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

FYI Newegg has the new intel 160GB for $1000:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820167015

 

Your link from Newegg shows $1050. Buy.com is $962.

is http://www.buy.com/prod/x25-m-sata-...r-warranty-mm-900343/q/loc/101/210477489.html

 

That begs the question: since 2 80GB Intel X25-M drives cost less than 1 160GB, at least at the moment, wouldn't you be better off right now from a performance standpoint with the 2 80GB in RAID 0 (assuming a desktop or notebook that is capable of using multiple drives)?

 

Given the 2.5" form factor it's probable that they're aimed at laptops, which likely don't support 2 drives. But yeah, for a desktop it'd be better to get 2 and stick them in one of these:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817998038

 

The best you can get for 80GB new is $500, so the 160GB is roughly the same value at double the price.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001F4YIYY

 

I have seen the 80 from reputable Ebay Sellers for about 400.

 

Yep. I bought an 80GB brand new sealed off eBay for $430 shipped and that was a few weeks ago.

My point though, was that normally when new higher capacity drives come out from the same manufacturer, they tend to be slightly less expensive per GB. The cost usually isn't linear. In this case not so much. So, given that fact, wouldn't two 80GBs in RAID 0 effectively give you higher performance for the (roughly) same expenditure...

 

One thing I'm curious about is whether anyone will come close to dethroning the X25M's low power consumption. I just look at the Vertex's specs on OCZ's website and was a little sad. Oh well, with that level of performance you can't have it all.

http://www.ocztechnology.com/products/flash_drives/ocz_vertex_series_sata_ii_2_5-ssd

 

Looks to me like once again Intel is keeping the prices artificially high. There's a surprise. I hope they fall in price just that much faster. A G note for a 160GB SSD I do not care who the heck makes it, is patently absurd. And not even SLC. Shame shame shame on Intel

 

G.skill are selling their new Titan SSD's on newegg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231243. Here's a review on it: http://legionhardware.com/document.php?id=804.

 

at least their 80gb version dropped to half during the last few months. if they continue to do, we'll soon have the 160gb for 400 and something on ebay .

oh, and, to heavyharmonies: yes, raid0ing two smaller ones is normally always worth the bit more you have to pay.. but mostly only for desktop environments.

 

Very promising.
Too bad Newegg doesn't do any returns on SSDs ... otherwise I would be willing to try out.

 

Mmmmh. Official benchmarks:

http://newgskill.web-bi.net/bbs/view.php?id=g_newproduct&no=22

 

A nice one to keep my eye on. 128 would be just perfect for me.

 

I just pulled the trigger on one of these.

I will get back to you on thursday with a geekbench (Mac) test.

(I figure if I multiply the typically preposterously inflated specs by about .7 that is the performance i'll get)

 

Can't wait to hear more about G.Skill's Titans! If that drive doesn't suffer from stuttering, then $300 for 128GB at those speeds is very tempting.

 

That's what has me gunshy about these new drives. All the sequential read and write benchmarks in the world don't mean diddly squat if the drive is hampered with the stuttering which makes it as useless as a 4200rpm drive.

Someone needs to develop StutterBench Suite(tm)

 

Too bad the TITAN doesn't come in 64GB as I wanted to raid a couple 64GB drives in the upcoming RAID SSD enclosures.

But all these new SSDs are great for competition! Intel is going to have to lower its price.

 

what would the raid help you? they allready nearly saturate the bus.

 

Same here.
Looking at the ATTO benchmark, my Momentus 7200rpm drive beats the Titan SSD on 0.5 - 8 read/writes. Bigger (sequential) reads/writes the SSD is faster.

I find it the pinnacle of irony that it is the random reads and writes that are so slow on SSDs. Logic would dictate that the faster access time should make those random reads/writes much, much, much faster than those of a HDD.

 

Are G.Skill Titans already sold out on Newegg? Or were they there to begin with?

 

they were in stock this morning, i was able to put one in my cart.... but about 2 hours later, it was removed due to insufficient stock

 

Please elaborate. I don't get it...

 

They NEARLY do, but don't hit it... and that is only when they are at their peak performance. What if they are not at their peak MB/sec? Then RAID would almost double the speed.

 

Write speeds still have a good amount of clearance before they reach the limit of the SATA 2.0 bus, so RAID 0 might yield appreciable gains there.

 

True... Can't forget about write speeds! I want one of those nifty 3.5" bay mounted SSD RAID devices that are coming out. I think they will be well priced (like $60 or so). For that price I think it's well worth it - for the mount and performance increase, assuming they are quality devices.

