USB SSD

[ilovejedd]

I've moved all my virtual machines (~6) at home to an unused Kingston SSDNow V 40GB (same as Intel X25-V 40GB but w/o TRIM). Now I've never really fully appreciated the value of storing them on an SSD until I tried running 2 VM's at the same time from an external 500GB Western Digital Passport USB drive on my laptop. Suffice to say it was a painful experience.

Right now, I'm looking for a 40~80GB SSD which I can hook up via USB for storing VM's I might need on the go. Unfortunately, the laptop doesn't have an eSATA port. Drives with both SATA and USB connections are preferred. I've got a 2.5" hot-swap bay on my home PC so being able to use SATA when I need to sync VM's to the home PC is a big plus. Do you guys have any recommendations?

Thanks!

[Fire-Flare]

I'm looking for a 40~80GB SSD which I can hook up via USB for storing VM's I might need on the go.

Drives with both SATA and USB connections are preferred.

I've got a 2.5" hot-swap bay on my home PC so being able to use SATA when I need to sync VM's to the home PC is a big plus.

Have you looked at hard drive enclosures with USB and SATA connections?

Alternatively, you could save money by getting just a SATA to USB adapter. That would adapt the bare drive to a USB interface without requiring disassembly to put the drive in your PC bay.

Or, you could change out your hot swap bay for a 3.5" bay with a matching SATA+USB enclosure.

[Falkon]

I use this enclosure myself:
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/ ... No=3804512

It has both eSATA and USB connections on it. I'm sure you could use a 2.5" to 3.5" adapter that comes with most SSDs now to make one work in this enclosure.

[ilovejedd]

Have you looked at hard drive enclosures with USB and SATA connections?

Alternatively, you could save money by getting just a SATA to USB adapter. That would adapt the bare drive to a USB interface without requiring disassembly to put the drive in your PC bay.

Or, you could change out your hot swap bay for a 3.5" bay with a matching SATA+USB enclosure.

Going with an enclosure is another thing I'm considering. Unfortunately, I don't know how well 2.5" enclosures work with SSD's and if there are any consequences with regards to TRIM, etc. I have an Apricorn IDE/SATA to USB adapter, unfortunately, it needs a power brick to function so I guess that won't work, either.

I use this enclosure myself:
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/ ... No=3804512

It has both eSATA and USB connections on it. I'm sure you could use a 2.5" to 3.5" adapter that comes with most SSDs now to make one work in this enclosure.

I don't think that one would work. I need an enclosure that can be powered via USB.

[Fire-Flare]

Have you looked at hard drive enclosures with USB and SATA connections?

Alternatively, you could save money by getting just a SATA to USB adapter. That would adapt the bare drive to a USB interface without requiring disassembly to put the drive in your PC bay.

Or, you could change out your hot swap bay for a 3.5" bay with a matching SATA+USB enclosure.

Going with an enclosure is another thing I'm considering. Unfortunately, I don't know how well 2.5" enclosures work with SSD's and if there are any consequences with regards to TRIM, etc. I have an Apricorn IDE/SATA to USB adapter, unfortunately, it needs a power brick to function so I guess that won't work, either.

My research hasn't found any reviews claiming incompatibility with SDDs in USB adapters. It seems SATA is SATA to a USB translator chip, regardless of how data stored.

As for TRIM, I found nothing conclusive on USB SSDs. But it's akin to defragmentation in terms of scheduling; When you feel performance is dropping you can run the feature from the hot swap bay.

[Lensman]

I've been using Intel X-25M (G2) in an Antec MX-25 enclosure for about a year now. Was using it connected via eSATAto my desktop and USB to my laptop. It comes with a combo cable that you can use to connect to your computer as pure USB to USB, powering the drive via USB and connecting to the drive via the USB. You can also use this same cable as a pure USB power cable and connect the drive via a separate eSATA cable.

Regarding TRIM support, I don't think the USB-SATA bridge/controller in most external USB drive enclosures will pass along a TRIM command. In fact, I don't even think TRIM is an available command in the standard USB mass storage driver under any OS. I don't know this for a fact, though. I'm merely expressing my extreme skepticism about the idea.

One thing to note about using an SSD to hold VMs even if you were using it over SATA/eSATA is that the virtual drives in the vmdk file don't get TRIMed so you don't get any of the benefits of TRIM for I/O to virtual drives.

[ilovejedd]

I've been using Intel X-25M (G2) in an Antec MX-25 enclosure for about a year now. Was using it connected via eSATAto my desktop and USB to my laptop. It comes with a combo cable that you can use to connect to your computer as pure USB to USB, powering the drive via USB and connecting to the drive via the USB. You can also use this same cable as a pure USB power cable and connect the drive via a separate eSATA cable.

Thanks for the feedback! Looks like this is the route I'll be taking.

Regarding TRIM support, I don't think the USB-SATA bridge/controller in most external USB drive enclosures will pass along a TRIM command. In fact, I don't even think TRIM is an available command in the standard USB mass storage driver under any OS. I don't know this for a fact, though. I'm merely expressing my extreme skepticism about the idea.

Yeah, that's what I figured (USB-SATA bridge = no TRIM). One concern is performance degradation without TRIM but I guess as long as I get an Intel SSD, I should be fine even without it. They seem to be pretty resilient. The Kingston SSD I currently use is pretty much an Intel X25-V 40GB without TRIM and I haven't found any performance degradation after more than half a year's use and ~700GB worth of writes on my OS drive. Surprisingly, the SSD housing my VM's have considerably less writes (~300GB) in pretty much the same period of time (give or take a month or so). I guess putting the temporary torrent downloads folder on the OS SSD wasn't the brightest of ideas.

One thing to note about using an SSD to hold VMs even if you were using it over SATA/eSATA is that the virtual drives in the vmdk file don't get TRIMed so you don't get any of the benefits of TRIM for I/O to virtual drives.

I use Virtual PC, not VMware so no vmdk. Regardless, I don't see a need for TRIM to work directly on the virtual disk. Then again, I don't use fixed disks. I use dynamically expanding disks and I tend to do maintenance (clean-up, defrag, precompaction, compaction, backup) on them every month.