[mdlug] Opinions - Should this be the core of my next desktop

Mon Sep 12 13:18:24 EDT 2011

I understand that "independent tests" have shown that 6Gbps is just the max
that is inititally received on SATA with a standard SSD, but will often drop
down to 4 or even 3Gbps for sustained throughput. Allegedly, this device can
maintain a higher level of throughput, that blows away the best of SSDs. (On
their Workstation versions, the throughput DOUBLEs at 1500Mbps for reads and
1220Mbps for writes, that's something that SATA can't hope to match anytime
soon, these are almost to a little over twice the price of the Enthusiast
hardware.)

Yes, SSD manufacturers have engineered to tolerate the constant
reading/writing of a Windows swap file, by having the drive include a
control command that spreads the reads/writes across the entire device,
which is why a delete on a current SSD is even less of a delete than on a
standard platter HD.

Still, every time you use a PC with a standard SSD or even leave it up and
running, any application that reads/writes periodically to the drive is
inching the drive ever closer to its "Death" where you can only read and no
longer write to the drive.

>From what I have been reading, the DRAM based PCI-E SSDs do not suffer this
problem and (in the case of the "drive" I have linked) have meantimes
BETWEEN failures measured in the 2 million hours of regular use. That's
roughly 51 years. A Flash based SSD, from what I understand, simply cannot
label itself as being able to be read/written to for 51 years without
hitting that ceiling.

The only problem that traditionally follows this form of Hard Drive is the
price. For a 960GB model, the pricing is upwards of $4,000 and that is for
what OCZ calls the "Enthusiast" model line, not the workstation or data
center version of these devices. One would have to be one helluva enthusiast
with deep pockets to enthuse that much, even then, there is likely better
things to spend money on... (Like a second Lambo or Ferrari for daily
driving...)

-Rob

> -----Original Message-----
> From: mdlug-bounces at mdlug.org 
> [mailto:mdlug-bounces at mdlug.org] On Behalf Of Dan Pritts
> Sent: Monday, September 12, 2011 11:52 AM
> To: MDLUG's Main discussion list
> Subject: Re: [mdlug] Opinions - Should this be the core of my 
> next desktop
> 
> It looks like a very nice solution, although it seems like a 
> hassle to use that instead of just a SATA drive.  Odds are 
> pretty good you won't saturate sata 6Gbps, altough i guess 
> with photoshop swap files it's possible.  
> 
> It also looks like the device isn't actually much faster than 
> 6Gbps.  700MBps = 5600Mbps.  I don't know what real-world 
> throughput on 6g sata really is, that surely affects the calculation.
> 
> I do not see where it says that it's DRAM based?  If it were 
> i'd expect it to be a lot faster on reads.
> 
> In my (limited) experience Windows doesn't seem to actually 
> use the swap file if you have enough memory.
> 
> Note also that the SSD makers known darn well that people 
> will be putting windows swap files on these things, and they 
> have to be engineered to tolerate it.
> 
> I guess you could also just put your swap file on a dedicated 
> partition on a hard disk, but that seems nuts to me; windows 
> won't use it that much under normal circumstances, and if it 
> DOES use it then you sure want it to be on fast storage.  
> 
> On Sep 12, 2011, at 10:51 AM, Robert Adkins II wrote:
> 
> > 
> > Yeah, I've read that is has a mean time between failures of 
> 51 years 
> > of 24 hour operations.
> > 
> > It's DRAM based, so it isn't subject to the death that 
> every Hard Disk 
> > form SSD on the market will experience from regular reading/writing 
> > use. I'm really not wanting to use one of stanfard SSDs 
> since Windows 
> > will constantly be reading and writing to the drive with 
> its "impossible to operate without"
> > swap file.
> > 
> > -Rob
> > 
> > 
> > 
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: mdlug-bounces at mdlug.org
> >> [mailto:mdlug-bounces at mdlug.org] On Behalf Of Chris Baldwin
> >> Sent: Monday, September 12, 2011 10:11 AM
> >> To: MDLUG's Main discussion list
> >> Subject: Re: [mdlug] Opinions - Should this be the core of my next 
> >> desktop
> >> 
> >> http://www.maximumpc.com/article/reviews/ocz_revodrive_x2_240g
> > b_pci_express_ssd_review
> >> 
> >> There's a review for it, with a link to a list of motherboards 
> >> that'll support it. I haven't used it yet, but if it pans 
> out, this 
> >> may be my next boot drive. Good luck.
> >> 
> >> -Chris
> >> 
> >> On 9/12/11 9:56 AM, Robert Adkins II wrote:
> >>> It's getting to be about time to upgrade/replace my current
> >> desktop at home.
> >>> 
> >>> I do a significant amount of gaming on it, as well as 
> Photoshop and 
> >>> home finance.
> >>> 
> >>> I also have a server for storing and sharing data between 
> the other 
> >>> PCs/Laptops in the house.
> >>> 
> >>> This time around, I want some speedy, stable, fast and very quick.
> >>> 
> >>> So, I am considering building around this piece of hardware:
> >>> 
> >>> http://www.ocztechnology.com/ocz-revodrive-x2-pci-express-ssd.html
> >>> 
> >>> Obviously, I need to find a motherboard that will work with
> >> this and I
> >>> wouldn't mind being able to also use the onboard SATA
> >> controllers on
> >>> the mainboard to facilitate using a RAID 0 setup for a pair
> >> of platter
> >>> based Hard Drives for local storage of data. (Basically, 
> I want to 
> >>> install applications, like games and when I may want to
> >> still play it,
> >>> but don't want to bother uninstalling and then
> >> reinstalling, I'll just
> >>> cut/paste the entire folder for the game to the 
> traditional HDs and 
> >>> move them back when I want to use that game again.)
> >>> 
> >>> Any opinions on this? There's a 160GB version of this available 
> >>> through Amazon.com for less than $300.
> >>> 
> >>> Thanks,
> >>> Rob
> >>> _______________________________________________
> >>> mdlug mailing list
> >>> mdlug at mdlug.org
> >>> http://mdlug.org/mailman/listinfo/mdlug
> >>> 
> >>> 
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> > 
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