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

Can somebody give me a real life reason to get the Intel G2 over a OCZ Vertex?

With the announcment of the new G2's everybody is jumping all over it saying its the best SSD ever (even though its slower in write than G1's) I think the real reason its better to most people is the lower price.

But when OCZ cut the Vertex prices due to G2 actually making them cheaper in a $/GB scenario price is won by the Vertex.

So that leaves pretty much performance the only thing left to debate, and I am pretty sure in the past it has already been shown that the Vertex is instant everything for all your programs. If its already "instant" fast then why would you pay more for the intel when it is still only going to work in real life just as fast?

So what I am looking for here is somebody level headed enough to evaluate real life performance and the cost and not just the raw benchmark numbers.

 

one thing besides G2 being the best is, it's from intel. the other one is from who again? ocz, and and some funky mini-company creating a controller called indilinx?

I trust intel more to have the drives tested completely even in edgecases, and delivering great support, than i would trust ocz.

so, the ocz is more for the ones that want to play with it. the intel for the ones that just want it to work. sort of.

and if you say, that's not true, then just think about the other ocz ssds that where out, and what happened as strange things so far (like they delivered ssd's without a firmware on, and such).

and besides that (granted, i haven't had a vertex yet in my hands), the intel is by far the fastest thing i've ever had in my hands. samsungs? i laugh at them. mtron, i don't laugh at them, but they got detroned (still they're very snappy).

i'd like to get a vertex for testing.

oh, and the intel delivers 1.8" drives. there's no vertex yet for the subnotebook marked, or is there? (i think supertalent has some indilinx 1.8"?)

 

when I updated mine samsung slc 64GB, data remain where it was

 

I don't think it is slower in writes than the G1. It is slower in sequential writes than the Indilinx based drives, but relative to the previous Intel drives, it's the same or better.

Sort of. They operate at different storage points so they're not directly competing (Intel doesn't have a 128 GB drive and OCZ doesn't have one that is 80 GB).

First, you're not paying that much more. Second, there are probably instances in which there is a noticeable difference in performance (else why would OCZ drop the price below Intel's rather than just equal to it). And finally, some people just prefer to deal with Intel -- they've been around for decades and I've never had one of their products spontaneously break down.

I'm still waiting for the full AnandTech review, but my intuition says to go with the Intels.

 

can anybody find these in stock anywhere? i had to send mine back. noticed my random r/w speeds were about 1/2 what they should be so i check the firmware version and it said it was a "pre-production" firmware, then intel told me to send it back. so now of course it's out of stock where i got it from. anybody know where to get one?

 

Is there a driver or firmware update for Samsung MLC SSDs?
If so where do I download this?

 

I think you'll be fine with an indilinx drive rather than intel. its not likely you'll be maxing either often, if at all, and even if you did you wouldn't notice a difference unless the two drives were running in parrallel, maybe you would notice intel's slower sequential writes, but then vice versa with random writes (but probably to a much lesser extent)....

I'd say, if you really wanna save a few bucks go for an indilinx otherwise with intel you get great (if not superior) performance, piece of mind, and an assurance that intel will make things right if ever they go wrong

 

Thanks! I may play around with this and flash my OCZ Solid... looks like you did the same... how's it working so far? Are you glad you flashed it?

 

I've just finished catching up to the SSD stuff and I noticed there is alot of talk about the vertex drives... so now I'm faced with a decision, I'm going to replace my Jmicron based SSD... so here are my options
OCZ Vertex 30GB (used, look at the marketplace)
Intel M-25X G2 80GB

I just want my machine to boot fast, I restart it like 10 times a day sometimes... load Linux VM's etc. so I'm tired of waiting. Space is not an issue, (I have a 64GB jMicron for that )

open to suggestions but I'm leaning towards the intel, according to Crystaldiskmark its about 247MB/s where as the OCZ is 197... what to do?

 

Those speeds are irrelevant for booting. You want to look at random R/W. Intel easily doubles (if not more than) OCZ's speed for that. If you want the fastest at booting and that stuff, get Intel. However, if you're on a tight budget and 30GB is enough, then you can save some $$ by getting the OCZ.

