesia cannot help me with RMA procedure .. So I emailed Samsung USA, and they replied my email, that I should register my SSD so Samsung USA know how to assisst my issue ..
If Samsung USA can assisst my RMA issue, is that mean I have to send my SSD directly to USA?

Anyone here with RMA experience outside USA?

Thank you for your answer ..

 

You have to shipped your SSD to USA and they will send you the replacement. It's simple.

 

Another convert here. I bought a 128gb for $89. Installed it in my wife's Acer ao722 netbook and this thing is flying now, even though it's saying sata II and the processor is c60. Gonna wait for a 512gb to drop in price for my own laptop.

 

What's wrong with it? Why do you need an RMA?

What laptop are you using it in? I noticed one of your previous posts mentions T61. I have a T61p and had to apply registry changes to prevent problems I listed at http://forum.notebookreview.com/sol...673999-what-hell-wrong-my-m4.html#post8672731.

See http://forum.notebookreview.com/sol...ge/613245-samsung-830-ssd-25.html#post8287055 for more details. If my link doesn't work, go to post 248 of this thread.

It may not be that simple. The warranty may not be valid in certain countries.

 

You purchased your SSD from Samsung Indonesia right it's Samsung authorise retailer or not, If yes then Samsung will help you out.

 

I bought a BNIB Samsung 830 from a local reseller in Indonesia recently, and I read that Samsung gave 3-years warranty for their SSD.

And yes, my laptop is T61

So the first thing crossed my mind was to contact Samsung Indonesia to help me with RMA issue, if within 3 year my loveky 830 goes wrong

But Samsung Indonesia replied my email, telling me that they cannot help with RMA issue for SSD, since Samsung Indonesia doesn't sell any SSD, just regular household, pc peripherals ..

I even contacted Samsung Indonesia by phone to make sure if they really cannot help me if I want to do a RMA for my SSD in the future .. the agent spoke the same as they wrote on email
--

and the best solution come up from Samsung USA ..
I talk to an agent via chat service that they provided in their website, and told me that I should contact Samsung Indonesia .. I've told the agent that I have contacted Samsung Indonesia and they cannot help me ..

I've sent email to Samsung USa, and they replied my email, told me that I should register my product on their website (I cannot register my 830 via Samsung Indonesia), so Samsung USA can help me with RMA issue

I see the same issue with Corsair's memory sticks that are not for sale in Indonesian market, but Corsair USA can help you out by sending the 'bad' memory sticks to them

Samsung SSD's warranty valid worldwide (they even put a pull-down menu, asking where you get the SSD, whether it's form authorized reseller or from amazon / ebay )

Samsung Indonesia doesn't sell hard drive or SSD, they only selling household items, cellphones and some pc stuffs (optical drives), but no SSD here in Indonesia ..
---

Samsung 830 is great SSD, beside Crucial M4 (Indonesia doesn't have Crucial's authorized reseller, too ... so we have to send to Malaysia for RMA issue)

I guess not much people know the power of Samsung 830 here in Indonesia (the 830 64GB's price is US$ 35 higher than 64GB Crucial M4 )

 

Interesting (my) Exchange of views with the support of Dell

Here is the story of little support from the DELL (incompetent)

Disk SSD PM830

The general problem of bad software disk (no updates) Poor disk performance

My inquiry:

Problem Description:

Hi To the above I bought a laptop SSD Samsung PM830 DP / N 0GYG3M. Current software is hard cxm02d1q. On Samsung (from half a year) is a new software cxm03 ..... Is Dell (be generous) will upgrade its software to version cxm03 drive? The current software (firmware cxm02d1q) disk is not the most wonderful (has errors). I particularly affects the performance of Disk. My Question When will a software update for the 512GB drive PM830. As a reminder to inform you that you can not upgrade using Samsung (Samsung does not support drives sold for DELL) Until now, Dell, I thought was a decent company, but now I have this ever more questionable. What compels me to stop buying Dell computers

RecentChanges

HDD Samsung (branded DELL) pm830 512GB Firmware cxm02d1q

DELL support response:

Thank you for contacting Dell Support! It was a pleasure working with you today on this issue. I will be the owner of this Service Request, so I will be your primary contact for this issue and I am the best person to contact if anything additional is needed while your issue is being resolved.

