Show us your SSD performance

[Snakeyeskm]

Benefits of consolidate free space?

This might be controversial, but the results surprised me. I was skeptical about the need to Consolidate Free Space in the latest SSD drives. However, I have taken this plunge with both my C300 crucial SSD and my Intel G2 SSD and to my surprise, in both cases there was a substantial improvement in my SSD performances. These results seem in conflict with "conventional wisdom". I am listing the bench results on the crucial drive below. The tests were performed one day apart, before and after running PerfectDisk 11 Consolidate Free Space on the drive. I also have similar results for the Intel G2 drive if anyone is interested. I do recognize that different runs of SSD bench can get different results and I have done two runs pre-and post-free space consolidation to confirm the improvements. I am reluctant to subject my SSD to more bench testing for obvious reasons.

 

[whs]

I wonder whether it really matters since the access times did not change. Do you see a difference in real life too?

 

[tw33k]

I wonder whether it really matters since the access times did not change. Do you see a difference in real life too?

Exactly. 4K and access times are what really matter and these didn't change so in reality, it did nothing to improve performance

 

[Snakeyeskm]

I wonder whether it really matters since the access times did not change. Do you see a difference in real life too?

You are absolutely right, in daily use, no discernible change. However, in certain large data and output programs that I run, a more than an appreciable change. In fact, I noticed the same issue when I moved from an Intel G2 160 GB drive to the Crucial C300 256 GB. If you use your computer for surfing, mail etc. the difference between the new generation drives is difficult to notice and it is easy and reasonable to jump on the 4K bandwagon. However there are a fair share of uses where larger reads and writes make an appreciable difference, especially when these programs tie up the computer for extended time periods. Different strokes for different folks. I am still not sure why the consolidated free space helps the performance.

I have three home built PC's that all use SSD's and in my limited personal experience, it is difficult to compare the day today, ongoing performance of a small Intel G2 against the larger Intel G2's even though their bench performance is considerably different – as long as the computer is being used for traditional personal purposes.

Cheers.

 

[whs]

I could imagine that for e.g. video editing of a large video file it may make a difference - provided your CPU and GPU can keep up with it.

 

[Wishmaster]

This might be controversial, but the results surprised me. I was skeptical about the need to Consolidate Free Space in the latest SSD drives. However, I have taken this plunge with both my C300 crucial SSD and my Intel G2 SSD and to my surprise, in both cases there was a substantial improvement in my SSD performances. These results seem in conflict with "conventional wisdom". I am listing the bench results on the crucial drive below. The tests were performed one day apart, before and after running PerfectDisk 11 Consolidate Free Space on the drive. I also have similar results for the Intel G2 drive if anyone is interested. I do recognize that different runs of SSD bench can get different results and I have done two runs pre-and post-free space consolidation to confirm the improvements. I am reluctant to subject my SSD to more bench testing for obvious reasons.

Excellent!

I've said before and still think a Consolodate Defrag on a SSD is a good thing, if done in moderation.

Although I would not recommend Defragmenting a SSD with the Win7 built in defragger.

I too use the Consolodate method (Perfect Disc 11) for my SSDs and it does indeed help. And SmartDefrag for the Spinners.


I have found letting it Consolodate my SSDs (I have a Intel and OCZ) every 3 weeks or so keeps everything running like new.

Too much benchmarking will slow them down though.

 

[Snakeyeskm]

This might be controversial, but the results surprised me. I was skeptical about the need to Consolidate Free Space in the latest SSD drives.------------I am reluctant to subject my SSD to more bench testing for obvious reasons.

Excellent!

I've said before and still think a Consolodate Defrag on a SSD is a good thing, if done in moderation.

Although I would not recommend Defragmenting a SSD with the Win7 built in defragger.

I too use the Consolodate method (Perfect Disc 11) for my SSDs and it does indeed help. And SmartDefrag for the Spinners.


I have found letting it Consolodate my SSDs (I have a Intel and OCZ) every 3 weeks or so keeps everything running like new.

