Intel 34nm SSD released

Silencing hard drives, optical drives and other storage devices

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dhanson865
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Post by dhanson865 » Sun Aug 30, 2009 3:52 pm

Code: Select all

Cap / Size  Gen 1(50nm)    Gen 2(34nm)
 80GB 2.5" SSDSA2MH080G1  SSDSA2MH080G2
160GB 2.5" SSDSA2MH160G1  SSDSA2MH160G2

 80GB 1.8" SSDSA1MH080G1  SSDSA1MH080G2
160GB 1.8" SSDSA1MH160G1  SSDSA1MH160G2
costcentral 2-3 weeks for delivery.

I was going to list a few more but they all say Vendor Drop Ship or the 2-3 weeks for delivery line.

JazzJackRabbit
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Post by JazzJackRabbit » Mon Aug 31, 2009 7:28 am

I got my 160GB from buy.com ebay store, I also used 10% bing cashback, so essentially I got my drive for $400 shipped. Still expensive, but to put it into perspective newegg has the drive listed at $500, currently OOS, but they had it in stock for a couple of hours this weekend.

Anyway, I installed Windows 7 this weekend on my intel drive and while I still haven't installed all of my applications on it (it will probably slow down as I install more and more apps), it is noticeably faster than my old WD6400AAKS.

Old rig:
One drive WD6400AAKS, three partitions, 100GB for Vista 64bit, 100GB for WinXP (I dual boot), and 400GB for data including VMWare images.

New Rig:
Two drives, three partitions, Windows 7 64bit installed on X25-M 160GB G2 one partition, Samsung HD154UI with 2 partitions, 100GB for WinXP and 1.4TB for data to be used by both Win7 and WinXP.

Everything else stayed the same. Abit IP35Pro/9550 at 3.4GHz/8GB Ram.

A couple of completely subjective scenarios. Photoshop CS4 load times are noticeably faster, about 2-3 times as fast, although this is kind of unreliable benchmark as I found CS4 load times inconsistent because it definitely loads slower the first time, consequent load times are faster. Pausing Fedora Virtual Machine in VMWare is definitely faster with new rig. On old one it would usually take 5-7 seconds, on new one it takes 1-2 seconds max, although once again, this benchmark is a little unreliable because VMWare virtual machines are now kept on Samsung drive, so I do not know how much of a difference is due to Intel SSD, and how much of it is due to moving VMWare images to a different drive. One last subjective benchmark, I usually keep 3 Firefox instances open with about 80 tabs between them (I need to cut back on those). On Vista and mechanical drive it was always a pain to start firefox with all those tabs, it was also a pain to shut down computer with those tabs open. It's gotten so bad on old rig that occasionally it would take several minutes to shut down my computer. Horrendous. On new rig opening firefox with 80 tabs is much faster and firefox becomes responsive much sooner, it also shuts down instantaneously and I do mean instantaneously. Those 3 instances of firefox with 80 tabs close in less than a second. Fabulous. Shutting down my computer now takes less than 10 seconds instead of a 30-120 seconds before.

Overall, yes, performance is noticeably better, I like how my computer is much more responsive, but.... $400 price tag bites. Chances are if you're HDD limited, you will notice big difference, however, it is up to you if it's worth extra $200-500. For me, looking back I still think $400 is little too expensive, enough to second doubt my decision to buy one, but hopefully it will get better as I actually use the system.


P.S. Windows 7 STILL FREAKING REARRANGES MY FAVORITE VIEW in explorer. All I want is detail view with filename, type, size and modifydate, unless I decide otherwise, yet it STILL insists on showing thumbnails when I open folder with video files. Screw you Microsoft for being so mind numbingly stupid.


P.P.S. somebody already mentioned this review in another thread, but I think it's worth posting here as well. Anandtech did The SSD Relapse: Understanding and Choosing the Best SSD aka "SSD Anthology II" review, which now includes proper x25-m G2 review alongside with G1 and Indilinx drives. It also explains in greater detail SSD performance drop and compares "new" and "used" performances between all drives. Some surprising results, G1 random write performance is actually faster than G2 in new state, however G2 doesn't drop performance much when used and in "used" state comes out on top, even without TRIM support.

