SSDs!!!??!! Anyone using them yet?

[PewterTA]

Just thought I'd start a thread on who is using SSDs in their PCs?

I just got 2 OCZ Vertex MLC 30GB for my laptop (RAID 0) and 2 Intel X-25 E SLC 32GB (again RAID 0) for my desktop.

Except for the lack of space (though 60 and 64GB aren't too bad) these things are unreal!!!!

I highly recommend getting an SSD if you can add it without the need for tons of space. My Desktop has 4 more 80GB 7200 RPM for storage space in a RAID 5 config. Course I use a tape backup so I don't loose anything.

But yes, SSDs (once they get cheaper for the 1TB are going to be well worth it. Even if they have a limited read/write they are still well worth it even if they only last like 3 to 4 years!!

It's amazing what a .2 ms seek time does compared to the average 17ms time!

[Industrial]

Once my evaluation copy of windows 7 expires in march I plan on getting one. Going to install the OS and applications on a smaller ssd and music/video files will stay on my 1t hdd. Should be a nice upgrade.

[sikoniko]

don't fill it up... performance seriously degrades when near capacity...

[aud19]

Not yet... waiting for the OCZ Colossus drives (or something similar) to come down in price a bit before throwing it in my HTPC. I'm thinking I need 80gb minimum.

Probably have to wait another year'ish I figure.

[Chris D]

Ummmm.... SSD being "Solid State Drive"?

[Industrial]

Ummmm.... SSD being "Solid State Drive"?

Yes, thats what it stands for Chris.

[PewterTA]

My 30 gig is down to about 8 - 12 gig free, I'm using Diskeeper with Hyperfast and when I (just to see) got down to under 1GB of free space it brought the performance right back on the drive (testing with HD Tach). Not sure how it did that, but it did...and now that I'm back to my normal 12GB it has had no performance decrease at any time.

Newegg.com had the 60GB OCZ (not Vertex but agility) for $124 today. That was a pretty good price, had I been able to buy 2 (only one with the rebate) I would've put them in my server... Oh well.

[Hdale85]

The OCZ are actually supposed to be quite a bit slower then some of the other SSD's out there. The Intel ones are surprisingly supposed to be very fast and amongst the best in performance. I thought about getting one but still to much money.

I have 3x 120gb SATA drives in Raid 0 that would smoke any SSD currently, and the money it would require to get a Raid 0 setup of SSD's equal to white I have would cost a crazy amount.

[PewterTA]

I bet you'd be pretty surprised by the speed of SSD against the RAID0. Where it comes into play is you still have to suffer with 14ms+ seek times, versus .1-.2ms seek times with SSD.

I wouldn't recommend using SSDs for mass storage...but to use as an OS drive with another 7200RPM drive or whatever for storage works really well!

I be interested in what your HDTach score is...I bet it's not super far off from RAID 0...might be, but it can't compare to the response speed of SSDs.

Course 2 or 3 SSDs in a raid 0,5,10 would be even better (except for space).

Intel is better in their upper models with the Extreme speeds, but the value models that compare in price to the OCZ are producing the same specs.

OCZ Vertex:
Sequential Access - Read: up to 170MB/s
Sequential Access - Write: up to 70MB/s

OCZ Agility:
Sequential Access - Read: Up to 185 MB/s
Sequential Access - Write: Up to 100 MB/s

Intel X25-V:
Sequential Access - Read: up to 170MB/s
Sequential Access - Write: up to 35MB/s

Course the Extreme Intel is way above, but the price is up too.
Intel X25-E:
Sequential Access - Read: up to 250 MB/s
Sequential Access - Write: up to 170 MB/s


Course then again you could get the OCZ Z-drive PCIe (at yes lots of money):
Sequential Access - Read: up to 870MB/s
Sequential Access - Write: up to 780MB/s

[aud19]

Intel is better in their upper models with the Extreme speeds, but the value models that compare in price to the OCZ are producing the same specs.

