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

Robert Adkins II radkins at impelind.com
Tue Sep 13 10:47:20 EDT 2011


Well, they do have a just at the edge of afforable "Workstation Grade" PCI-e
card that reports a 1200 Mbps Read and 1000 Mbps Write speed.

I might actually grab one of those instead.

-Rob
 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: mdlug-bounces at mdlug.org 
> [mailto:mdlug-bounces at mdlug.org] On Behalf Of Dan Pritts
> Sent: Tuesday, September 13, 2011 10:16 AM
> To: MDLUG's Main discussion list
> Subject: Re: [mdlug] Opinions - Should this be the core of my 
> next desktop
> 
> It talked all about its raid0 config with multiple sandforce 
> controllers.  sandforce is a flash controller.
> 
> I didn't see anything about it being DRAM based.
> 
> if it *were* DRAM based then yes, clearly the only way it can 
> perform up to its potential is via PCIe or some other 
> mondo-speed interconnect (thunderbolt maybe, but that's only 
> 10Gbps i think).  
> 
> On Sep 12, 2011, at 1:42 PM, Robert Adkins II wrote:
> 
> > 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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