JazzJackRabbit
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Post by JazzJackRabbit » Mon Aug 31, 2009 6:42 pm

Just FYI, Newegg has the drives in stock, however thanks to their automatic price gouge script, you can now buy 80GB G2 OEM version for $500, 80GB G2 Retail for $600, 160GB G2 OEM for $900, and if you find too much money in your wallet you can pick up 160GB G2 Retail drive for a low low price of $997. :lol:


Looks like I got a deal paying only $400 for my 160GB. LOL at newegg though... I wonder if people are still buying drives at those prices.



http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLi ... name=Intel

whispercat
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Post by whispercat » Mon Aug 31, 2009 9:27 pm

Thanks Jazz...Yeah, Ok, I don't get this. Looks like Newegg just jacked up the price of the new Intel G2s by a huge amount:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLi ... name=Intel

Dirge
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Post by Dirge » Wed Sep 02, 2009 1:35 pm

PC Perspective has an explanation of the current price gouging by NewEgg. Seems like Intel is currently having trouble keeping up with demand for the drives and at least one retailer is taking advantage of the situation.

Anand's article is pretty interesting, still seems like the Intel X25-M is the SSD to beat performance wise. I wish I could find some future SSD roadmaps to get n idea of what Intel is planning for 2010. I would like a drive with a higher sequential write speed than the current X25-M 70 MB/sec.

I get the feeling the 70 MB/sec write speed was an arbitrary limit set by Intel. Why... to differentiate the drive from the enterprise class X25-E and justify its price premium.

Airshark
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Post by Airshark » Wed Sep 02, 2009 2:47 pm

My latest quiet rig has a 160GB SSD (Intel's previous generation X-25M). It's a huge improvement both in speed and quiet. I paired it with a slow but quiet WD Greenpower 2TB for bulk storage. I can't emphasize enough how much better this is - especially in areas like boot time. If you took away my SSD I'd cry.

Dirge
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Post by Dirge » Wed Sep 02, 2009 3:34 pm

Airshark wrote:If you took away my SSD I'd cry.
QUOTED FOR TRUTH

I dont think you can endorse a product any better than that...

DaveLessnau
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Post by DaveLessnau » Wed Sep 02, 2009 4:49 pm

JazzJackRabbit wrote:P.S. Windows 7 STILL FREAKING REARRANGES MY FAVORITE VIEW in explorer. All I want is detail view with filename, type, size and modifydate, unless I decide otherwise, yet it STILL insists on showing thumbnails when I open folder with video files. Screw you Microsoft for being so mind numbingly stupid.
I don't know if it works in Windows 7 (it did in Vista), but try here:

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/70819 ... tings.html

JamieG
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Post by JamieG » Wed Sep 02, 2009 6:02 pm

Dirge wrote:
Airshark wrote:If you took away my SSD I'd cry.
QUOTED FOR TRUTH

I dont think you can endorse a product any better than that...
QFT indeed.

I recently fired up my gaming PC again after not using it for a few weeks and I'm really noticing the difference in responsiveness vs my SSD-equipped main PC. (Not to mention having gotten used to 35 second boot up times...)

Erssa
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Post by Erssa » Sun Sep 06, 2009 1:18 pm

Well I just installed my X25-M this weekend and the speed change is amazing. Part of it is due to a new installation of windows, but still... my computer has never been this responsive.

whispercat
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Post by whispercat » Tue Sep 15, 2009 11:37 am

What's the difference between the retail and oem versions of these SSDs?

Erssa
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Post by Erssa » Tue Sep 15, 2009 12:18 pm

whispercat wrote:What's the difference between the retail and oem versions of these SSDs?
Retail comes with this simple iron plate, that you can use to install the drive to 3.5" slot. Not really worth it imo. Since there are no transmitted vibrations, you can just zip tie the drive to your case, if you don't have any better way to mount it.

skiddy
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Snaps!

