Understanding SSDs and New Drives from OCZ

jmke · 18th March 2009, 15:47

If you look at the SSD market today, you’d assume that it’s very different from what it was just six months ago when the X25-M launched. People are worried that the Intel drive has issues with degrading performance over time. Some vendors are now shipping “revised” JMicron drives with multiple controllers, supposedly fixing all of the problems I talked about last year.

I hate to break it to you guys. As different as the world may seem today, it’s all very much the same.

The Intel drive is still the best of the best. Yes, it, and other SSDs do get slower over time and later in this article I’ll explain why it happens and why it’s not as big of a deal as you’d think. The issues I complained about with the JMicron drives from last year are still alive and well today; they’re just somewhat occluded.

http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3531

jmke · 18th March 2009, 16:37

hugely interesting & a must read for anybody considering buying SSD in this year.

19th March 2009, 02:40

I read the whole 30 pages or so and it's really the most in-depth review of SSDs I've seen so far. The sad conclusion is that despite the huge amount of SSD hovering around, most of them are pretty much the same (and they're crap) - something that I didn't realise fully before.

jmke · 19th March 2009, 09:31

€140~150 OCZ Vertex 30Gb: http://www.alternate.de/html/product...Disk&l3 =SATA
http://www.memoryc.com/storage/solid...tml?Brands=OCZ
ordered one, let's try it out

19th March 2009, 10:27

This was eactly what I suspected, and worried about:

Quote:

There was a strange phenomenon a few people noticed, something I unfortunately picked up on after the review went live; if you filled the X25-M up and re-benchmarked it, it got slower.

If there was any element of truth to it, he would have found it eventually.

I'm glad Anand posted this. Every time I mention the JMicron drives still seem to suffer from stuttering or point at the problematic random write performance, people call me out on it. Or say the test was an outlier or wasn't a legit test because the other (sequential) write performance tests were not showing the same effect. About time I had a single reputable source to refer back to.

So far this is the best explanation I have seen that covers all angles and makes sure to drill the key points into place. I'm definitely bookmarking this one.

--

Finally, someone covers the new SSD-centric ATA commands I've been trying to research.

These commands are set to become part of the ATA spec sometime later this year. I could not get confirmation if they are included in the SATA 6GB/s spec or not. Hopefully Windows 7 will be updated to support them quickly once they do arrive.

First OCZ Summit tests I have seen. So much for this drive being the new"flagship" OCZ SSD. Used Vertex results drop less and used Vertex write latency is less impacted than the Summit...

jmke · 19th March 2009, 11:31

from what I can understand, the new Trim command (if that is what you are referring to) is a bit of egg vs chicken, HDD/SSD manufacturers wait for an OS to support it before implementing it; don't know if SATA 6gb/s address this; haven't read anything about it yet

19th March 2009, 13:09

The lowest price I found here in Germany was 129E for the 30GB Vertex, which is kind of a bargain! The guys already have it in stock, I wish I'd only got the money to buy it... By the way, 30GB isn't that tiny at all, all my important stuff right now (except movies and music of course) fits perfectly well in 20GB. Damn, this looks sweet!

20th March 2009, 05:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by jmke

from what I can understand, the new Trim command (if that is what you are referring to) is a bit of egg vs chicken, HDD/SSD manufacturers wait for an OS to support it before implementing it; don't know if SATA 6gb/s address this; haven't read anything about it yet

They can't implement it until it becomes part of the official ATA specification. That is what they are waiting on.

Once the ATA spec is updated then as ya say they must wait for OS support and also update drives already on the market... no chicken/egg situation, but it could be the better part of a year before TRIM (and other ATA commands, not just trim) are added.

Given the two-part situation to how the SATA standard is developed (ATA organization for commands/specs, SATA-IO organization for serial connections/standards, etc) it very well might not be part of the new SATA 6GB/s standard.

jmke · 20th March 2009, 07:03

it won't fix the issue though, will just average the delay result, so instead of having a drive performance at its best until it runs out of space, you'll have one which will be more consistent either full or empty

20th March 2009, 11:04

Yes, but I tend to view the performance hit/stuttering as the main issue. The TRIM and other commands will mostly fix this.

The uncesseary erase-rewrites are a secondary issue that won't be fixed any time soon due to how flash is designed... its bad for the "lifespan" of the cells, but is unavoidable regardless.

18th March 2009, 15:47	#1
jmke Madshrimp Join Date: May 2002 Location: 7090/Belgium Posts: 79,021	Understanding SSDs and New Drives from OCZ If you look at the SSD market today, you’d assume that it’s very different from what it was just six months ago when the X25-M launched. People are worried that the Intel drive has issues with degrading performance over time. Some vendors are now shipping “revised” JMicron drives with multiple controllers, supposedly fixing all of the problems I talked about last year. I hate to break it to you guys. As different as the world may seem today, it’s all very much the same. The Intel drive is still the best of the best. Yes, it, and other SSDs do get slower over time and later in this article I’ll explain why it happens and why it’s not as big of a deal as you’d think. The issues I complained about with the JMicron drives from last year are still alive and well today; they’re just somewhat occluded. http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3531 __________________

18th March 2009, 16:37	#2
jmke Madshrimp Join Date: May 2002 Location: 7090/Belgium Posts: 79,021	hugely interesting & a must read for anybody considering buying SSD in this year. __________________

19th March 2009, 09:31	#4
jmke Madshrimp Join Date: May 2002 Location: 7090/Belgium Posts: 79,021	€140~150 OCZ Vertex 30Gb: http://www.alternate.de/html/product...Disk&l3 =SATA http://www.memoryc.com/storage/solid...tml?Brands=OCZ ordered one, let's try it out __________________

19th March 2009, 11:31	#6
jmke Madshrimp Join Date: May 2002 Location: 7090/Belgium Posts: 79,021	from what I can understand, the new Trim command (if that is what you are referring to) is a bit of egg vs chicken, HDD/SSD manufacturers wait for an OS to support it before implementing it; don't know if SATA 6gb/s address this; haven't read anything about it yet __________________

20th March 2009, 07:03	#9
jmke Madshrimp Join Date: May 2002 Location: 7090/Belgium Posts: 79,021	it won't fix the issue though, will just average the delay result, so instead of having a drive performance at its best until it runs out of space, you'll have one which will be more consistent either full or empty __________________

19th March 2009, 02:40	#3
npp Posts: n/a	I read the whole 30 pages or so and it's really the most in-depth review of SSDs I've seen so far. The sad conclusion is that despite the huge amount of SSD hovering around, most of them are pretty much the same (and they're crap) - something that I didn't realise fully before.

19th March 2009, 13:09	#7
npp Posts: n/a	The lowest price I found here in Germany was 129E for the 30GB Vertex, which is kind of a bargain! The guys already have it in stock, I wish I'd only got the money to buy it... By the way, 30GB isn't that tiny at all, all my important stuff right now (except movies and music of course) fits perfectly well in 20GB. Damn, this looks sweet!

20th March 2009, 11:04	#10
Kougar Posts: n/a	Yes, but I tend to view the performance hit/stuttering as the main issue. The TRIM and other commands will mostly fix this. The uncesseary erase-rewrites are a secondary issue that won't be fixed any time soon due to how flash is designed... its bad for the "lifespan" of the cells, but is unavoidable regardless.