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

Quite frankly, I second IOMeter, CrystalDiskMark and ATTO. With the SSD, HDTune doesn't really tell you anything other than the average sequential read speed... which really isn't a problem for any current SSD.

 

Which brand does official Apple use? OCZ? Mtron? Memoright?

 

This man knows what he is talking about!

 

IOMeter will get the SSD to steady-state really quick though. CDM is ok, except its flawed in a way it reports the highest number as the final score.

 

Apple uses Samsung SSDs.

 

Well that's pretty weird for a machine to be picky of it's HDD or RAM, why do apples do that? So they can sell their hardware upgrades at hundreds over market price? Another reason i will never buy apple.

 

So i keep seeing stuff about the vertex and apex more and more lately. Does anyone have a clue on the ETA?

 

Stores that are carrying the Apex have them now or will any day now. The Vertex seems to be have been manufactured but is going through firmware update testing, and thus has not been shipped to retailers:

http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=48956&page=11

 

so newegg doesn't carry apex? =(

 

I'm pretty sure I read that Newegg was going to carry it, but that they aren't going to SKU it until they actually have the first one to sell. I think they are expecting it any day now.

What I'm curious about is if there will be any confirmation that the G.Skill Titan is actually the same exact drive, but lots cheaper.

 

It is likely that you have found a way to exceed the random write capacity of the Titan (and possibly overload it to the extent that the internal controllers stall).

The thing is that Microsoft OS are random write happy (as in lots of random writes) but have crappy caching policies and algorithms (as compared to e.g. *nix OSes). Some sysadmins that run virtualized MS Servers tend to do it on Unix systems. The reason why is because while the VM internally is doing its MS caching and disk accessing, it is the Unix OS that controls the underlying caching and disk accessing. So by running MS OS virtualized as guests in a Unix host, they are able to get much better performance from the same hardware.

When you are running the VM under OSX, you get the benefits of OSX not exhausting as many random writes as Vista, as well as OSX managing the underlying caching and disk access of the VM that you are running. Therfore my guess is that you just have discovered that the Titan's random write capacity is insufficient to run a VM within Vista with acceptable performance.

 

Man, I hope not. I'll find out when my Dell gets here. The difference is staggering. I would think it would be gradual, building up to decreased response, not instant stop.

 

this instant stop is what cheap ssd's do. like the jmicron based ones.

problem is, you now have two jmicron. that means in single-use, this is great, as you always have a second left. but espencially in a vm scenario, you have two os living on it's own, essencially doubling the workload. by doing so, it has a high chance to stall both the controllers.

the intel actually has what? 8 parallel "controllers" in its controller to handle big workloads. or even more? the chance to stall them all is very tiny.

 

you're correct. I just wanted to add HDTune to the list that somebody posted (jedisolo), and yet I quited the wrong post .. lol.

 

There's no evidence this is an Apple issue. There is lots of data of people running third party hard drives and SSDs with Macs without problems. Someone here is jumping to the conclusion that is a problem with the Mac as opposed to an issue with the Titan drive.

 

I agree, being the victim, and also not a fan of Apple/Mac. There's not enough evidence yet to lay blame. There will be be a lynching come next week though.

 

Mmmmhhh. Transcend released a 192GB SSD that is available right now for $380-$560.

Supposedly it has a NEW controller ... I couldn't find any more info on the controller. Sequential reads/writes are more in range of the Samsung MLC drives to date but would be a great alternative if it didn't stutter.

 

They don't. There must be some other issue going on, unique to that poster's situation.

 

OK, so I'll add some more benchies to this thread
G.Skill 64GB SSD(yes the really cheap one at Newegg. )
HD tune pro(trial):
Minumum: 22.7MB/s
Maximum 128.9MB/s
Average: 105MB/s

Random access:
512bytes: 0.20ms/2.446MB/s
4KB: .24ms/16.527MB/s
64KB: .70ms/89.7MB/s
1MB: 7.2ms 138.034MB/s

 

Please run benchmarks with IOMeter, CrystalDiskMark and ATTO.
Doing the tests Anandtech did for their big SSD review are also not bad.
(E.g. zip 5GB of small files and open Photoshop)

 

Newegg is down to $384 on the X25-M.

 

I'm trying to understand IOMeter so I can test it on my Samsung 256GB SSD thats arriving tomorrow. I've got it running, but where do I get the different test patterns?

N

 

The apex drive is on sale on newegg. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227412.

There's this new drive called filemate and it has a read and write speed of 220 MB/s. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820161317.

 

Still too pricey for me. How's your G.Skill coming along, jedisolo?

 

^ It's one awesome drive.

 

Yeah, I'm stuck in a rut here on whether or not to purchase an HDD. I really want an SSD but I feel I could get by with more if I go HDD as of now. I mean, I really don't need one but I'm running out of space on my 100GB 5400RPM drive. People are forecasting that SSD prices will drop a lot by the end of this year, and the SSD market is already saturated with many SSD brands and a lot of newcomers are coming into this arena.

Basically, I know if I buy an HDD now I'll probably end up purchasing an SSD by this year's end. And if I buy an SSD now I'll probably beat my frugal self for not waiting as I see the same drive for half the price by next year.

