Show us your SSD performance

tw33k · 27 Mar 2010

mpcrsc562 said:

AMD RAID driver supplied by Gigabyte
GA-MA790X-UD4P (rev. 1.0) - GIGABYTE - Support&Download - Motherboard - Driver

I have the same board and use the windows driver

cclloyd9785 · 27 Mar 2010

pparks1 said:

While I understand that SSD's are great with read speeds and almost non-existent access times.....there is no denying that their write speeds are staggeringly bad.

So, my question for the SSD's users out here is what you really think overall about the SSD drive? I'm not talking about a screenshot of a benchmark, or a timed reboot of your machine...but rather what is performance like installing the OS, installing some software, installing some games, etc.

I also wanted to know how SSDs would perform in normal use, not testing programs.

Do they write faster than normal HDDs?

whs · 27 Mar 2010

cclloyd9785 said:

pparks1 said:

While I understand that SSD's are great with read speeds and almost non-existent access times.....there is no denying that their write speeds are staggeringly bad.

So, my question for the SSD's users out here is what you really think overall about the SSD drive? I'm not talking about a screenshot of a benchmark, or a timed reboot of your machine...but rather what is performance like installing the OS, installing some software, installing some games, etc.

I also wanted to know how SSDs would perform in normal use, not testing programs.

Do they write faster than normal HDDs?

According to the specifications, the top of the line SSDs write faster than HDDs. But in real life it is a wash. But it is not such a determining factor since they are mostly used for the OS which does not write big chunks of data. The access times and the read speed counts, e.g. at boot time. And overall they are really a lot faster and snippier.
In the same box I have Vista on an HDD and Win7 on an SSD. And I can see a very significant difference in day to day performance. And both systems are very similar in their layout.

pparks1 · 27 Mar 2010

Real world experiences with SSD's are great. The OS loads fast, boots fast and shuts down fast. Applications start almost instantly, virus and malware scans complete in about 2 minutes.

Write speeds probably are on par with standard hard drives. However, most people aren't going to write all that much to an SSD with limited space. It's best to write to a dedicated mechanical storage drive for the time being in my opinion.

cclloyd9785 · 27 Mar 2010

What about within the end of the year? SSD ( to my knowledge) is said to be a rapid developing technology. Do you think that by the end of year, SSDs will be cheaper, and bigger in capacity? Maybe improved in performace too.

pparks1 · 27 Mar 2010

cclloyd9785 said:

What about within the end of the year? SSD ( to my knowledge) is said to be a rapid developing technology. Do you think that by the end of year, SSDs will be cheaper, and bigger in capacity? Maybe improved in performace too.

I think that everything in the computer field gets better as time goes on. Prices go down, features improve and performance just gets better.

The drives with the sandforce controllers are going to be the next thing...however in my opinion sooner or later you need to buy and just don't look back..otherwise you might be waiting forever.

cclloyd9785 · 27 Mar 2010

I didnt plan on waiting forever. It seems to me that once every now and then, a technology would get a pretty good size jump in performence without much raise in price. Thats when I would get it. Say mabye SSDs would go to avg 500 GB at 250$ price.

pparks1 · 27 Mar 2010

Well, thus far it's been prices dropping on SSD's. That's been happening over the past 18 months or so. I recall looking at the 80GB Intel's and they were about $600. Then, when they dropped to about $260...it was time to check to see what all the hype was about. I'm glad I gave it a shot, it's been the biggest upgrade that I have ever made as far as real world performance that is beneficial at every step along the way.

I forgot to mention, my games load a ton faster now too. Things that used to take 10+ seconds on my standard drive are now done in less than 2. It's pretty sweet.

cclloyd9785 · 27 Mar 2010

I also heard that scans, take like a minute or 2, and there isnt any defraging necessary, but what is that TRIM i heard of?

pparks1 · 27 Mar 2010

cclloyd9785 said:

I also heard that scans, take like a minute or 2, and there isnt any defraging necessary, but what is that TRIM i heard of?

Read this; it's long but worth it.
Welcome to AnandTech.com [ Article: The SSD Anthology: Understanding SSDs and New Drives from OCZ]