Unfortunately, we do not currently have the firmware upgrade you're looking for. I'll esclate this service request to our Resolution Expert Center(REC) as they may possibly have a work around at this time.

Please do not hesitate to reply to this email if you have any questions or concerns and I will get back to you as soon as I can. Also, please let me know your preferred method of contact, whether it be by phone or email. At Dell we take pride in our service, so please let me know if I can be of assistance in any way.

Thank you for choosing Dell,


My inquiry:

Hi Continued Something is wrong with the technical support, the drive is old software, and Samsung recently issued software (firmware for the drive) new. A technical support Dell believes that there is no problem? All the internet writing about a bad firmware for this drive. Even on the Dell forum. So, gentlemen, or new software (one at the end of this topic will take), or selling the wrong computer (with HDD) I do not pile more Dell computer. Also, anyone does not recommend this brand. And even I will spread the message that DELL is a bad brand. Easy as ....
As the little I know the PC market. Probably enough to DELL, had asked Samsung to prepare for the
drive of new software. If Dell thinks that will save, they are wrong and lose.
I give the brand DELL two weeks to solve the problem.

(next post - email)

Hi
(Continued)
Dell Tech Support
Drive Samsung PM830 firmware problem
The problem is the speed of reading and writing 4KB blocks on the disk is on average 5 - 6 times slower than the same disk but with the Samsung software. Kryczyczne This is because such units are usually written and read by MS Windows!
Please example: Dell OEM Samsung PM830 vs Retail 830 SSD - Joseph Jozwik
and
Unable to firmware update samsung ssd that came in r3 - Alienware Forum - Alienware Club - Dell Community # 20,030,229
This is not acceptable!

DELL support response:

Dear []

Thank you for contacting Dell Technical Support. I am following up on behalf of your case owner who is currently out of the office. You had submitted two support requests on our website to respond back to your case owner and our department. In the future, all you need to do is reply back to the e-mail that we sent you from our department. There is no need to continue to submit support requests. Your current case number is [].

As for the issue you are experiencing, so far Dell does not have a solution for you at this time. The system you purchased did not originally come with the Samsung SSD that you are experiencing the issue with. Dell does not have the most current firmware for the drive but Samsung may have the firmware. Have you contact Samsung as they are the manufacturer of the drive? Below are contact options for Samsung. You should contact Samsung for support on this issue first. We have already escalated the issue as well and you should be contacted soon with other options available as your case owner previously mentioned. If you have any further issues or questions, please reply to this e-mail

Samsung phone support: 1-800-726-7864
Support page: Samsung

Thank you for choosing Dell,



Conclusion?

Dell is getting worse support.

Until recently, I thought this brand as one of the most reliable. Unfortunately not think so.

You can not sell the equipment to a defect and then sent back to hell! You do not even know of disks sold in Dell do not have support from the samsung (other vendors as well)

Probably save you money on this to Samsung as a supplier of updated software!

I understand that if it was a drive for $ 100. But if it is for about $ 800, and the computer for a few thousand USD is already a scandal!



Do you have to wait for a hack software? To solve the problem? DELL nothing more I do not buy it. I'm sorry but with this approach?



Please contact us for more.

You have to harass Dell (posts) That is, for inquiries on the problem.

 

I know this a biggest problem, I was importing many computer when I was in class 10th from U.S, rarely send few product for the RMA.

In India we also don't have authorize dealer for Samsung SSD, but there are other retailer who are providing Samsung SSD (charging too much) and also they provide the RMA support, they do all process on your behalf. So in your case that retailer have to do the RMA work for you.

For Corsair we have officially support. So where you are going to send your SSD U.S or Malaysia ?

 

The Crucial SSD? I don't own a Crucial SSD
But in my case, I think I will send my SSD to a friend of mine in Wyoming or send the Samsung SSD back to the U.S retailer

but so far, the Samsung 830 SSD works great in my T61 64GB is enough for me atm

 

For anyone that has had the 830, specifically the 256GB version, for a while, have you noticed slowdown issues as the drive starts to fill up?

I've ran into a couple of reviews that say the drive isn't great on power usage, which I can deal with, though a couple of them say that the garbage cleanup on formerly used space, with TRIM or without TRIM, seems to be a bit lacking.

