SSD's on SATA II vs SATA III

Here is an article I just read that has some awesome information in it. It compares a Samsung 840 Pro on a SATA III connection, and a SATA II connection, and to show you how much faster it is than a "normal" HDD, it tests a 10K RPM Velociraptor. They clearly say what numbers are important, and what numbers are just fluff. The tests also quantify how much faster an SSD is over a HDD. For all of you that aren't sold on the idea of an SSD, or don't know what the numbers mean.....do yourself a favor and spend a few minutes reading this article.

Is A SATA 3Gb/s Platform Still Worth Upgrading With An SSD?

kbrady1979 said:

Here is an article I just read that has some awesome information in it. It compares a Samsung 840 Pro on a SATA III connection, and a SATA II connection, and to show you how much faster it is than a "normal" HDD, it tests a 10K RPM Velociraptor. They clearly say what numbers are important, and what numbers are just fluff. The tests also quantify how much faster an SSD is over a HDD. For all of you that aren't sold on the idea of an SSD, or don't know what the numbers mean.....do yourself a favor and spend a few minutes reading this article.

Is A SATA 3Gb/s Platform Still Worth Upgrading With An SSD?

Hi there
Absolutely correct -- even if you have a SATA III 10,000 RPM Raptor HDD (and 99% of typical PC's out there won't have these) an SSD even on a SATA II port blows these away. A 10,000 RPM SATA III raptor isn't in any way a "Normal HDD". !!!

The author of that article is one of the really few who actually know what he's on about - unlike the mouthings and Ramblings that come so called technical consultants / think tanks - particularly GARTNER who everybody thinks speaks prophet like truth --fine if you can put up with 99% pure Bovine Scatology.

With the price of these now realistic and reliability perfectly good -- BUY YOURSELF at least one SSD ASAP -- you'll wonder why you ever took so long in making the switch.

Incidentally the article is quite informative too that if you use spinners for most real world applications the difference between SATA II and SATA III isn't that shattering at all.

Use cheap spinners for essentially Static Data --SSD's for OS, Application programs (execution files), scratch files for Photoshop etc and work spaces for DB queries etc.

Cheers
jimbo

I'm glad you guys found it interesting and informative. As whs said, and I have agreed with time and time again, the specs that manufacturers advertise are almost worthless for what we use SSD's for. The real world performance comes from Random 4K Read/Write(Queue Depth 1) numbers, and access times that are a fraction of even the fastest mechanical drives. Installing Windows and applications, unzipping and extracting files, and opening up programs are much faster due to those two factors. Those are the real world factors, and no hard drive comes close to an SSD when dealing with them.

Also, like Gary said, SSD's are so much more affordable now. My first SSD was the Intel X25-M 120GB gen 2 model. I had been wanting one for quite awhile, but gen 1 drives were still expensive, and too unreliable for my tastes. Then gen 2 drives came out, and I watched the Intel 120gb slowly drop from $280 to a tad over $200 and I snatched one up. Rock solid, and a hell of a performer.......and I was hooked. I only moved to the Samsung 830 when I built my new rig. I could have bought 2 of the Samsung 830 128gb SSD's for what I gave for my first Intel model!

kbrady1979 said:

I'm glad you guys found it interesting and informative. As whs said, and I have agreed with time and time again, the specs that manufacturers advertise are almost worthless for what we use SSD's for. The real world performance comes from Random 4K Read/Write(Queue Depth 1) numbers, and access times that are a fraction of even the fastest mechanical drives. Installing Windows and applications, unzipping and extracting files, and opening up programs are much faster due to those two factors. Those are the real world factors, and no hard drive comes close to an SSD when dealing with them.

Also, like Gary said, SSD's are so much more affordable now. My first SSD was the Intel X25-M 120GB gen 2 model. I had been wanting one for quite awhile, but gen 1 drives were still expensive, and too unreliable for my tastes. Then gen 2 drives came out, and I watched the Intel 120gb slowly drop from $280 to a tad over $200 and I snatched one up. Rock solid, and a hell of a performer.......and I was hooked. I only moved to the Samsung 830 when I built my new rig. I could have bought 2 of the Samsung 830 128gb SSD's for what I gave for my first Intel model!

Hi there
The Samsung 840 256 GB models (almost a step order faster than the excellent 830 series) are about the same price as the 830 120 GB models of last year and even a 512 GB model is out now for around 390 USD. Ok 390 USD isn't as cheap as a spinner but a few years ago a fast 512 GB SSD would have cost around 800 USD even if you could find one.

It won't be long now before we could replace ALL our spinners -- we aren't there quite yet but it won't be long.

Cheers
jimbo

Another advantage of SSD drives is the much greater resistance to mechanical shock. This is of particular importance for laptops and external drives, both of which tend to receive occasional rough treatment. Many a laptop HD has been seriously damaged by what was thought to be a minor fall. The apparent ruggedness of conventional drives tends to hide the fact that they are really quite fragile internally, particularly while running.

Be very sure you have a backup of all important files on an SSD. Many people never consider making a backup until a drive makes unusual noises or there are other warning signs. SSD drives tend to fail without warning and often with no apparent cause. Commercial data recovery is expensive for conventional drives but is even more so for SSDs.

There can be little doubt that SSDs will eventually replace conventional drives but there are many technical hurdles that must be overcome before that day arrives. Improved manufacturing techniques and higher sales will bring up capacity and reliability at a lower cost. Just as happened with conventional drives.