My XPS m1530 has an aluminum casing and I hear little clicks all the time and the HDD parking sound is really loud. It scares me sometimes, lol. I think SSD's would be especially nice in the library or while my room mate sleeps. The speed is what I'm mainly looking forward to

 

im in the same situation psygn but my opinion is that this forecast of SSDs having drastic price drops this year is a bit off.

what i want is a great performance SSD from a reputable brand, and i want it with alot of storage at a great price.

i have a feeling my demands wont be met this year, however, so i'll likely opt for a standard drive for the time being.

 

I am in the same situation as Max_Pl and psygn.

I am also uncertain about price of SSD this year. I think with the current economic crisis, prices will fluctuate like crazy.

I have my eyes on Seagate 500 GB for awhile and new Corsair seem to release a reasonable price / performance with samsung controller SSD, I don't know if I should make the leap.

 

I second that.

 

I was facing the same dilemma. From my observations, SSD prices seem to be dropping by roughly 50% every 6 months. Another way to look at it is that new drives with 2x capacity and better performance come out every 6 months at the same price level (this is roughly how the intel and samsung drives are being priced and my projections down below refer to these to brands).

I just got a new notebook and decided to get a 320GB 7200RPM drive for now (WD scorpio black for $90) and wait a year until I upgrade to SSD. I feel like that would be a better value since I want at least 250GB of space.

Based on my projections, in a year, we should see 1TB drives for $1,000 (Toshiba has a 512GB drive coming out this summer which will probably be priced at $1,000) and that should put a 256GB drive at $250 or so. That would be for a latest gen drive. The current 256GB samsungs could probably be found used for much less.

Sacrificing for a year would thus save quite a bit of money and you would also be buying newer (and thus faster and more reliable) tech.

 

uhm, like.. always? i mean, we're talking new computer stuff here. gpu's are (or where) that way, cpu's, ram, everything..

the question is: why wait another year, and then another? it's not that much money (most of us buy a whole new notebook all 2 years or so) compared to what we spend otherwise on pc's, even while it is expensive.

that's what made me choise, and i never look back..

 

I understand and agree about advancing tech, but for me personally, given that I would like at least 250GB of space as I mentioned, $1000 is a pretty hefty outlay, and not worth it for me right now. And I feel others are feeling the same way...

I guess I'm just not on the bleeding edge like some of you guys. I understand that smaller sized SSDs can be had at more reasonable prices but a 250GB SSD is bleeding edge at this point, and I would like to avoid any issues (stuttering or otherwise), which is keeping me from jumping in with other brands

Everyone here wants an SSD but each of us is at a different point on the tech adoption curve. I'm just explaining my reasoning for the decisions I made.

 

For anyone interested, some benches of the Corsair 128gb MLC SSD (CMFSSD-128GBG1D) here: http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?p=5970351

I know some of you also wanted CrystalDiskmark and IOMeter, but it's HDTune, HDTach and ATTO only; sorry.

 

i'm so happy with my home server. thanks to it, i don't need much storage on the individual systems and can life with 32 - 128gb, thus making the switch to ssd quite cheap..

 

Anyone know anything about this SSD?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820161317

Claims to have read and write speeds of 220MB. I don't believe it.

Also, OCZ Apex up on Newegg:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...iption=&Ntk=&SpeTabStoreType=&srchInDesc=apex

 

will someone else please post these two links?

 

Both kinks execute fine for me, FWIW

 

it was sarcasm because the are posted on the page before also... it's so hard to detect sarcasm in text sometimes, i've often been a victim as well.

 

Those filmates look very impressive for the cost! does any one know anything about them i couldn't even find anything on there website other that the storage size yesterday and the only link yahoo showed was to newegg.

Also if i am more concerned with read speeds (gaming) would it be wiser to get an APEX, Corsair, or TITAN MLC, rather than a Samsung or Mtron mobi 3500 SLC (with prices not being considered)? i think i'm gonna wait a year or so for intel to get a bit cheaper...

 

I'd like a copy of those links as well, too. I'm wondering what all the fuss is about. Thanks.

 

Here's a link of all 3 256 GB drives compared on Newegg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...2E16820231243,N82E16820161317,N82E16820609379.

Out of all of them the Filemate seems to be the fastest.

 

i just want to know what controller filemate uses!

 

Thanks for the link. The Corsair sounds just about what I want but I'd like them to update the controller to the newer, faster Samsung one... then I think I wouldn't be able to resist any longer.

And for some notebooks I have, a 32GB and 64GB would also be great to have. I think I'll stay away from even the newer jmicron stuff.

 

This is all i could find so far on filemate but it looks like newegg added 100mb/s on there specs...

 

From the picture, that looks like a previous version model, plus they only mention up to 128GB so I think that's for an older version. Though it's funny I've never seen mention of any FileMate SSD before.

 

Ok found the new ones here with even less info...

Pretty useless stuff here...

 

although it looks like they have a history in the flash industry. These could be promising if only we could convince someone else to buy and benchmark it first...

 

they used to use Samsung, I'm not sure what they use more recently.

 

I have the Apple 128GB SSD. It's a Samsung.

 

hey has anyboy used/bought a PhotoFast 256gb ssd drive..? found them on ebay and was wondering if anyone had pulled the trigger on 1 or 2 in raid 0