 

I get around 30 minutes more battery life with my 256GB Samsung SSD. As for any slowdowns, I think it depends on how many read and write cycles it performs and in a sustained period as I thought garbage collection occurred while the SSD was idle. I activate a performance optimization every few days with both my SSD's and notice no dramtic slowdowns. My 512GB SSD seems a little faster than the 256GB.

 

I noticed some slowdown with my random read/write, but the sequential read/write is the same. My drive is the 256gb model and it's about halfway filled.

 

I did a little experiment ..

I put my 64GB Samsung 830 ssd inside my 2.5 inch external case with usb 2.0 ..
I've set the bios to AHCI mode, changed the startup boot to boot from usb .. aaaaannnddd ....

the screen showed win7 opening title but after that .... the magnificent BSOD shows up, lol
tried to boot again without the ahci mode, still no luck ... the BSOD exists again

should I do a fresh install again on the ssd or I should change my external case to esata 2 or usb 3.0?
if the hdd caddy is the best solution ... I guess I have to get one for my T61, lol

 

Even if it worked, I seriously would NOT want to use USB 2.0 for even a regular hard drive (let alone a SSD) to run Windows off of. USB 2.0 is WAY too slow vs. even regular hard drive transfer rates and is a huge bottleneck.

I don't know what's the point of mucking w/external eSATA cases or USB 3.0. The T61 doesn't have either.

I would just fresh install onto your new SSD. Or, make an image of your hard drive (assuming it's aligned properly) and restore onto your SSD (that's installed in your laptop).

I don't know your setup, but mucking around w/drives coming and going might make BCD point at the wrong drives, causing the boot problems. You can read about BCDEDIT - How to Use - Windows 7 Forums.

 

I have just ordered a Samsung 830 256GB w/Notebook upgrade kit and have a quick question re the reliability of the bundled Ghost software. The drive will be going into a very stable system that currently has Win7 x64 and all other software installed on an Intel 310 series 80GB mSATA (which is getting too full). Is the bundled Ghost version reliable enough to do a proper clone of the drive? Or do I need to do a clean install all over again?

 

Can't comment on Ghost, specifically, but highly recommend a proper clean install to continue your 'very stable Win7x64' setup going forward with your new SSD.

If there is just one issue discovered after cloning that may indicate a clean install is needed - all the votes for ANY cloning software are null and void (if system stability is your primary concern).

 

Thanks. I was leaning towards a clean install, but wanted to see if I could get away without it for a bit because of time constraints. On the other hand, I might leave the mSATA alone for now and just setup a dual boot with Win 8 RP on the Samsung. I saw your posts on it and think I will give it a go on the Samsung. Not keen on metro though, but I do like some of the other features of Win8RP.

 

man...the 256GB 830 is under $200 now. i've read that this is one of the best mid-tier SSD's. how does the reliability and performance of this drive measure up to drives from corsair or kingston? i see those companies are having competitive prices as well.

 

Will let you know about the 830 once I put it in my personal machine. At work, I have been using a Thinkpad T420 with the 830 256 GB for several months now and its fast, stable and reliable (never crashed, no data loss, no problem whatsoever). Since we (wife and I) have two of the same machines at home (hers has a Crucial m4 128GB and mine needed an SSD upgrade), I ordered the 830. I don't know much about Corsair and Kingston drives other than that I have stayed away from SSDs that use Sandforce controllers because stability and reliability are a must for the work we both do. The only exceptions are the Intel 520 series which use Sandforce controllers, but somehow I never manged to find them at a price w/in my budget.

And, of course, the Samsung and Crucial seem to be getting the most votes on this and other forums for their reliability.

 

i read somewhere that the OCZ Vertex 4 was one of the fastest SSD's, but reliability is my greatest concern with these SSD's. i'd rather get something that i know will last me for at least 2-3 years, and do it reliably. it looks like i might just pull the trigger on the 830 because of it's supposed to be a very consistent drive.

 

Just to add to your research, check out the thread for the Kingston drives: http://forum.notebookreview.com/sol...0-having-serious-performance-problems-24.html

 

830 power consumption is pretty ridiculous. That's the only reason I sold mine a while ago. Incredibly fast though.

 

How ridiculous?