SSD - Advice Sought

[Rufass]

Hi there.

I have been toying with the possibility of adding an SSD to the 3XS system I got from Scan fairly recently.

I saw an advert for the latest generation of OCZ drives; the Vertex, Apex and Solid series and thought they looked tempting, however looking on Scan for these products has confused me somewhat. You seem to have the new Apex listed but not the other drives. This gives the situation where you have what looks like the high-end Vertex (but I suspect they're the old versions) drives listed with lower read and write speeds but higher prices than the Apex drives in the same list.

Can someone just clarify what these drives are on the listings and if my suspicions are correct?

Also any general advice on SSDs (from anyone) much appreciated. I'm thinking of adding one as additional storage to my i7 machine, I won't put the OS on it but I will probably use it for certain applications and games. Has anyone else done the same and noticed any real benefits?

Cheers

R

[Singh400]

Whichever SSD you do buy make sure that it does not have a JMicron controller. Ideally, you want a Indilinux or Samsung controller.

[Rufass]

Hi Singh400,

Thanks for your reply. Why is that and how would I find out which controller it uses?

[Singh400]

Hi Singh400,

Thanks for your reply. Why is that and how would I find out which controller it uses?

Basically put the JMicron controller are crap. The way that the JMicron controller is designed causes "lag" when reading/writing data. This "lag" has basically destroys any real performance benefits.

To get a better understading read the following...

The SSD Anthology: Understanding SSDs and New Drives from OCZ

and...

The SSD Update: Vertex Gets Faster, New Indilinx Drives and Intel/MacBook Problems Resolved

[Rufass]

Basically put the JMicron controller are crap. The way that the JMicron controller is designed causes "lag" when reading/writing data. This "lag" has basically destroys any real performance benefits.

To get a better understading read the following...

The SSD Anthology: Understanding SSDs and New Drives from OCZ

and...

The SSD Update: Vertex Gets Faster, New Indilinx Drives and Intel/MacBook Problems Resolved

Ah, thank you. Very interesting articles and the whole picture is much clearer now, though it does seem that Scan are selling the old Vertex drives with lower performance than the newer Apex drive but at higher prices.

Still I can now make sense of the pricing structure and of the awful performance I'd seen in several reviews of drives that weren't Intel.

[Philipp]

Hi Rufass

The below link should help to clarify OCZs SSD hierarchy….

http://www.ocztechnology.com/product...d_state_drives

I am just double checking with OCZ directly as the Vertex drives are new, hence there shouldnt be a old one and a new one....

Cheers

[Rufass]

Hi Rufass

The below link should help to clarify OCZs SSD hierarchy….

http://www.ocztechnology.com/product...d_state_drives

I am just double checking with OCZ directly as the Vertex drives are new, hence there shouldnt be a old one and a new one....

Cheers

Cheers Phil. Maybe it's just the figures on your site for the Vertex that are wrong, they certainly don't match what OCZ are quoting on theirs. That said it's hard to be certain that they ARE Vertex drives as the picture is the only place that actually says Vertex.

[SonyCloWn]

what u think about the x25 vs the rest of them - seems the only one without major issues

[Philipp]

The Intel drives are very good, Intel has also realised a firmware update for the drives.

Rufass, I have just received a PDF from OCZ about the vertex drives...



I have checked the performance figures we are listing and everything appears to be spot on

[Rufass]

Strange. This is what it says on the website:

30GB Max Performance**
Read: Up to 230 MB/s
Write: Up to 135MB/s
Sustained Write: Up to 80MB/s

60GB Max Performance**
Read: Up to 230 MB/s
Write: Up to 135MB/s
Sustained Write: Up to 70MB/s

120GB Max Performance**
Read: Up to 250 MB/s
Write: Up to 180MB/s
Sustained Write: Up to 100MB/s

250GB Max Performance**
Read: Up to 250 MB/s
Write: Up to 160MB/s
Sustained Write: Up to 100MB/s

The seek's a lot quicker on the Vertex and I xcan see that it'll be a much faster drive in real use but I'm surprised that they're quoting speeds lower than the Apex just from a PR POV, especially as they're quoting different ones in different places by the looks of it.

[Philipp]

Strange. This is what it says on the website:


The seek's a lot quicker on the Vertex and I xcan see that it'll be a much faster drive in real use but I'm surprised that they're quoting speeds lower than the Apex just from a PR POV, especially as they're quoting different ones in different places by the looks of it.

It looks like they are quoting MAX performance on the website; to me that would suggest that the PDF has average performance, either way it’s slightly confusing.

I can however confirm that they are ruddy fast!!!!!

[starfry]

The Intel drives are very good, Intel has also realised a firmware update for the drives.

Hi Phil - do you apply these firmware updates as a matter of couse when doing the build-out or do I have to specifically request this?

( presuming of course that taking the firmware update is a good idea )

[Philipp]

Yep all enginners have been informed that the firmware must be updated

[Sharinel]

Interesting microsoft post for anyone interested in SSD's here. Hmm cant post links as I have less than 5 posts. Copy/paste it, worth reading.

blogs.msdn.com/e7/archive/2009/05/05/support-and-q-a-for-solid-state-drives-and.aspx