Spring 2010 Solid State Drive Roundup, Part 1
Table of contents
- 1. SSD Roundup, Part 1: Getting Ready For SATA 6Gb/s
- 2. Crucial M225 (256GB)
- 3. Intel X25-M G2 (160GB)
- 4. OCZ Vertex (120GB)
- 5. Solidata K5 (64GB)
- 6. Toshiba HG2 (256GB)
In this first segment, we’ll be looking at SSD offerings from Crucial, Intel, OCZ, Solidata, and Toshiba using our upgraded storage test system. Instead of Intel’s onboard SATA 3Gb/s controller, we decided to switch to a Highpoint Rocket 62x, based on Marvell's twin-port SATA 6Gb/s controller. The adapter connects via x1 PCI Express 2.0 and offers up to 600 MB/s bandwidth for next-generation storage devices.
We made no other major modifications to our storage test system, since the hardware is still quite current. We stuck with our Supermicro X8SAX motherboard, based on Intel’s X58 chipset and LGA 1366 interface. We only equipped the system with three Corsair 1GB DDR3-1333 DIMMs, given that more memory won't aid in storage testing. The system runs a 2.66 GHz, quad-core Core i7-920.
We did make a couple other minor configuration changes. Windows Vista is being replaced by Windows 7 Ultimate to introduce TRIM support, and we installed an additional Highpoint SATA 6Gb/s controller. The latter uses a Marvell 88SE9128 chip and works at a gross throughput of 600 MB/s instead of the onboard controller’s 300 MB/s. So far, Crucial's RealSSD C300 is the only SSD that supports SATA 6Gb/s, but others are sure to follow soon. You’ll find test results on this Crucial SSD in the next part of this article.
The Candidates
We took our previously-reviewed Intel X25-M G2 and pitted it against Crucial’s M225, the OCZ Vertex, and Solidata’s K5. All of them are based on Indilinx’s Barefoot controller. We also included Toshiba's latest SSD, the HG2.
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Slight error here maybe?
It's a good roundup, and I'm looking forward to the second part with Crucial's 6Gbps drive. I was hoping to see the OCZ Vertex Limited Edition though. It would have been good to see how the SandForce controller stacks up against the rest.
Enjoyed part one, thanks. Looking forward to the 2nd part and more thorough conclusion.
The notion that I/O performance doesn't matter much for consumer use is bizarre to say the least, and not matched by my experience. When I upgraded my system disk from a 3.5" 7,200 RPM drive to a 256GB Crucial unit, the improvement in usability and responsiveness was staggering. Quite simply there were times before when my PC would become unresponsive for long periods simply due to system disk activity. With the SSD that has gone away completely - I still keep large, bulk files on a pair of 2TB HDDs (RAID-1), and that's fine, but for I would almost rather cut my leg off than go back to an HDD system disk. The reason is quite simple - the sub-ms latency on I/Os means that the system disk is no longer a bottleneck. Admittedly my PC is loaded up with tons of software, although absolutely none of it is for gaming.
Thanks fro the review - always interesting.
Power requirements are pretty irrelevant, surely, for these SSDs. Most of the measurements are sub 1W. When the actual values are so low, the differences between them are just not enough to worry about. Compare these power consumption figures to the processor and graphics cards and they will not even register.
The charts are incorrect, above the charts it says "t in ms" while under the charts it says "µs".
Come on guys you're testing drives which most people can't even buy. And in this and the next test you're missing out the gem of all drives from Mushkin. Please do a review of their IO range. I'm sure you'll be pleased