 

At the risk of repeating myself (3rd time I've posted this, not that I blame anyone for not sifting through every post in this thread), you can get one already, although it won't RAID them internally in the enclosure, which may or may not be a big deal depending on your mobo:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817998038

 

The OCZ vertex 2 claims a read speed of 500something. That's over sata2 specs, how can it be possible or relevant to anyone?

 

SATA 6Gb/s
SATA-IO presented the draft specification of 6 Gbit/s physical layer in July 2008,[7] and ratified its physical layer specification on August 18, 2008. The full 3.0 standard is expected to be available in early 2009.[8] While even the fastest conventional hard disk drives can barely saturate the original SATA 1.5 Gbit/s bandwidth, Intel's Solid State Disk drives are close to saturating the SATA 3 Gb/s limit at 250 MB/s net read speed, and other new drives including Super Talent, Memoright and Samsung are close to that as well. Ten channels of fast flash can actually reach well over 500 MB/s with new ONFI drives, so a move from SATA 3 Gb/s to SATA 6 Gb/s would benefit the flash read speeds. As for the standard hard disks, the reads from their built-in DRAM cache will end up faster across the new interface.[9] ( source)

 

I'm looking into SSD's for my father, who has a Sony SZ420. I was wondering if there was any word on SSD compatiblity with Sony's, as I know in the past there were issues.

Also, he is looking into 128Gb drives. Is the Samsung 128Gb drive good? As far as I can tell the word is still out on the G.Skill Titan.

Any recommendations?

Thanks,
Greg

 

Like you said, that doesn't RAID them internally into one SATA port.

 

The G.Skill Titan's specs look identical to the OCZ Vertex, even down to the 1.5Million hour MTBF. ...

 

I doubt very much that these are the same.

They would tout the cache thing everywhere if they had it.

 

i still don't get the use of that raid-bay.. you can just raid them on your motherboard controller as well. and you should not get saturation there, then, at all..

my 2 ssd's are fixed at the case with rubberbands, removed the tray for 3.5" alltogether. now i have much more space in the case, and the rubberband is enough for the ssds, as they don't move.. and the raid is onboard from intel.

 

OK, which is better, the titan or the vertex????? Man, it is getting truly impossible to sort thru all they hype. All places still quote almost meaningless benchmarks, rather than real world use, ie DOES IT STUTTER OR NOT? DOES IT WORK WITH VISTA, OR NOT?? At $300 for a 128GB that actually works, I am ready. But I really do not want to go thru another try and send back scenario.

 

just wait till someone has one to report?

 

I ordered a a 256 GB Titan yesterday from Newegg and I'll let you know if it stutters or not.

 

you'll have a mission:

1. grab iometer http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/iometer/iometer-2006.07.27.win32.i386-setup.exe?download<br />
2. this iometer config http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=6566&d=1220994173
3. extract the config file (whereever) and then open it (iometer will open)
4. expand your PC treeview thing on the left and click worker 1
5. in disk targets, select OCZ core drive letter
6. click results display tab and move update frequency to say 10s (so you can watch it go)
7. click the green go button. it allocates like 10GB file on the drive, and then will randomly write to different portions of it.

report what this test will result in..

 

Yes, I will wait. I guess it is up to ones like us to provide an actually useful review I congratulate G. Skill on their price, but only if it WORKS!

 

Yes, yes, yes!
Are SSDs finally ready for me to get one.
Am very excited to see people's results with the Titan and the Vertex.


anybody know when the next gen Samsung SLC SSDs will land?

 

The titan is more like the upcoming ocz apex drives. It has two Jmicron controllers inside raided. It increases performance and avoids the stuttering problem.

Generally, people with raided jmicron drives have not have stuttering problems. This negates the need for the drives to be raided on the system because they are raided internally. It opens them up for notebook users and allows the purchase of a single, fast drive needing little configuration.

 

Exactly

 

According to UPS my Titan SSD is out for delivery.

 

Anyone know the hardware differences between the OCZ Apex and the OCZ Vertex? VERY interesting about the raided Jmicron's on the Titan. I am amazed. Also very curious about the next SanDisk G3 and Samsung offerings. WOW, this could be an AWESOME month!

 

Yep. I sure hope there is a price war.

 

Anybody got any info on PHOTOFAST G-Monster V2? I can't find any info on seek times or performance review. Anybody got any opinions? http://www.photofast.tw/eng/SSD_G_Monster_V2.html

 

They sell in Japan. Haven't used one myself - there are some performance numbers on one of the online shopping sites though here:
http://bbs.kakaku.com/bbs/K0000008459/

 

And?


(blah bla bla)

 

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE install that Titan ASAP and report with your impressions I was about to place an order for an Intel X25-M today, but I will hold off until monday just to hear what you have to say about the Titan

 

Yes, we all want to know about the TITAN and all the other new SSDs that are coming out soon!