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SSD and Hard Drive together?

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Andrew

Andrew

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Good to know. They appear to be more value ones as their read/write are 1/2 of ocz vertex. And I didn't see anywheres what controller they use. Could still be older samsung one that is bad. Although I guess it was just announced now, so probably using newer ones.

Looks like ocz vertex is selling out at newegg. Maybe they are trying to get rid of inventory (to get newer firmware version in stock?). They are even selling mac 30gb below normal 30gb. Once the 30gb hits $100 non sale price that's the price point for me. And they are putting out new firmware every 2-3 weeks which is great (and worth the wait, as firmware should be mature by October). Hurray up October! I want cheap SSD and every operating system to support them properly. That is when demand will be high, especially with win7 support.

It will be great when small SSD (30gb) get cheap enough to put into older computers (that have sata, which was introduced in 2003) for a massive speed improvement. Especially for ones used for web browsing mostly. Say $40 for a medium quality SSD which could still be twice as fast as hard drive that came with it. Bring life back to what would now be considered old computers. Some are releasing PATA which will be great for even older computers. Replace the old 80gb hard drive for a 30gb SSD.

D2k Sardaukar

D2k Sardaukar

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It will be great when small SSD (30gb) get cheap enough to put into older computers (that have sata, which was introduced in 2003) for a massive speed improvement. Especially for ones used for web browsing mostly. Say $40 for a medium quality SSD which could still be twice as fast as hard drive that came with it. Bring life back to what would now be considered old computers. Some are releasing PATA which will be great for even older computers. Replace the old 80gb hard drive for a 30gb SSD.

Yeah, that would be nice, also for laptops. Like this one: http://www.transcend.nl/products/ModDetail.asp?ModNo=162

Andrew

Andrew

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Hmm, back in June 9 and 10, it was announced by OCZ that they were releasing a new SSD called "OCZ Agility". They are similar to vertex, but lower priced and a bit slower.

Although according to newegg the 30gb of vertex/agility are priced within $5 of each other. So I dunno about it being more affordable. Especially since vertex is still much faster (20-30% faster according to read/write speeds). But it is only the 30gb agility that is slower. The 60/120 models have faster speeds comparable to vertex.

OCZ Announces The Agility 2.5” Solid State Drives

product page

I don't think I ever realized how small 2.5" hard drives are since I rarely ever see them. Of course I looked up measurement lengths, and found a picture that shows size held in hand of vertex. Small little buggers. :P

Do you normally keep the outer case on, that has branding, or is it just the silver metal part you see/use?

D2k Sardaukar

D2k Sardaukar

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Do you normally keep the outer case on, that has branding, or is it just the silver metal part you see/use?

What are you talking about? The plastic part of OCZ is not be taken off, there is a "void waranty" sticker.

Andrew

Andrew

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Ok, I was just wondering why in the pictures they show a silver case (outside of the black case), such as the picture in my previous post of someone holding it. Or is that just the underside?

here the person is holding it in hand and it shows black case. I'm guessing silver part is just underside (bottom).

EDIT:

OCZ will be announcing ocz vertex turbo at some point (week or two).

Faster and more expensive. 278 read, 213 write.

So:

vertex = normal

agility = cheaper vertex (not yet though, at some places it is actually more expensive)

vertex turbo = better vertex

vertex extreme - SLC version of vertex

Looks like the market is getting filled up fast. And once the next gen of SSD is released (end of 2009/2010?) the current gen should be cheap. It better happen by October. I don't know how long I can wait for a 3x speed improvement. I'm guessing ocz SSD are selling well with little competition, so probably why their prices have not come down and why they are putting out many versions of vertex.

Also, how do people mount 2.5" SSD in desktop tower since they are mostly designed for 3.5"? I saw a thread at ocz forums, and there are brackets you can buy. Or just toss the SSD onto floor of tower. ::)

OCZ Solid State Drive 3.5" Adaptor Bracket - could work.

Andrew

Andrew

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Newegg.ca shellshocker today is 60gb ocz agility for $195 CAD (regular $250), free shipping ($206 with taxes/fees).

There's been no reviews on any websites of agility, and I'm guessing they put the sale on to make people aware of the agility product series. Another Canadian online retailer has it priced for $235 before taxes/shipping, so it looks like an ok deal. I'm still gonna wait, as I've got until October before OS properly support SSD. I have no idea what firmware agility series has (I assume same one as vertex?). cost per gb is decent at $3.25 (195/60).

