Solid State Drives (SSD's) explained

Mantaray · 23 Oct 2009 at 13:59

well my SSD is awesome .... glad i got 1 only 32gig just for windows .... never seen winXP install so fast

,,just like a normal hdd had to use floppy for windows install which was same with the sata2 hdd as they was new aswell,, how ever i noticed lag .... can only read then write not at same time ...so virtual memory had to be set to my sata 2 hdd ....things improved ..winxp load up bar ...it was there a split second then u log in

. and runs like a dream better than my 2 hhds sata 2s in raid also no lag after 6 month as u wud get with a normal hdd that wud need a format by then ,,,,, defrag ? i used defrag on a normal sata-2 hdd ... did nothing bt make it slower .... so if i find comp getting slower ..i just format it , as for the ssd no point in defraging as far as i know

im running
asus ABN sli-se soc 939
amd 3800 x2
8800gt
1gig mem

joblanski · 24 Oct 2009 at 19:05

Hi,

Just thought I'd post my recent experience with SSD, nothing too radical but anything at this early stage is always welcome I find.

Treated myself to a Crucial CT128M225 just before the prices took off

Upgraded the firmware to 1819, luckily my drive was still on 1571 so didn't have too much trouble. Installed WIN 7 and the performance is v.good admittedly I haven't installed too much rubbish on it yet and it takes less that a minute form hitting restart to it being back with me again, which is nice

Most of the time is taken up with pre OS loading stuff so I could most likely shave a bit more off once I finsh playing with my new mobo features.

Still on a learning curve regarding best way to take care of it, so far all I have done is disable defrag & put the swap/paging file onto my other SATA HDD together with all my large files.

The best thing for me is that it's making me far more disciplined as to the way I use my disks as after shelling out a bottom clenching amount for a mere 128gb I'm going to be in strict storage admin mode for a long time until the prices drop considerably.

Cheers

Jo B.

Mantaray · 25 Oct 2009 at 11:23

Mantaray said:
well my SSD is awesome .... glad i got 1 only 32gig just for windows .... never seen winXP install so fast ,,just like a normal hdd had to use floppy for windows install which was same with the sata2 hdd as they was new aswell,, how ever i noticed lag .... can only read then write not at same time ...so virtual memory had to be set to my sata 2 hdd ....things improved ..winxp load up bar ...it was there a split second then u log in . and runs like a dream better than my 2 hhds sata 2s in raid also no lag after 6 month as u wud get with a normal hdd that wud need a format by then ,,,,, defrag ? i used defrag on a normal sata-2 hdd ... did nothing bt make it slower .... so if i find comp getting slower ..i just format it , as for the ssd no point in defraging as far as i know

im running
asus ABN sli-se soc 939
amd 3800 x2
8800gt
1gig mem

i also forgot to mention that when windows loaded there was pre-load lag ... and it turns out it was on-board stuff like lan controller .... i fitted a gig pci lan card and disabled the on-bord lan , no preload-lag at all
so looks like hardware that was making lag .. so im guessing

also my mate gave me this very short Sata cable made a hell of a difference
he told me it was the fastest Sata cable u can get ,, lucky for me my Ssd hdd was right next to the Sata sockets

addylad · 1 Nov 2009 at 17:45

Best value SSD for £100-150 anyone?

explicit4u · 1 Nov 2009 at 17:57

64GB Crucial M225

miniyazz · 2 Nov 2009 at 00:25

My personal opinion is that it's now worth paying an extra £40 and getting the Intel X25-M. The extra 20GB space makes it cheaper per GB and gives more breathing space with the OS install, and it's a faster drive on the whole. The Crucial just isn't as worth it as when it was on £103 (stating the obvious, but it's had one helluva price boost; the Intel's remained relatively cheap).

SupraWez · 16 Nov 2009 at 22:17

Great info, my Corsair x64 should be here this week along with Windows 7.

nubonamission · 4 Dec 2009 at 18:05

man, when these come down in price a bit I will be forced to invest

evoyear · 8 Jan 2010 at 00:14

good infor pack, excellent for newbie like me to read

AyJay · 10 Jan 2010 at 11:42

Thanks clocka and Danneh

Any idea when the x25-E's are back in stock?

ssharp59 · 20 Jan 2010 at 07:37

really interesting write up, and exactly what i needed to clear up m udnerstanding of this new found tech.

clocka · 20 Jan 2010 at 22:56

i've slightly updated the 1st post now as trim firmwares out already out for drives now, i haven't included info about sata3 ssd's or the newer ocz drives etc nor have i included info about garbage collection, feel free to write info about these guys and i'll add it to the 1st post.

coolamasta · 21 Jan 2010 at 10:35

Good write up there, now trying to decide whether to get a 128gb Crucial M225 or a 160gb Intel X25m. Not sure what real world differences would be in write speeds as the Crucial has double the speed write on paper, time to look at some reviews me thinks...

cainer · 27 Jan 2010 at 10:16

nice write-up, been planning on getting the intel 80bg for some time now.. seems their the best choise atm

MarcLister · 20 Feb 2010 at 19:34

Nice thread. Was thinking of getting 2 Intel X25-M's in a RAID 0 setup but I'll just get one now having read this thread.

CAPTAINBUMFLUFF · 25 Mar 2010 at 23:54

good post thanks for the info prices have gone up quite a bit recently most likely to fall in sterling, not so attractive price point anymore

Nemesis379 · 17 Apr 2010 at 13:54

nice info, thanks

FragKrag · 22 Apr 2010 at 21:24

What about those new Sandforce SF 1500 and SF 1200 controllers?

The compression of the data before writing is very interesting, and it seems like there will finally be a competitor to the Intel controller. I was pretty set on the X25-M before the Sandforce ran along o.o

Admiral Huddy · 23 Apr 2010 at 08:35

Does the Intel G2 support trim?

Cosimo · 26 Apr 2010 at 14:37

Admiral Huddy said:
Does the Intel G2 support trim?

The X18-M/X25-M (34nm) drives do support trim with firmware version 02HA/02HD:

From here:

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&ProdId=3042&DwnldID=18363&lang=eng

See the release notes.