 

G2 testing from LegitReviews:
http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1022/1/

 

thanks for the linkage.

 

Good review too!

 

hmm. looks like Intel is were it's at for me any word when intel will use the 34nm on the E series?

 

Wasn't there a link to a foreign site a couple pages back which had the powerpoint timetable for Intel's SSDs from their Postville announcement?

 

^^ I'd love to see it. about how many pages? lol

 

Yes, they will do a Postville refresh which will bring in the new 300/320GB sized MLC SSDs and up to 256GB SLC drives (H1 10). Then H2 10 will bring SATA/600 SSDs!

edit: here is the translated link (from Greek)

http://translate.google.com/transla...thread.php?t=5445&sl=el&tl=en&history_state0=

 

I think everything is said ;-)

 

Well, now I've decided to wait.

 

Then in H2 10, they say H1 11 you will have 1TB SSDs for cheap... and you keep waiting lol

 

check his sig, he talks about "in 4 years"

 

Are there any noticeable differences between a second generation Intel SSD and an OCZ Agility? I'm thinking of going for the 120GB Agility ($280) instead of the 80GB Intel G2 ($225) for the large increase in space while still having very respectable transfer/access rates. Anything I'd be missing out on by going for the Agility over the X25 in terms of noticeable latency delay or TRIM support or anything?

 

Newegg had the new Intel SSD's on their page for one evening. I'm kind of thinking they pulled it cause they want to offload their old stock first. It may have just been a temporary placeholder, but still. I'll be ticked if they are doing that, considering the old ones are more expensive and they don't want to lose those sales to the new Intel ones.
I'm actually ready to buy one of the new generation Intel SSD's, so I'm waiting for someone to get them in stock.
Newegg doesn't even have them listed as out of stock, or pre-order or anything, they're just gone now... Newegg better have a good reason for taking them off their site.

 

I'm pretty sure Newegg, like all the other dealers that were planning on selling the new Intel SSDs, are forbidden to sell them since the stock must be 'patched' for some error with bios and the password for bios. Take a look at this link:
http://www.pugetsystems.com/blog/2009/07/24/minor-hiccup-on-new-intel-ssds/

 

Didn't it say "in 4 years" last year? LoL.

OCZ Agility is based on Samsung's controller and will be slower than Intel's and have no support for TRIM (I believe). As to whether it would be noticeable, if you compared them side by side, you would, but if you're going from HDD to SSD, then no.

From a few pages back, Intel is fixing a problem with BIOS HDD passwords not cooperating with their Gen2 drives. That is why Intel pulled them. Unlike other companies, Intel would rather delay their launch then wait until the problem becomes widespread and then issue a recall.

 

All the reviews I've read has stated that it's based on the Indilinx 'Barefoot' controller. Any idea how well these work?

 

Indilinx works fine with current firmware. But Samsung still uses the least power of all the good choices.

 

Sorry I'm thinking Summit. You're right, it's the same controller as the Vertex but cheaper, non-Samsung NAND flash.

 

Oh I see. Interesting. It's a little hard to keep track of a thread that's 724 pages long.

 

OCZ Agility uses Indilix controller and cheaper and slower memory then Vertex.

Here is link why no one can by new Intel SSDs.

For now OCZ and Intel made a mistake just because they wont to make some money.
OCZ shipped Vertex without FW, and Intel shipped G2 with pre-production and defective FW.

 

My Corsair/Samsung ordered was canceled because they incorrectly marked the website as instock UGH.. I dunno whether to try Vertex or wait for Colassus.. wonder how long it will be..

 

Now that's what i'm looking forward to.

Hey they are just trying there best to please the consumers and get the drives out there asap.

 

I've noticed no problems whatsoever so far. On the contrary, I've only noticed a huge jump in performance since stuttering is essentially eliminated. Previously I would get some serious stuttering for certain tasks (Windows Live Mail, browsing folders, typing messages on forums, etc) but those have disappeard

 

Hi guys, any idea when the next pricedrop will be for SDD?