Sometimes I think they know what I'm looking at and so they put it on sale just for kicks to entice me.

newegg.com shellshocker is something different which is weird, they normally have the same shellshockers.

EDIT:

More info on vertex vs agility I found:

OCZ Announces The Agility 2.5” Solid State Drives

After speaking with OCZ for the second time tonight it seems the Vertex uses Samsung MLC NAND and that the Agility uses non-Samsung MLC NAND. That is the only difference and since Samsung faster and more expensive the Agility will be priced slightly lower with lower speed ratings. This is a very interesting move if you ask us.

And according to ocz guy on their forum, it is about 70% as fast as normal vertex.

Andrew

Andrew

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English article (lots at google news): Active Media Products Introduces Predator GT SATA-II SSDs

Prices look competitive with vertex. New controller, and 128mb cache! good read/writes. Includes mounting bracket. A year from now will we see 1gb cache, twice the read/writes?

Intel to launch 34nm SSD in just two weeks?

Is everyone going to make sure to have lots of products on market for win7 launch? Will supply keep up with demand if prices get lower? Will first generation SSD get lowered to garbage bin prices as they are crap compared to current and next gen?

EDIT:

OCZ extends warranty of Summit and Vertex SSD series

One of the most active actors, OCZ, have shown a serious dedication and prolonged the warranty from 2 to 3 years with both the Vertex and Summit families.

Nice. 2 year warranty was good enough because in 2 years time SSD will probably be very different. Now with 3 nothing to worry about, as your SSD will probably cost 20% of original price.

  • 2 weeks later...
Andrew

Andrew

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What we've been all waiting for:

Intel's 34nm SSD Preview: Cheaper and Faster?

Intel announced new SSD. From the sound of it it is an upgrade over older drives which they will replace (same names!).

Prices are good. $225 for 80gb. May sound like a lot but this is for probably the fastest SSD out there. And cost per gb is pretty much the same as indilinx drives. This new version mostly increases some specs for better speed. Nothing major, but lots of small stuff to make a large impact,

Article is worth the skim over (charts and stuff). Anand is going to do a review in a week or so when he gets the drive. So don't think about buying until after that is released.

EDIT:

Intel X25-M G2: Dissected and Performance Preview

short Anand review is in.

New intel is best SSD. Only bad thing is sequential write is low. So if you're constantly writing large files, might not be good for you.

EDIT:

Attached my crystaldisk info for my hard drive.

I'd see 3.6x improvement sequential read, 1.23x sequential write, 90x random 4k read, 19x random 4k write.

EDIT: Another review

Intel X25-M 'G2' 34nm 160GB SSD Review

Wins again.

So ocz 60gb vertex at newegg.com costs $230 ($200 after rebate), intel 80gb is supposed to cost $225 for 1000 units, so say ~$250 retail. For an extra $50 or so, you get ~20gb more and overall faster drive. OCZ and others are going to have to drop prices to compete. Although I expect intel ssd to be a bit more expensive for the next week or two until every retailer offers it.

post-1194-12833239891755_thumb.png

Andrew

Andrew

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Intel Forces OCZ's Hand: Indilinx Drives To Drop in Price

Should take effect in a couple weeks.

SWEEEEEET. But still need to go lower. 8)

EDIT:

new intel has showed up at newegg.com. not in stock and they have limit of 1 per person.

Intel X25-M Mainstream SSDSA2MH080G2C1 2.5" 80GB

$230 free shipping.

Currently 60gb ocz vertex is $230 with $30 mail in rebate (so $200). So spend $30 more and get 20gb more and faster SSD. Yep, they are gonna have to drop the price. From anand link above, the new price for vertex should be $190. Still not low enough to compete much (unless they then have the $30 MIR to bring it to $160):(

Andrew

Andrew

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Sadly newegg and other websites havn't gotten stock of newer intel SSD yet.

So they decided to put the older version on big sale!

$250 Canadian for 80gb. It was selling for $600 in November 2008.

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820167005

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=39806&promoid=1016

Hopefully other SSD drives drop in price at first of month as they reset mail in rebates.

