Samsung 64GB 2.5" SATA-II MLC Solid State Hard Drive

VortexA1 · 15 Mar 2009 at 21:27

Concorde Rules said:
I've been following this thread but not that closely but im debating if it is infact worth it over a £230 300Gb Raptor.

Will two of these things out run it and last more than like, a year?

Although I'll be using software RAID so I can't boot into windows...

Tough choices!

So guys two of these in RAID 0 > One Velociraptor totally worth it?

SSDs in RAID totally worth it over a Velociraptor!

matt100 · 15 Mar 2009 at 21:59

it'd better last more than a bloody year! Think I'm going to have my first RAID experience this week

VortexA1 · 15 Mar 2009 at 22:03

matt100 said:
it'd better last more than a bloody year! Think I'm going to have my first RAID expersnce this week

Cool. Let us know how you get on with them and what you think.

I read that the write capability is per disk..64gig x 10000 which is phenomenal.

The initial 10000 writes doesnt sound too good but the above sum result is a big amount. 640000 gig as long as it works like that - this has largely put my mind at rest. I thinkt the main thing is on that basis to leave ideally about half of the disk empty so that the data is written all over the disk if you understand where I'm coming from so that you then have 320000 gig and then less space again less longevity of the data space.

So if you have 128gig then twice the space again.

Hope I've explained myself correct - read that there is an algorithm that sends the data all over the empty space on the disk to make full use of all the bits (this is part of a wear levelling algorithm - which the sammies don't have ; just looked up - but even so you still have the same amount of space spare for writing).

khushy · 15 Mar 2009 at 22:06

all this talk of 2 sammy's is scaring me . .

my wife is called sammy - but I couldnt manage 2 of them - LOL

khushy

PS - so what happens if I did have 2 sammy's and put them in RAID0 - what would be the benefits - LOL

FriendlyNameMan · 16 Mar 2009 at 10:09

LeJimster said:
Right, well it's probably worth looking at updating your storage drivers indeed.. These drives should perform better than what you are getting, unfortunately I'm not sure if this is just a limitation of the nvidia chipset or not.

Just checked my offset and its like this

Should I set the offset to 128K to match the stripe size (128K is the max I can set)

Cheers

FriendlyNameMan - lol

DaveF · 16 Mar 2009 at 11:11

FriendlyNameMan said:
Should I set the offset to 128K to match the stripe size (128K is the max I can set)

To my understanding, the only "problem" with a 1024K offset instead of a 128K one is you're wasting 896K of drive space. I wouldn't worry about it.

VortexA1 · 17 Mar 2009 at 12:12

I've had to format by ssd and I've installed vista however I've read that I've now lost my alignment.

Is this correct and if it is what to I do ;if I'm not in alignment am I losing a noticable loss in speed? :confused:

dirtydog · 17 Mar 2009 at 12:18

VortexA1 said:
I've had to format by ssd and I've installed vista however I've read that I've now lost my alignment.

Is this correct and if it is what to I do ;if I'm not in alignment am I losing a noticable loss in speed?

Use diskpart to find out what your alignment is.

VortexA1 · 17 Mar 2009 at 13:59

dirtydog said:
Use diskpart to find out what your alignment is.

Ok I have 2 ssds.

one of them is 32kb and the other is 0kb. is that ok?

dirtydog · 17 Mar 2009 at 15:17

Not sure, 128K is meant to be the recommended level AFAIK. I had thought that Vista set it to that by default if you let the Vista setup format for you.

VortexA1 · 17 Mar 2009 at 15:30

yeah that's what the setup format did. Thanks for the info - I'll leave it how it is at the mo and think about it / see how it goes. Cheers

I might have a google later and might change the offset later - a bit of a pain in the butt that's it's not at the offset - hopefully if I'm losing performance atm it's negligable.

Nick1881 · 17 Mar 2009 at 18:00

I have a 32kb stripe and my offset is 31 KB is this ok?

VortexA1 · 17 Mar 2009 at 19:51

Ok I've done some looking and it looks like it's best to have the offset in a multiple of 4 as that's how the data is stored on the disk. In groups of 4.

Prob not an issue. Haven't looked at the logistics of it really or the benchmarks on here tbo.

matt100 · 17 Mar 2009 at 20:15

I took the plunge so I'll be doing my first RAID along with my first SSD... is there somewhere were I can read up on the offset business and SSD settings in a condensed format?

I'll read all 5 pages of this if I have to but I'd rather not

shine · 17 Mar 2009 at 20:37

matt100 said:
I took the plunge so I'll be doing my first RAID along with my first SSD... is there somewhere were I can read up on the offset business and SSD settings in a condensed format?

I'll read all 5 pages of this if I have to but I'd rather not

I used this link, searching the OXZ forum and reading all of this thread. Its worth the effort.

[timko] · 17 Mar 2009 at 20:45

matt100 said:
I took the plunge so I'll be doing my first RAID along with my first SSD... is there somewhere were I can read up on the offset business and SSD settings in a condensed format?

If you have an ICH10R based mobo then this thread will be just fine...

http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=52912

...otherwise the same thread just scroll down until you get to the Vista logo

Supertaff · 17 Mar 2009 at 21:27

I wish I hadn't started reading this thread, there's £230 pounds worth of money going out of my bank account in the next day or so.

I'm going to put the two Samsungs in as Raid 0 for Vista and key apps and then move my Velociraptor to hold games/page file and other apps. My 1TB can then go into my Windows Home Server.

Only question now is do I also go for the Core i7 upgrade as well at this point as I can't be bothered to install everything this week and then next month do another install for a set of i7 components.

Choice, Choice, Choices.

Also LeJimster, can you give me more details in regards the the cradle your using for the Samsungs, I've got an 900 case as well and that looked like a good set up for them. I know you can't provide me with a competitor, but couldn't find the product anywhere based on the description in the picture post.

Taff

mythrandyr · 17 Mar 2009 at 21:44

it depends on what you use you're system for but I'd be tempted to leave it for a while personally. Between now and this time next year. Intel look like they are set to launch a series of new processors in the I5 series and have been reported to be making improved I7 processors also if what i have read is anything to go by, and it all looks set to happen within the next 12 months, thats why i am not going to rush ahead and fork out the money for the I7 at this moment in time.

[timko] · 17 Mar 2009 at 21:46

Supertaff said:
Only question now is do I also go for the Core i7 upgrade as well

Your current Xeon is still respectable at just under 3.5Ghz. If you really are feeling the pinch when it comes to raw CPU power then how about Q9550 overclocked to around 4Ghz instead? 4Ghz is easily attainbable on Q9550 and Q9650 chips and the recent price drops earlier this year make it even more interesting

Have a brief scan through this...

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=197802

marscay · 17 Mar 2009 at 22:32

Supertaff said:
Also LeJimster, can you give me more details in regards the the cradle your using for the Samsungs, I've got an 900 case as well and that looked like a good set up for them. I know you can't provide me with a competitor, but couldn't find the product anywhere based on the description in the picture post.

Taff

i use a bit of double sided tape with my 2 in an Antec 1200 - cost effective and does the job