Post by skiddy » Sun Sep 20, 2009 7:45 pm

I'd like to chime in with my impression of just how huge an improvement an SSD is to the user.

I built a leading-edge PC 2 years ago. Intel E6600 Core 2 Duo, overclocked from 2.4 GHz to 3.6. Three WD HD's, with OS on one, data on 2nd, swap files on the 3rd. I tweaked memory timing as low as possible. Did all the registry tweaks, etc.

All those changes (including the 50% overclock) made a just-noticable improvement in responsiveness.

Putting in two Intel X25's (OS and swap, keeping two HD's for data) is an improvement of 100-fold. Before, boot was agonizingly slow. It took 2.5 minutes before the last startup program loaded, THEN I had to wait another minute for AV boot scan to finish. Now, the system is usable with NO slowdowns in 45 seconds. I -used- to walk away after power-on...

Click on email icon, and the app is up and ready to send/recieve before my finger is lifted off the left mouse button.

Photoshop is up and usable in 2 seconds instead of 15. That really annoying wait is GONE. Bridge is the same - BAM! it's ready to go. Open a RAW file in ACR - BAM - ACR is open. Install an update or new program, the progress bar flys to 100%.

Search for some obscure file on C:? Fast, fast, fast.

Browsing is no big deal, right? Who cares if it takes another 10th of a sec? Right? WRONG! pages -load- faster. They SNAP on-screen. Tab switching is instant. EVERYTHING you do is -instant-.

Imagine it this way... You change the TV channel. Except it takes 2 seconds EVERY SINGLE TIME (DirecTv viewers know what I'm talking about...). Or you go to increase volume, and it's a half second each time you hit the button. All those little waits are gone.

If you had a laptop from 10 years ago, SSD's are today's i7's, with 8 GB of ram. If you have the money, it's worth every penny. Read Anand's latest article on SSD's - it's gold.

Fred
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Post by Fred » Mon Sep 21, 2009 3:08 am

skiddy wrote: It took 2.5 minutes before the last startup program loaded, THEN I had to wait another minute for AV boot scan to finish. Now, the system is usable with NO slowdowns in 45 seconds.
It sounds like you you either have boatloads of startup programs or vista(or something else). >_>
2.5 minutes is slow.

skiddy
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Post by skiddy » Mon Sep 21, 2009 8:45 am

Fred wrote: It sounds like you you either have boatloads of startup programs or vista(or something else). >_>
2.5 minutes is slow.
Eset NOD32 and Comodo firewall, and Speedfan! I'm running XP.
I'm suspecting Comodo does some kind of scan at startup, too (it's got a HIPS component).

There's only 36 TOTAL processes running, as I write this (including Process Explorer to view them). It's clean...

Fred
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Post by Fred » Mon Sep 21, 2009 2:30 pm

Maybe it's just me getting used to an nlited XP, heh. :P
There's 26 processes up now, and startup to when the comp is usable takes about a minute.

Erssa
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Post by Erssa » Thu Sep 24, 2009 7:59 am

I think slow HDs or AHCI are more likely reasons for Skiddy's slow low boot time than the number of running processes.

JVM
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Post by JVM » Thu Sep 24, 2009 11:26 am

Erssa wrote:I think slow HDs or AHCI are more likely reasons for Skiddy's slow low boot time than the number of running processes.
Why would AHCI slow boot time?

I assume installing an SSD drive with Antec elastic bands (Solo) would work, or am I mistaken?

DaveLessnau
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Post by DaveLessnau » Thu Sep 24, 2009 2:23 pm

JVM wrote:Why would AHCI slow boot time? ?
During boot, the system will look for devices to manage under AHCI. My systems here add about 10 seconds enumerating those devices (at one point, I had a computer that added 45 seconds doing that).

