SSD Performance/Size Questions

[DanTheMan]

I would like to ask fellow TPU members about their experiences with SSD's. For my new build in December I would like to include a SSD, but I'm unsure of a few items:

1.) What GB size would be appropriate for "basic programs" (OS - Windows 7 Professional, Adobe, Itunes, etc... - no data/photos/games/or personal info) on one SSD?

2.) Is there a specification to look for to determine which drive is better than another? I'm looking for long term relaiability/speed/etc.

3.) What is TRIM? Is it better with or without?

4.) Manufacturer's preference and series that would work best - Corsair, Intel, Patriot, OCZ?

5.) If I use the SSD for the basics and a standard SATA 3.0 or 6.0 for games/data/photos would I notice a major lag between the SATA drive and the SSD? Would I be better off with two SSD?

6.) Can you image or clone a SSD drive to a external SATA drive for backups and restores?

Thanks very much for your replies and comments

 

[WarEagleAU]

40GB or More for what you want in Question 1, though you can get away with a 30 to 32GB SSD for that.

Intel makes the best with IOPS concerned, which is what you do more to a drive than full read and writes. However Sandforce controller drives are coming out and they are really good.

TRIM is a garbage collection algorithm that Win 7 has built in to help with SSDs. The thing with SSDs is that it has to be fully rewritten to in order to delete all the data in one block. That is where TRIM comes in. Otherwise, you would have some problems with data storage, speeds, etc


Actually all are pretty good. If you want a decent kit, for like 145 bucks on the Egg, Kingston has a Value series with 175/115 read write speeds and it has a kit to clone your OS drive. Corsair, Kingston, Intel, OCZ, PAtriot are all very good. Even OWC Mercury.

I wouldn't know how to answer number 5, but I am sure reading from the SSD would be better for the mechanical drive (if transferring over) as opposed to reading from the mechanical to the SSD (depending on mfg, WD and Samsung have some nice TB + drives with nice speeds, and there is the Velociraptor).

Yes you can, Kingstons kit includes software and tools for that.

Good luck. I went to Newegg.com today and looked and on the SSD page, they have tons for under 100 bucks and bigger ones for less than 150 bucks.

 

[t_ski]

1. 30-60GB minimum. Look at your current OS disc and see how much is being used, then make sure you have a little bit of free space left.

2. Read speeds, write speeds and warranty

3. TRIM (aka garbage collection) restores the free space sp that performance is best. Requires a drive, OS and driver that all support TRIM.

4. I have three OCZ Summit drives and am very pleased with them. Intel is commonly the top brand here, but all four of the ones you list are great brands.

5. Probably not. File transfers and access times are improved with an SSD. Those transactions are the ones that will see the greatest improvement. Two SSD will be even faster, but cost much more money. Nothing wrong with an SSD for your OS and a SATA HDD for your storage though.

6. Should be fine, as the drives are still seen by the system the same way as SATA or IDE HDD's.

 

[DanTheMan]

What is considered great read/write speeds?
Since the personal data drive will have a lot of write and re-writes would I be better off with a SATA drive?

 

[DanTheMan]

Thanks for the replies WarEagleAU and t_ski but I have one other question: Does the drive become slower as the it gets full? I don't want to get too small of a drive - fill it up and then regret the slower drive.

 

[t_ski]

What is considered great read/write speeds?
Since the personal data drive will have a lot of write and re-writes would I be better off with a SATA drive?

150MB/s is decent for reads. 220-240MB/s is near the top. For writes, 150-200 is probably about the best you can get.

Thanks for the replies WarEagleAU and t_ski but I have one other question: Does the drive become slower as the it gets full? I don't want to get too small of a drive - fill it up and then regret the slower drive.

To my knowledge, I do not believe that the drive slows down as it gets full. One review sites (I think Anandtech) did a test on this, I do not believe there was a noticable difference.

 

[EarthDog]

I would like to ask fellow TPU members about their experiences with SSD's. For my new build in December I would like to include a SSD, but I'm unsure of a few items:

1.) What GB size would be appropriate for "basic programs" (OS - Windows 7 Professional, Adobe, Itunes, etc... - no data/photos/games/or personal info) on one SSD?

2.) Is there a specification to look for to determine which drive is better than another? I'm looking for long term relaiability/speed/etc.

3.) What is TRIM? Is it better with or without?

4.) Manufacturer's preference and series that would work best - Corsair, Intel, Patriot, OCZ?

5.) If I use the SSD for the basics and a standard SATA 3.0 or 6.0 for games/data/photos would I notice a major lag between the SATA drive and the SSD? Would I be better off with two SSD?

6.) Can you image or clone a SSD drive to a external SATA drive for backups and restores?

Thanks very much for your replies and comments

1. ~40GB
2. For overall snappyness, look for the fastest random 4k reads/writes. Currently Intel holds this crown but the vertex line from OCZ are pretty darn quick as well. While sequential r/w is important, the random 4k is what counts.
3. Better with, or use Garbage Collection. Either are a safe bet to keep performance high.
4. Intel X-25 G2 or OCZ Vertex...
5. I run two SSD's. One for the OS and major apps, and the other for games and benchmarks etc. You would simply notice anything coming from a HDD will load slower, thats all.
6. Yes I have done this with Acronis, no problems.

EDIT: As far as the drive being full, I dont think so, but I think TRIM needs some space to run...

 

[WarEagleAU]

Actually, I think that is one of the other benefits of an SSD is that when it gets full or near full, you really have no degradation in performance compared to mechanical drives.

 

[EarthDog]

That is true when talking about the platters vs NAND, but I dont believe that was the point in the person's question. What I velieve you are talking about has to do with the platter and where it reads on an emtpy drive vs a full one (inner most part, and outer).

There have been rumors around when full the SSD drive will not perform as fast. I believe, from reading the OCZ forums, that its only true when TRIM does not have enough room to run.