I would like to purchase a 120gb SSD.

 

Here is the original message that you were looking for Intel's roadmap on SSDs :

Intel Ephraim/Postville/Postville Refresh/Taylorsville SSDs Specs Inside : Intel roadmap

Is in greek but the pictures speak from themselves.

Google translated​

 

I agree. That's why I invite everyone to start a separate thread if they have a relevant question or want to share information.

It's constantly happening. Here's the price development of Intel X25M:

 

Guess I am going to have to sit on my hands for a while until I see a dirt cheap Gen 2 160GB Intel, that is unless something better comes out before then or the competition does some really serious underselling.

 

it will be great timing/pricing strategy if win 7 comes out and ssds get cheaper

 

I couldn't resist so I tried upgrading my OCZ Solid 60GB on my Vista x64 machine with the firmware update utility posted on another site (thanks Jackboot). I took it out of my Win XP machine (after backing up with Acronis True Image) and hooked it up to my Vista machine via USB. I ran the update utility as administrator. It found the drive and I tried upgrading (pressing the "ISP start" button) but it failed:

I detached the drive and hooked it back up again and on another attempt it worked!

I restored the Acronis image to the drive and put it back in my Windows XP machine. It booted! And the system definitely *FEELS* faster, but I did not do any scientific tests.

 

dunno, but they could (and others have proven it) break the sata2 and sata3 barrier right now by dropping sata, and going pcie instead.

i'd like that development:
s-ata ssds as they exist now for anyone who wants to switch their hdd for an ssd
pcie ssds right now for new systems. no sata in there actually.

waiting over a year to get finally out of the 300MB/s barrier? to go directly to the 600MB/s barrier? while we could be much further right now if we finally would drop sata?

thanks, no, i'd like pcie. now.




Impressive move from intel btw, to remove them again from the shops. Not every company would act like that. Great move.

 

Guys, I am about to get SSD from Samsung, suppose to be the same as for Macbooks, some RBB controller, should to about 220 read and 120 write speed...

Any tips on this drivers, I will use W7 on it, shall I apply some tunes?

 

no tunings. just use it and love it.

win7 does all the needed tunings by itself.

 

Yeah, this really doesn't make sense to me either. SSDs will have that 600MB/s maxed by the end of next year, I'm sure. A standard shouldn't only be relevant for a couple of years for technology, especially when it's SSDs that would only be benefitting from SATA 600, right?

 

If they only allowed you to boot from pcie...

 

But really, in typical use, are you really going to notice 600MB/s over 300MB/s? Maybe if you are moving large files or something, but otherwise I doubt it.

 

Video games you will... Loading levels and check points and stuff...

other than that i'm not sure how often you transfer hundreds of mb... but the way things go files just get bigger and bigger with apps getting more and more complex.

I can't believe some one is actually questioning the need for speed!!! haha

 

no problem. get a pcie-raid-card. you can boot from those. booting from pcie is supported, it's just, the drive has to support it (or the raid controller, or what ever's on it).

pcie network cards allow it, too


so, if you're one of those piece-together-stuff-and-sell-it companies (a.k.a. ocz ), then just get a pcie 10gbit lan card, and a 10gbit nas, where you can plug in tons of your ssd controllers. put all that into the pc (in 2.5" format), and you can boot without coding a single piece of firmware just tell the users to enable netboot

 

I hope, thanks to netbooks and more and more growing smartphone use, the ones that create the need for speed start to question it as well, and start to optimize their apps and file structures. then, we, with the fast ssds, will have blazing fast systems for a long long time

 

I think you are right. The real world benchmarks will show little improvement.

 

Don't think of the "NOW", think of the "FUTURE"...

I'm sure, no matter how streamline apps are coded, they will still be able to benefit from more complexity and size, and with that, higher transfer speeds will benefit.

I think everyone here, especially in this particular thread, knows how fast technology can change and grow!