Too much benchmarking will slow them down though.

Great to see your comments. I will follow your pattern of consolidating free space. I also use PerfectDisk 11.
Thanks and cheers.

 

[whs]

Does anybody have a logic why this space consolidation would speed things up. Since access to any place on the SSD is the same, I would think that it does not matter whether the data that is e.g. being read out is in 1,2,3 versus 1, 25, 144. But maybe there is some chaining effect like on a spinning disk when the data is adjacent.

 

[Snakeyeskm]

Quote from Tony (Tiger) on the OCZ forum

"The idea is to consolidate partially written to blocks as the controllers on the drives will use up free blocks in preference to partially written too blocks first. So...eventually you run out of free blocks and the drive will slow. If you manually consolidate free space on say a raid array (that does not have TRIM) you then free up more free blocks which you then clean with AS-SSD using FF.

So its like TRIM in a way with free space consolidation being GC "

Based on this Wishmaster's extended scheduling pattern makes even more sense to me. Wrong or right It always has improved my benches (run couple of months apart) on a variety of drives. You are clearly very experienced with SSD's and your duplicating this process as a test could be very interesting. I doubt if a few runs would have any significant negative impact on your SSD's life.

 

[whs]

Hmm, interesting. That makes sense. How much does the program you guys are using cost?

 

[Snakeyeskm]

Hmm, interesting. That makes sense. How much does the program you guys are using cost?

They have a free trial:-

Defrag Solution | Faster Computer Boot Times | Improve Computer Performance - PerfectDisk

 

[whs]

Hmm, interesting. That makes sense. How much does the program you guys are using cost?

They have a free trial:-

Defrag Solution | Faster Computer Boot Times | Improve Computer Performance - PerfectDisk

Thanks.

 

[profdlp]

They have a free trial:-

Defrag Solution | Faster Computer Boot Times | Improve Computer Performance - PerfectDisk

You talked me into it, too.

Thanks.

 

[Wishmaster]

I thought they sent a email for 30% off untill the 31st or something along that line .. was trying to find it but must have deleted it.

It was a promo code you had to put in @ purchase.

Perhaps you'll get one if you opt for the trial first?

**EDIT Found it!
PROMO Code: FLOSS30

If you decide you like it and want buy it, Enter the code at checkout before Dec. 31st and its 30% off.

 

[whs]

I thought they sent a email for 30% off untill the 31st or something along that line .. was trying to find it but must have deleted it.

It was a promo code you had to put in @ purchase.

Perhaps you'll get one if you opt for the trial first?

**EDIT Found it!
PROMO Code: FLOSS30

If you decide you like it and want buy it, Enter the code at checkout before Dec. 31st and its 30% off.

Yeah, I saw that too. The program is not too expensive anyhow and with the 30% coupon it is a bit over $20.

 

[Golden]

OCZ Vertex 2 60GB

 

[essenbe]

I hope this is the right place to ask this, but dose there seem to a difference between the controller on different SSds and the chipset of your computer? ie, would an intel perform better with an intel chipset than an AMD chipset?

I have a Vertex2 with and AMD chipset. I do not seem to get quite the performance on benchmarks I was expecting, but am quite satisfied with 'real world' performance. I did get a 7.7 WEI but the benchmarks don't seem to be what others have gotten.

 

[whs]

I cannot really answer your original question although I would think that the chipset does not make any difference. The Sata architecture is the same on both.

But your numbers look quite good. Check your alignment. Maybe there is a problem. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/113967-ssd-alignment.html?ltr=S

 

[Dave76]

I think it is the drivers that give a little bit more for Intel, so I guess that means my guess is generally 'maybe a little bit'.

This is just from several benchmark sites and comparisons I have seen, no offense intended to my AMD friends

For example: AS SSD Benchmark thread
Check the 'Controller Chip' column

This is by no means conclusive.

 

[nyyankeefan95]

OCZ Vertex 2 120GB SSD