The new SSD Thread (Benchmarks, Brands, News and Advice)

[chunglau]

heh.. is the kingston ssdnow v series actually worth it? seems like a cheap deal to me.. i can drive up to san jose and get it for $129+9.25% tax (deal breaker basically).. Total would be $142.01 with tax.

Even though you pay tax, there is the advantage of being able to return it to the store for a full refund. Most online places may not be as generous with SSD purchases.

There is also a USB enclosure and Acronis software. That combo is probably worth $20.

[smokozuna]

I know how passionately some of us hate the Kingston V series , but here is a review just posted:

http://www.pureoverclock.com/review.php?id=772&page=1

Fry's has the 64GB notebook bundle on sale for $129 in their B&M stores. That includes the enclosure.

Again, not saying if this is a good drive or not, but it is refreshing to see Fry's starting to carry cheaper SSD's in the stores. It is nice to be able to return it if you don't like it.

Picked one of these up at Fry's today and installed into my Macbook Pro. My boot times dropped from 35 seconds to 17 seconds, so far I love it!

[IntelUser]

ah okay, turbo memory. I don't like it, dunno..

But till memristors, I guess we have to take every solution as .. at least something..

I don't know, I just see something significant coming here.

http://www.hardware.info/en-US/news/...vised_in_2010/

-Bad Block Management
-200MB/s
-It can be used as user accessible portion, eg, install an OS
-Due to the controller being in the chipset, it can be used with any OS, not just Vista

The first two versions of Turbo Memory wasn't as usable because of limited capacity of 512MB-2GB, and transfer rate of 30-60MB/s.

But a 16GB capacity with 200MB/s transfer rate and good algorithm might just make it a cheap X25-M. Or even an X25-E as Turbo Memory always used SLC and maybe they'll follow up with SLC.

[runtohell121]

Even though you pay tax, there is the advantage of being able to return it to the store for a full refund. Most online places may not be as generous with SSD purchases.

There is also a USB enclosure and Acronis software. That combo is probably worth $20.

heh true.. but isn't fry's return policy like only 15 days or something?

[coriolis]

Finally picked up my 60gb Vertex, put the latest firmware(1.30) on, and jeez its fast! However, my motherboard decided to die on me a few nights ago, and now I'm waiting for ASUS to do my RMA report so I can ship it back. At least I hope its only the motherboard

Tempted to play around with this SSD more on my EEE though

[chunglau]

heh true.. but isn't fry's return policy like only 15 days or something?

Not sure. If they consider this "memory", then it is only 15 days. Most other things are 30 days.

[davepermen]

I don't know, I just see something significant coming here.

http://www.hardware.info/en-US/news/...vised_in_2010/

-Bad Block Management
-200MB/s
-It can be used as user accessible portion, eg, install an OS
-Due to the controller being in the chipset, it can be used with any OS, not just Vista

The first two versions of Turbo Memory wasn't as usable because of limited capacity of 512MB-2GB, and transfer rate of 30-60MB/s.

But a 16GB capacity with 200MB/s transfer rate and good algorithm might just make it a cheap X25-M. Or even an X25-E as Turbo Memory always used SLC and maybe they'll follow up with SLC.

Well, I have my 160gb intel now, so no need for a cheap intel

but obviously, you're right. I still prefer a full solution that is drop-in, and removes the hdd completely. i don't like hybrid approaches.

and the 16gb has one problem: being quite small, if it's mlc, it may be an issue of rewritability, and the "full ssd == slower" issue. it might.. no clue if it will.

if it's slc, that's another topic. make it 32gb slc and i'm sold

but then again, if it's slc and 16gb, it would cost half the price of the X-25E, not? and that is not cheap (obviously the price would be much lower, still.. it would not be cheap i'd guess.. half the price because of 34mm, maybe).

but yeah, a SLC + MLC style storage design would be awesome. small slc for os and apps (up to 64gb), and large mlc for data (even with >2bits per cell, as it would not get rewritten that often anyways).

[TMC01]

Hybrid design is good. I plopped in an expresscard ssd as my boot drive and turned the original HDD into a storage drive. It works really well and I am getting the best of both worlds. The speed of the SSD and the storage size of HDDs. Using SSDs now for storage would be too much for an average user. The cost just doesnt justify. Get a mix, 64gb for OS and a nice 500gb for storage, would be more than enough.

[IntelUser]

but then again, if it's slc and 16gb, it would cost half the price of the X-25E, not? and that is not cheap (obviously the price would be much lower, still.. it would not be cheap i'd guess.. half the price because of 34mm, maybe).

Remember the link I gave months ago about JEDEC's roadmap regarding SSDs and how they are planning a similar connection to Braidwood as the future of SSDs? And I concluded that the controller being on the chipset side is one way of lowering price significantly.

Pure throughput wise the 34nm SSDs will outperform these, but what's to say that a mini X25-E will not appear? It seems nowadays the cheaper alternatives to Intel are getting awfully close in performance.

Maybe Braidwood will turn out to be the tech that meets the hype that surrounded hybrid HDD/SSD several years ago.

But yea there will always be people that needs/wants the pure approach.

Did you hear of the 34nm SSD lineup from Intel that are rumored to release in 2 weeks?

[davepermen]

no. 2 weeks? so no ssd for me this month i'll wait two weeks

btw TMC01. uhm, no, best of both worlds it isn't. at least not in laptop-droparoundability + not in silence.. i prefer small notebook storage + home-server, so i get even better best of both worlds. 128 - 160gb per system, 2- 4.5tb right now for data.

but i understand that so far, for raw data, ssds are overpriced. obviously.