OCZ Vertex:
Sequential Access - Read: up to 170MB/s
Sequential Access - Write: up to 70MB/s

OCZ Agility:
Sequential Access - Read: Up to 185 MB/s
Sequential Access - Write: Up to 100 MB/s

Intel X25-V:
Sequential Access - Read: up to 170MB/s
Sequential Access - Write: up to 35MB/s

Course the Extreme Intel is way above, but the price is up too.
Intel X25-E:
Sequential Access - Read: up to 250 MB/s
Sequential Access - Write: up to 170 MB/s


Course then again you could get the OCZ Z-drive PCIe (at yes lots of money):
Sequential Access - Read: up to 870MB/s
Sequential Access - Write: up to 780MB/s

Yeah the performance certainly varies depending on the models/price range you're looking in. You can't just say all Intel's are faster than all OCZ or vice versa.

[Hdale85]

Hmm I wasn't really sure on the cost of the Intel's as the price I saw was through Intel's retail edge program which it was like 100 bucks lol. Unfortunately it ended before I grabbed one. That was for the highest model.

I can't justify spending enough to get 3 SSD drives for a Raid 0 OS drive. Just to much money. Hopefully in a year or so they will drop significantly.

[numberoneoppa]

Dougie, you don't need to put SSDs in RAID 0. They're that fast.

Anyways, you guys need to realize that sequential read and write speeds don't mean much when it comes to every day computing. It's the random read and write speeds that will make using the SSD so different from a HDD.

As far as brands go, yeah, Intel overall has the best performing drives on the market (at the moment). There are other brands that have good SSDs as well, but you really have to look at the maker of the controller inside of the drive (the new Indilinx controllers are pretty good, they're found in many OCZ SSDs).

Head over to anandtech.com for the SSD anthology.

[Hdale85]

There's another brand that's even better then Intel....but can't think of the name at the moment.

As far as a single drive being as fast as a 3-4 drive raid 0 array I'm not sure... I can get 200mb/s sustained speeds to my server over the gigabit network. I am going to be going through some upgrades to the PC soon because my motherboard is dying. Probably a Core i7 with DDR3 and I do want to get 3 drives for Raid 0 because it's cheaper then the high end Intel I'm pretty sure (3 drives would be like 130 or so). I don't know I'll have to look into it more. Also I have a single Geforce GTX 260 I'll probably add another and go SLI because I've noticed even it lags a bit sometimes in games with my native resolution.

[numberoneoppa]

Intel G2 will smoke 3 HDDs in RAID 0. :P

http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3607

[Hdale85]

Yeah but a lot more then 130 bucks or so.

[numberoneoppa]

200 bucks, yeah. However, if speed is important, it will beat out any 200 dollar RAID 0 setup. What setup could you possibly be thinking of for 130 dollars? 2 Samsung F3 500GB drives would come out to about 110, but the level of performance is still in a different league. Also, with RAID, you're not getting all of the performance you could get without a dedicated RAID card (onboard is okay, but not great).

<3
-Josh.

[Hdale85]

Umm actually 289 bucks for the 80gb high end Intel drive.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820167016&cm_re=G2-_-20-167-016-_-Product

ALso for some reason the 80gb writes slower then the other drives, the others do 100mb/s (according to spec) and the 80 does 70mb/s.

[numberoneoppa]

There are more places on the web than just newegg, they're definitely overcharging for it right now.

Intel's drives have a slow write speed, but I'm sure there is a very good reason for that. I've never been in a situation where a 70MB/s write speed has been an issue, though. Especially since it's such a small drive, that shouldn't be an issue.



Okay, so nobody has it for 200 right now. You have to keep your eyes open.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211412

^This is a rebranded 80GB G2. :P

[Hdale85]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233087

Think I might try this, after all if I don't like it I can send it back.

[numberoneoppa]

It seems to have a samsung based controller. While the samsung controllers were good a while ago, the indilinx and intel controllers seem to be the best on the market right now (better random read/write).

[Hdale85]

From what I've read the Samsung controller is better then the Indilinx, apparently the Indilinx doesn't support Trim which is supposed to greatly increase performance.

[PewterTA]

Indilinx supports trim (some of the very earliest don't), but most "newer" ones just need a firmware update to enable it.

Also the Corsair extremes all use Indilinx over samsung.

[Hdale85]

Hmmm

[PewterTA]

Not trying to say which is better mind you, just saying the way Corsair did it.

Course according to the specs, the Performance series out performs the Extreme series?!?

[Hdale85]

Yeah the spec's don't make any sense lol.