EDIT:

Reason why intel SSD G2 have not shipped according to someone on a forum

The new drives form Intel have been delayed due to a data corruption issue. The problem occurs when a user sets a BIOS drive password on the new SSDs and then disables or changes the password. Intel is working on a firmware fix and has stopped all shipments of the drives till this issue is resolved.

EDIT:

In same thread (found at above ncix link), ncix forum admin state:

This is the older generation, and yes, we're clearing it out. Very good price, even in comparison to the newer gen drives, and from what we can tell, fairly minor performance differences. These are a good deal.
Andrew

Andrew

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From 600 to 250, now that's nice.  ;D

Hopefully with the new generation starting off at ~$250, 1 year from now they will be $100. Wishful thinking?

EDIT:

Intel Confirms SSD Data Corruption Issue, Suspends Shipments Pending Firmware Update

EDIT:

Newegg has ETA as August 28 for new intel ssd :(

EDIT:

newegg has ocz summit on shellshocker sale. $290 USD, $319 CAD free shipping. ocz summit uses crappy samsung controller so it is useless.

  • 2 weeks later...
Andrew

Andrew

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OCZ is releasing new firmware for vertex Thursday/Friday. It will feature RAID improvements, improved MacOS support, and new garbage collector. Supposedly TRIM support.

New garbage collector is best new thing. Once you fill up a SSD and then delete some files, it slows down as when you want to write new data it first has to remove the old data and write new stuff, which is slower than only writing to blank space. garbage collector removes old data, so that when new data is written it doesn't have to remove/write (just write). Garbage collector happens very quickly. There are some benchmarks showing it starts to takes place within 5 minutes, and has drive back up to speed in as little as 15 minutes. So the drives will maintain their top speed even after lots of use. This is currently a problem for most SSD, so this will make OCZ products better than competition. Competition should get same type of firmware within a month, although ocz customized theirs a bit from the indilinx default firmware.

TRIM support will be interesting to see what works with it (linux kernel has support so hopefully it works with it).

Hopefully have full changelog and reviews this weekend.

With new firmware, hopefully retailers put old firmware ssd on sale to get rid of inventory so they can get newer firmware versions to sell. Intel SSD still on target for end of month release, so hopefully ocz ssd go on decent sales at some point in next week or two. Sadly I doubt newegg will put 30gb version on sale as it is selling out at regular price.

OCZ Launches Latest SATA SSD Product: Solid 2 series

Not a fast drive (125 read 100 write), probably meant as upgrade for original solid series and cheap. But I'd stay away from it, as no benchmarks or prices yet.

EDIT:

New 1.4 firmware released as beta, final should be out Friday. TRIM is included and works with win7, linux kernel, and macos.

People reporting problems on macs, so don't update yet if you got one of those. some RAID slow downs too.

Perfect example of garbage collector at work. Someone has 4 30gb vertex in raid. this shows the huge improvement after 1 hour of garbage collector.

  • 2 weeks later...
Andrew

Andrew

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SSD Stackup - Comparison of several SSD. OCZ vertex (any indilinx) and Intel G1 are best. Basically showing the older SSDs are bad.

OCZ still working on firmware, no official release yet.

Intel G2 still supposed to be available August 28 or so. Probably overpriced and sold out with preorders. Wait and see what competition does.

I'm getting impatient again :(

anandtech is supposed to have a new big SSD article out at some point (week?).

Lab Update: The Next SSD Article, Matte vs. Glossy and Touch Screens - Read 3rd comment by anand, he simply explains what drive to buy currently. =<60gb->vertex. 80gb->intel, 120gb->vertex. Price doesn't matter->intel

Andrew

Andrew

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i want a velocorapter hdd rather then a ssd

Why?

Do you need lots of storage space cheap?

Good SSD is 3 times faster than velocirapter. Have a small/fast SSD hooked up for OS and programs and continue using your hard drive for data.

Have you read reviews comparing SSD vs fastest hard drives? Hard drives are slow. The only reason to buy hard drive is if you need storage space. 150gb velociraptor costs $180. For that price you can get fast 60gb SSD in a months time.

Go here

search for "velocirapter" and read each review that talks about it.

Or look at images from one review here. OCZ vertex 120gb beats velocirapter very easily.

Gruntlord6

Gruntlord6

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i like space more then speed, but the veloco rapter is middle ground. also, have any studies been done comparing useage life? ssd has finte number of writes and hdds crash, im curious as too which dies quicker.

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