JVM
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Post by JVM » Thu Sep 24, 2009 3:08 pm

DaveLessnau wrote:
JVM wrote:Why would AHCI slow boot time? ?
During boot, the system will look for devices to manage under AHCI. My systems here add about 10 seconds enumerating those devices (at one point, I had a computer that added 45 seconds doing that).
Have you noticed any difference running AHCI in terms of performance?

skiddy
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Post by skiddy » Thu Sep 24, 2009 4:06 pm

[quote="JVMHave you noticed any difference running AHCI in terms of performance?[/quote]

I went from:
SEQ read write 4k read write 4k*64threads read write
249 57 20 45 21 48
to:
262 65 19 43 150 53

The significant change was 4k * 64 threads: 21 MB/s to 150 during reads.

Erssa
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Post by Erssa » Fri Sep 25, 2009 6:44 am

DaveLessnau wrote:During boot, the system will look for devices to manage under AHCI. My systems here add about 10 seconds enumerating those devices (at one point, I had a computer that added 45 seconds doing that).
This is what I meant. Last time I did a rebuild, I changed my bios settings to enable AHCI, because it was the only way I got XP to recognize my eSata hard drive (previous Nvidia chipset had no problem recognizing eSata even without AHCI). During boot, windows loading screen would freeze for a significant time, probably until some fuction timed out. It effectively doubled my boot time compared to my previos installation.

I rarely boot my computer, so the slow boot time with my XP didn't really matter that much. Anyway, now I have a windows 7 installation and the boot time is considerably faster. Part of it is because of the SSD, but I believe most of the credit goes to windows 7 and how it handles the AHCI. Raptor wasn't the bottle neck during the boot hang-ups, because it had no activity while it was waiting for something.

Erssa
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Post by Erssa » Fri Sep 25, 2009 6:55 am

JVM wrote:I assume installing an SSD drive with Antec elastic bands (Solo) would work, or am I mistaken?
I'd say yes. I haven't really tested. Being the lazy bastard that I am, I just plugged the drive in and left it on the bottom of the case. Since it has no vibrations it doesn't really matter how you mount it, simply zip tying it somewhere would be a good way to mount it, certainly more secure then the elastic bands Solo has. Last time I opened my case, I noticed my Raptor was hanging in a 30 degree angle, because it had slipped from the elastic bands.

JVM
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Post by JVM » Fri Sep 25, 2009 7:43 am

Erssa wrote:
JVM wrote:I assume installing an SSD drive with Antec elastic bands (Solo) would work, or am I mistaken?
I'd say yes. I haven't really tested. Being the lazy bastard that I am, I just plugged the drive in and left it on the bottom of the case. Since it has no vibrations it doesn't really matter how you mount it, simply zip tying it somewhere would be a good way to mount it, certainly more secure then the elastic bands Solo has. Last time I opened my case, I noticed my Raptor was hanging in a 30 degree angle, because it had slipped from the elastic bands.
I use the second generation of their elastic bands, and they are holding up very well for over a year. These new bands are much different than the original ones, but I don't know which bands you have. I got mine from Antec.

Did you use the AHCI driver provided in Windows 7 or did you install with latest one from Intel/AMD?

I must say this thread has not only provided lots of information about SSD, but it sure sparked my interest. I plan on going to Windows 7, pre-ordered from Microsoft.

I am more interested in the 160GB Intel version Gen. 2, but the price is really high. Still, I wouldn't hesitate if it was 320GB. I probably could get by with 160GB, but at around $600 dollars, I think I'll wait another year and get higher capacity.

Erssa
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Post by Erssa » Fri Sep 25, 2009 11:21 am

JVM wrote:I use the second generation of their elastic bands, and they are holding up very well for over a year. These new bands are much different than the original ones, but I don't know which bands you have. I got mine from Antec.

Did you use the AHCI driver provided in Windows 7 or did you install with latest one from Intel/AMD?

I must say this thread has not only provided lots of information about SSD, but it sure sparked my interest. I plan on going to Windows 7, pre-ordered from Microsoft.
I have the second generation elastic bands as well. They are fine, I must have accidentally bumbed the case or something to make them slip away from those front bands.

I haven't installed any drivers manually. That's one of the things I love about windows 7. Everything worked from the start. Sound card, network, graphics etc. Later I downloaded some stuff through windows update (can't remember what, because I just installed what it offered me), but I haven't needed any driver CDs, or heaven forbid, floppies, like with those ahci drivers for XP.

