SSD Drive P128 Corsair

[Winnow]

I just ordered my first Solid State Drive.

I grabbed a 128 GB Drive for 285.00 (after rebate) from Newegg. 128 MB is perfect size for my OS and APPs and for making quick backups of it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820233087

Great benchmark article here for the 256 GB version: (same internals)

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/storag ... d-review/1



It blows the Velociraptor out of the water for speed performance and has none of the first gen SSD issues.

Check out the benchmarks in the article above.

PS. It's hella fast!

PPSS. I get it tomorrow so will post actual experience with it later this week.


Boot time is a minor part of what im looking for (instant app loading and super fast read/writing for lard files and super fast random access for small files is more important but still. It boots Vista very fast and Windows 7 is even faster.



I know time isn't important to most. They don't care about poky internet speeds, etc...but I do! I don't want to sit around waiting for stuff!

[Fash]

Nice... I've been considering going SSD for my boot drive for a while... not sure I need 128gb for it though, was thinking half that. Let me know how it goes!

[Winnow]

Nice... I've been considering going SSD for my boot drive for a while... not sure I need 128gb for it though, was thinking half that. Let me know how it goes!

I want a little work area as well for managing large files, compression/extraction stuff, PSD paintshop files etc.

My current OS partition (with APPs) is 95 GB with 25 GB of that free. The compressed images of that run around 35-40GB. That includes the random handful of large installed games that get rotated in and out when the interest strikes, but more and more, it's the 360 that has the games so not as much space needed for those anymore. Everything else gets dumped off onto the TB+ drives including the TrueCrypt containers.

64 GB would be too small for me. 256 GB is definitely too large (and expensive).

I'm still really pissed about losing my huge art collection. I've started using "second copy" automated folder backup for some of my more important stuff but haven't yet been backing up my larger stuff like movies, TV, music, artwork, comics, etc and need to start soon. Movies and Music aren't a big deal but stuff that takes time to collect and organize is what needs to be preserved.

[Aabidano]

What's the write lifetime on it? I'm assuming you don't want to put anything like a pagefile on one?

From what I read, read leveling and sector sparing make them last much longer. Some products I used to work on had units with a 10k write limit, customers would use it for buffer space and get pissed when they failed. Run into that occasionally today when customers use USB sticks in a similar fashion.

Not for boot as I don't care, once for games one would be nice.

[Winnow]

What's the write lifetime on it? I'm assuming you don't want to put anything like a pagefile on one?

From what I read, read leveling and sector sparing make them last much longer. Some products I used to work on had units with a 10k write limit, customers would use it for buffer space and get pissed when they failed. Run into that occasionally today when customers use USB sticks in a similar fashion.

Not for boot as I don't care, once for games one would be nice.

Pretty sure that's been solved:

The speed, capacity, and compatibility of the P256 are supported by the inherent reliability of solid state technology, resulting in a truly optimum solution for your mass storage requirements.

* Fast - Games and apps load faster, Windows is more responsive
* Compatible - The P256 is extensively validated in major computing platforms
* Stutter free - Samsung controller ensures smooth performance, unlike that of cheaper SSDs
* Silent - No moving parts means zero noise and high reliability
* Low Power - Longer battery life for laptop users means greater productivity
* Backed by Corsair - A respected name with a passion for great service and support

Features

* Maximum sequential read speed 220MB/s
* Maximum sequential write speed 200MB/s
* Samsung controller and MLC NAND flash for compatibility and consistent performance
* No moving parts for increased durability over standard hard disk drives
* Decreased power usage for cool and quiet operation and increased laptop battery life
* 100+ Year Life Expectancy (MTBF)
* Two year warranty

Newegg lists the MTBF at 1,000,000 hours

Also nice for it's dead silence and power consumption of 1.5W active and .15 W idle. Also gotta like max shock resistance at 1500G


-----

One benchmark I saw:

Startup all at once:

5 Websites Internet Explorer
20 Firefox Tabs
Pinnacle Studio 12

Raptor Hard Drive: 62 seconds
OCZ Vertix SSD: 12 seconds (couldnt find Corsaid P series yet so used similar drive from benches)


SSD vs Raptor opening 52 applications:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_Jz7IMwBt4

(remember a Raptor is already faster than anything you have, unless you have a raptor or velociraptor : )


Remember those crazy zone loading times in the original EQ? They'd be almost instant with the new SSDs.

[valryte]

Well just about anything is faster than a Raptor nowadays.

If you want to see a cool SSD video, you probably should check this one out if you haven't already.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96dWOEa4Djs

Been wanting to get one, but have been looking for a guinea pig...I guess that will be you

[Aabidano]

Placing a file system that does a lot of erases\writes, like a pagefile, temp filespace, etc.. one still seems to be a bad idea. Didn't think about file allocation tables when I first posted, systems prone to file fragmentation and/or require them to be in a certain area could have troubles.

But then I doubt it'd become an issue before the warranty runs out and you'll want something bigger by then anyway.

Write lifetime = how many times you can write to each memory location and is a finite number, unrelated to MTBF.

