Search results matching tag 'SSD'

OCZ SSDs: Agility or Summit?

ClemSnide — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 19:53:50 GMT

I can't wait any more. The first part of my new system build can just as easily go into my existing clunker: a solid state drive.

My needs are modest. Currently I'm using very little of a 120 GB drive, and I've calculated that a 60 GB will keep me happy for a long time-- after all, I want to speed up the OS, web browsing, and World of Warcraft. OCZ makes good products that are reasonably priced, and there are two similar ones on Amazon: the Summit and the Agility.

Summit: OCZ Amazon

Agility: OCZ Amazon

The Agility seems to have a very slight advantage in read and write speeds, at least according to OCZ's website (at least for the 60 GB rendition). I don't think it's enough to notice in the course of a day's work. They're also about the same price.

I'd like to use my "flexible friend" to buy one of these in the next week, unless someone has a truly compelling reason not to (such as an imminent release of something twice as fast for half as much). What is the considered opinion of you HotHardware readers about these two drives?

Re: Intel 34nm X25-M Gen 2 SSD Performance Review

Martin.jiang — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 09:24:07 GMT

why does read-speed work so slow??

I prefer to Supertalent.. they have better devices..

SYOUMEI

Re: Fusion-io vs Intel X25-M SSD RAID, Grudge Match

Dave_HH — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 13:31:08 GMT

[quote user="LaMpiR"]

Well I had the money, still wouldn't buy it. I would get Area 1680ix with 4-6x vertex drivers. We be cheaper(ok, only by a grand or two) and it is bootable. This would be excellent if they could make it bootable.

[/quote]

I'm told the ioXtreme (the coming next gen drive) will be bootable and though still around $10/G, will at least come in at around $895 for the 80G drive. That said, not sure I'd waste 15 - 20G on an OS install just so it could boot faster but I'd load up all the apps and games I could on it for load time and responsiveness.

RE: Fusion-io vs Intel X25-M SSD RAID, Grudge Match

Dave_HH — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 20:23:51 GMT

Acarzt, write-back cache was definitely enabled and as far as alignment goes, the drives were setup with 128K stripe (default for RAID 0 on the ICH10R) and formatted with defaults for NTFS.

Intel Could Release 320GB SSD Soon

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:32:22 GMT

Semiconductor process technologies keep on shrinking, and while we've heard of Intel and rivals talk up 32nm, it's 34nm making the news today. According to rumors that are getting harder and harder to ignore, Intel will soon be launching a new range of solid state drives based on its 34nm NAND chips. How soon, you ask? Within a couple of weeks? No actually, but read on...

If you'll recall, Intel already has quite the following thanks to its speedy X25-M, and while earlier reports placed these newer SSDs on a Q4 release schedule, new whispers have them launching a bit sooner. Also, Intel had a bit of trouble with some of its existing SSDs; while fast, some users found that performance degradation in some fringe cases could be an issue. According to reports, these new units will be more spacious, cheaper and more durable than ever.

We don't need to tell you just how rockin' a 320GB SSD from Intel would be, but we can't say we're totally convinced that it'll be here sooner than later. For the record, the official word from our friends at Intel is that we will see 34nm technology-based SSDs from Intel by "the end of '09". Who knows, if we're lucky enough here, we could very well have an evaluation of the product for you sooner though. Stick around...

OCZ Z-Drive Sneak Peek, SSD RAID PCIe Card

Sun, 17 May 2009 03:58:53 GMT

It's not all that often that we post something up in the news just for the drool factor alone. However, we'd go so far as to say that this little slab of circuitry classifies as a proverbial technological "hey-now!" Certainly, SSDs and Solid State Storage solutions in general are all the buzz these days but this is the first product we've focused our beady geek eyes on with this particular design implementation. That said, we will offer one very large caveat that what you're about to see is a VERY early stage design prototype of OCZ's upcoming Z-Drive SSD RAID PCI Express card. In other words, drool for now but you can't and won't ever be able to buy this little gem as you see it here. However, the product's base design approach will remain largely unchanged when it hits the market (soon we hope). Alright then, commence the salivation process...

