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#1
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just curious... solid state hard drives
other than cost/GB are there any other problems that I should be aware of
with these new drives? I see that there are a lot of smaller memory companies that are now turning these out in addition to the major manufacturers with slightly lower costs like with flash memory... Also... how do they stack up in performance compaired to say a WD 10k Raptor drive? (I'm about to google this, but thought I'd ask in here as well) |
#2
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just curious... solid state hard drives
Matthew wrote:
other than cost/GB are there any other problems that I should be aware of with these new drives? I see that there are a lot of smaller memory companies that are now turning these out in addition to the major manufacturers with slightly lower costs like with flash memory... Also... how do they stack up in performance compaired to say a WD 10k Raptor drive? (I'm about to google this, but thought I'd ask in here as well) 1) High cost 2) Good read performance, bad write performance (anywhere from 3 to 100 writes per second, without a caching driver of some sort). 3) MLC versus SLC. MLC offers better density than SLC, but has poorer write cycle limitations (wearout). SLC might also be faster to complete a write. Many "cheap" products may use MLC, with complaints from users about them. Wear leveling algorithms are what makes these things even begin to be viable. http://mtron.easyco.com/news/papers/...benchmarks.pdf http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=3167&p=2 Check the reviews on Newegg, to spot the garbage. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820208317 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820609302 Paul |
#3
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just curious... solid state hard drives
"Matthew" wrote in message ... other than cost/GB are there any other problems that I should be aware of with these new drives? I see that there are a lot of smaller memory companies that are now turning these out in addition to the major manufacturers with slightly lower costs like with flash memory... Also... how do they stack up in performance compaired to say a WD 10k Raptor drive? (I'm about to google this, but thought I'd ask in here as well) read all about it http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...-ssd,1971.html |
#4
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just curious... solid state hard drives
"BigJim" wrote in message . .. "Matthew" wrote in message ... other than cost/GB are there any other problems that I should be aware of with these new drives? I see that there are a lot of smaller memory companies that are now turning these out in addition to the major manufacturers with slightly lower costs like with flash memory... Also... how do they stack up in performance compaired to say a WD 10k Raptor drive? (I'm about to google this, but thought I'd ask in here as well) read all about it http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...-ssd,1971.html Thanks to both of you! |
#5
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just curious... solid state hard drives
"Matthew" wrote...
other than cost/GB are there any other problems that I should be aware of with these new drives? I see that there are a lot of smaller memory companies that are now turning these out in addition to the major manufacturers with slightly lower costs like with flash memory... Lots of differences among brands and generations. Extreme Tech just published a review of new Samsung SSD with a comparison with other brands and Samsung's earlier version: http://www.extremetech.com/article2/...2326348,00.asp Also... how do they stack up in performance compaired to say a WD 10k Raptor drive? (I'm about to google this, but thought I'd ask in here as well) New-generation SSDs have faster access and comparable read. Way slower write. |
#6
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just curious... solid state hard drives
Matthew wrote:
other than cost/GB are there any other problems that I should be aware of with these new drives? I see that there are a lot of smaller memory companies that are now turning these out in addition to the major manufacturers with slightly lower costs like with flash memory... Also... how do they stack up in performance compaired to say a WD 10k Raptor drive? (I'm about to google this, but thought I'd ask in here as well) Oxide stress for the repeated writes that eventually overcomes the error-correcting algorithm and reserved storage for its use which causes eventual catastrophic failure of the drive. Also, as memory blocks become unusable, the remapping needed to use the reserve space makes the device slower. Flash memory has 3 main failure modes that impact reliability (and these failure modes are not independent): - Write Endurance: How many times a cell can be written/erased before it becomes damaged (and has to be remapped which slows access). - Write/Program Disturb: Writes to one page can alter bits in another page that is not being written (aka "bit flip"). The other cell is not damaged. - Read Disturb: Reading one page can alter bits in another page not being read (but does not damage the cells). Due to oxide stress and eventual failure of a cell (which takes out a page), some SSDs use a wear leveling algorithm. Writes are distributed across blocks within the Flash chips and use ECC so that failed cells can be corrected when read. If ECC fails, the block is marked as unusable and gets remapped (slower performance due to the lookup) but obviously there is a fixed amount of reserved blocks for this remapping. Many Flash chip manufacturers claim that write cycles per cell exceed 1 million before non-recoverable error but some tests have shown failure after only 200,000 write/erase cycles. Reads do not cause oxide stress so SSDs are best for data storage that is relatively static. Once the self-healing exceeds the capacity of the drive, it fails catastrophically and instantly hence it should be using in a recoverable RAID setup, like RAID-5. There are tools to monitor gradual degradation of traditional hard drives. I'm not sure if there are tools to monitor the level of non-recoverable ECC errors, how many remaps there are, and how fast the remaps are accruing to indicate iminent catastrophic failure. You haven't stated in what computing environment you intend to use SSDs. Most likely you are considering for personal use. Well, if you have loads of cash burning a hole in your pocket that you must get rid of then setup a test host and see for yourself. $15/GB for *good* SSDs (versus $0.20/GB for 7200.11 HDDs) means you'll spend a lot more, get smaller capacity per drive, and in a host where it will only exhibit a speed improvement only in benchmarks or in a limited number of special or contrived scenarios. |
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