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

Robert Adkins II radkins at impelind.com
Mon Sep 12 13:42:08 EDT 2011 

Hrmm... You know, I'm beginning to think that this particular drive might
actually be using Flash RAM, but is doing a better job of "hiding" that fact
by being one of the most affordable PCI-e SSD drives.

Some of the others I have seen which clearly state DRAM are also priced
inordinately higher in price.

This is obviously more complicated that I was inititally reading.

-Rob
 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: mdlug-bounces at mdlug.org 
> [mailto:mdlug-bounces at mdlug.org] On Behalf Of Robert Adkins II
> Sent: Monday, September 12, 2011 1:18 PM
> To: 'MDLUG's Main discussion list'
> Subject: Re: [mdlug] Opinions - Should this be the core of my 
> next desktop
> 
> 
> 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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