Metaluna
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Post by Metaluna » Fri Sep 25, 2009 12:37 pm

skiddy wrote:
JVM wrote:Have you noticed any difference running AHCI in terms of performance?
I went from:
SEQ read write 4k read write 4k*64threads read write
249 57 20 45 21 48
to:
262 65 19 43 150 53

The significant change was 4k * 64 threads: 21 MB/s to 150 during reads.
According to this PC Perspective article, the X25 exploits AHCI/NCQ extensively to improve performance, so it pretty much confirms your findings.

http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=66 ... pert&pid=3

JVM
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Post by JVM » Fri Sep 25, 2009 12:38 pm

Erssa wrote:
JVM wrote:I use the second generation of their elastic bands, and they are holding up very well for over a year. These new bands are much different than the original ones, but I don't know which bands you have. I got mine from Antec.

Did you use the AHCI driver provided in Windows 7 or did you install with latest one from Intel/AMD?

I must say this thread has not only provided lots of information about SSD, but it sure sparked my interest. I plan on going to Windows 7, pre-ordered from Microsoft.
I have the second generation elastic bands as well. They are fine, I must have accidentally bumbed the case or something to make them slip away from those front bands.

I haven't installed any drivers manually. That's one of the things I love about windows 7. Everything worked from the start. Sound card, network, graphics etc. Later I downloaded some stuff through windows update (can't remember what, because I just installed what it offered me), but I haven't needed any driver CDs, or heaven forbid, floppies, like with those ahci drivers for XP.
Sounds real sweet. I just finished re-reading this thread and don't think I can take it anymore. I mean, it is getting to the point where I am getting up to buying the 160GB Intel, even at the high cost. I can make it with 160GB for everything.

As for backing up to an internal magnetic hdd, meaning data or full image, is it the same as with two 7200 rpm hard drives? And if it is and you need to restore that image back to an SSD, any issue there?

skiddy
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Post by skiddy » Fri Sep 25, 2009 4:17 pm

JVM wrote:As for backing up to an internal magnetic hdd, meaning data or full image, is it the same as with two 7200 rpm hard drives? And if it is and you need to restore that image back to an SSD, any issue there?
I restored a 'clone' of my HD to the SSD, it worked just fine, once I figured out that I HAD to run a FULL format to the SSD to get the boot sector written...

JVM
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Post by JVM » Fri Sep 25, 2009 4:51 pm

skiddy wrote:
JVM wrote:As for backing up to an internal magnetic hdd, meaning data or full image, is it the same as with two 7200 rpm hard drives? And if it is and you need to restore that image back to an SSD, any issue there?
I restored a 'clone' of my HD to the SSD, it worked just fine, once I figured out that I HAD to run a FULL format to the SSD to get the boot sector written...
I assume you mean full (long) as opposed to a quick format. I always do the full/long format rather than a quick format. I have Acronis to clone a disk. So, sounds like all should be fine with regard for cloning, backing up with a full image or partial data backups. I do both, periodic partial for certain files and periodic full images to keep an entire copy of my hard drive updated. Maybe next year I can have all SSD drives, three silent hard drives to match my silent video card sounds real good to me. Plus, with all that reduction in heat, I could very likely remove my front Nexus fans--no need to cool those SSD drives.

I was checking around and practically everyone is out of stock with no new shipments expected for at least two weeks. I know newegg has them in stock, but I have seen better prices at those out-of-stock places. I can wait as my plan is to use the new drive for Windows 7.

Reading this thread is costing me big bucks!

cmthomson
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Post by cmthomson » Fri Sep 25, 2009 5:49 pm

Acronis does clone systems without regard to whether the source or target is SSD or HDD, but be aware that when cloning to an SSD, it will align the partition to a 31.5KB boundary (offset of 63 sectors, a "track" boundary on an HDD). This isn't the end of the world, but will marginally reduce your SSD performance, and somewhat reduce its lifetime. SSD partitions should be aligned to 512 or 1024KB for optimal performance and longevity.

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