As you can see, the Z-Drive is essentially 4 OCZ Vertex series SSDs in a RAID configuration, coupled with a PCI Express RAID controller, all sandwiched neatly together in a single slot PCIe card. There is also one single turbine style fan that pulls cool air into the card on the back of its casing. The individual SSDs are plugged in "mezzanine" style and can actually be fairly easily populated or de-populated from the mainboard. The Z-Drive does require a single 4-pin molex power connector to power the SSDs and the onboard RAID controller gets its juice from a X4 (at least currently) PCIe slot. And yes, we blanked out the RAID controller model number label, to protect the innocent. Sorry about that...

Though we've performed a few preliminary tests on the beast and have been more than impressed in spots (think reads in excess of 500MB/sec and writes in excess of 400MB/sec, depending on file size), there are significant hardware-level changes coming that will offer better performance and even perhaps a tweak on the mechanicals. Stay tuned for more details on the OCZ's Z-Drive in the weeks ahead as we offer full analysis on products coming down the pipe that will be more representative of what you'll be able to find in retail. OCZ's Z-Drive is coming and we think it has the potential to be rather HOT.

RE: SandForce Delivers Quick SF-1000 SSD Processors

3vi1 — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 00:13:29 GMT

Because any time you hear about a company with patent-pending technology that demolishes a vague list of hurdles that have supposedly hindered everyone else, it's either A) vaporware, or B) about 20% of what they're promising.

Reading their website, their technology sounds like nothing more than bigger/longer caching, standard wear-level algorithms, and application error correction control to disk storage. They'll probably get sued for violating someones patent.

Compellent Intros Data Progression SSD Tech

Mon, 23 Mar 2009 17:57:47 GMT

We're all about more options when it comes to solid state drives (not to mention lower prices), but on the same token, we'll take a splash of innovation wherever we can get it. Compellent Technologies has just stepped forward with an innovation of its own, offering up the first solid state storage solution with automated, block-level tiering. In order to do so, it will integrate the STEC Zeus IOPS enterprise SSD into its storage area network (SAN).

In order to maximize SSD utilization and efficiency, Compellent's patented software will enable customers to deploy only two SSDs in a "tier 0" configuration, automatically migrating inactive data to less expensive drives. The automated tiered storage is simply called Data Progression, and essentially, it minimizes the number of SSDs required while providing the highest levels of performance for mission-critical applications. If you're looking for differences between this and other solutions, Compellent's virtualizedSSDs "makes it easy for multiple applications to simultaneously access the same SSDs on demand, and the entire solution can be easily managed via its single, intuitive interface."

Bruce Kornfeld, vice president of marketing, described the benefits as such: "Compellent’s automated tiered storage really saves customers a lot of money by moving inactive data to less expensive disk. Adding SSD is simple for customers because in our virtualized SAN it’s just like any other drive. Unlike other implementations, we don’t lock customers into specific models or require them to buy a lot of drives to make SSD work."

The company is scheduled to preview its SSD technology at the company’s annual channel partner and end-user conference, C-Drive 2009, and it's hoping to offer the SSD SAN products to all markets in Q2 of 2009.

Transcend Introduces New Portable Drives

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 20:23:08 GMT

Regardless of whether you're looking for a portable SSD or HDD, Transcend has you covered. The company has recently introduced a 1.8-inch eSATA / USB 2.0 solid state drive along with a 2.5-inch USB 2.0 hard drive. Both units are completely bus powered and function just fine with Windows, Mac and Linux platforms.

As for the former (SSD18M), it features NAND flash memory that contains no moving parts, thus it's the one to choose if you need protection from vibration and shock. Also, the high-speed eSATA interface provides a maximum read speed of 90MB/s and write speeds of 50MB/s, and the 3.14- x 1.96- x 0.49-inch enclosure shouldn't be too much of a burden when traveling. The drive, which dons a gloss diamond pattern fascia, is available now in 32GB, 64GB and 128GB capacities.

The slightly bigger and more capacious sibling (known as the StoreJet 25F) measures in at 4.48- x 3.18- x 0.62-inches and caters more to the business set with its designer gloss diamond pattern and lustrous metallic finish. The USB 2.0 interface promises maximum transfer rates of up to 480Mbps and true plug and play compatibility. It's also available as we speak in sizes up to 500GB.

RE: Intel SSDs RAID 0, A Case Study In Speed, Take 2

Dave_HH — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 02:23:27 GMT

I think the big peaks and valleys are a result of high erase/re-write latency of MLC flash. You don't see that with SLC actually. And welcome to HH kris2lee.