Limited write (erase) cycles: Flash-memory cells will often wear out after 1,000 to 10,000 write cycles for MLC, and up to 100,000 write cycles for SLC[18], while high endurance cells may have an endurance of 1–5 million write cycles (many log files, file allocation tables, and other commonly used parts of the file system exceed this over the lifetime of a computer).[34][35][36] Special file systems or firmware designs can mitigate this problem by spreading writes over the entire device (so-called wear leveling), rather than rewriting files in place.[37] In 2008 wear leveling was just beginning to be incorporated into consumer level devices.[18] However, effective write cycles can be much less, because when a write request is made to a particular memory block, all data in the block is overwritten even when only part of the memory is altered.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid-stat ... ash_drives

There are a number of strategies they've come up with to get around it but for someone who uses their system heavily the drives seem to be best suited for booting, applications, etc...

Sun is offering them in server systems accompanied by regular drives, I'd be interested to see the recommended partition layout.

[valryte]

Write lifetime = how many times you can write to each memory location and is a finite number, unrelated to MTBF.

Plus, anything that looks this good "100+ Year Life Expectancy (MTBF)" falls under the too good to be true area when it comes to the problems of SSDs. The day someone overcomes the write lifetime on SSDs you can bet it will be all over the tech news.

[Aabidano]

That's the joy of marketing literature, a 100+ year MTBF is perfectly achievable, if you aren't writing to the device.

[Winnow]

I fully expect some lucky person 100 years from now to be able to get pr0n off my SSD. I will be sure to save at least one pr0n video and some pictures on my OS drive just for that purpose. I may even include this note on the drive so our descendants know that I cared about them and didn't want them just to find a boring OS drive.

[Xouqoa]

I'm still really pissed about losing my huge art collection. I've started using "second copy" automated folder backup for some of my more important stuff but haven't yet been backing up my larger stuff like movies, TV, music, artwork, comics, etc and need to start soon. Movies and Music aren't a big deal but stuff that takes time to collect and organize is what needs to be preserved.

Check out DropBox for backing up your art stuff.

I recently set the "My Documents" folder to reside in my Dropbox folder. Now, everytime I add something it is automatically remotely backed up.

[Aabidano]

Using that he's run the chance of someone discovering his stash of pirated Hello Kitty nasties.

[Winnow]

So far, so good!

Installed my backed up OS onto the SSD in about 12 minutes. (a 47GB compressed True Image expanded into 71 GB of data on the OS partition.) It would have been faster but was reading the image from my 1.5 TB seagate drive.

completed these initial tweaks in Vista for SSDs:

Few things to do:

Turn your page file off. You do this via: Computer > Properties > Advanced system settings > Performance settings > Advanced > Virtual memory > Change > Untick "Automatic etc." > Select no paging file > "Set" button


Then:

Disabling HDD optimised services - these are bad for SSDs.

Windows+R > Run appears > Services.msc > Enter > Properties on Windows Search > Drop-down box > Disable > OK.

Properties on Superfetch > Drop-down box > Disable > OK.


Followed by:

Disable system restore. Computer > Properties > System protection > Untick your SSD > OK.

The SSD feels feather light. The Aluminum case feels empty. You really don't need to mount an SSD. I plugged the sata and power connector into it and tucked it away in a nice cool spot in my case.

It's fast. I need sleep.

Things to remember:

-SSDs dont need to be defragged, turn it off
-Turn off indexing for the SSD.
-move or delete (if you have enough memory) pagefile

[valryte]

Things to remember:

-SSDs dont need to be defragged, turn it off
-Turn off indexing for the SSD.
-move or delete (if you have enough memory) pagefile

Also read something about never doing a long format on them either. Always quick.

[Stonie]

Disable system restore? Does system restore create a lot of disk activity? I've used it a few times total on my machine and others. I really like it.

[Winnow]

Here's the old benchmarks for my WDCaviar Black Hard Drive:




Compare that to the new SSD p128 Corsair:



Happy so far! It pretty much toasts the Velociraptor.

It's also not 1ms access. It's more like .1

Looking at the charts, a jump from the fastest non Velocirapor drive to Velociraptor isn't that much but the jump from Velociraptor to SSD (2nd Gen) is substantial.

I moved any cache I could find over to another drive. I can't seem to find how to move Firefox 3.5 cache though. I see instructions for previous versions but that method doesn't work for FF 3.5

[valryte]

I don't know, there's just something wrong about a piece of hardware with so many caveats that just screams stay away. These SSD issues are like, giving a kid a lollipop and telling him ok, you can hold it and look at it, but don't lick it cause if you lick it too many times it will be gone.

[Winnow]

I don't know, there's just something wrong about a piece of hardware with so many caveats that just screams stay away. These SSD issues are like, giving a kid a lollipop and telling him ok, you can hold it and look at it, but don't lick it cause if you lick it too many times it will be gone.

I agree that with XP and Vista SSDs require some extra steps and aren't properly handled by the OS (Although still much easier to configure than XBMC for the PC and once configured, doesn't screw up if rescanned)

Here's the important info regarding Windows 7 and SSDs, specifically TRIM which helps alleviate wear and tear on SSDs:

“SSDs are on the path to reach their full potential” says Microsoft senior program manager Frank Shu, who in a conference session on Windows 7 Enhancements for Solid-State Drives outlined how Windows 7 will be more SSD-friendly than Vista or XP.

First up, Windows 7 will seek to “more efficiently” partition the solid state drive so as to minimise unnecessary read-write cycles. The disk defragmentation service will also be disabled when Windows 7 detects installation on an SSD, as defrags are said to shorten the lifespan of a solid state drive without improving its performance.

Defragmentation is intended to boost read times by ensuring that all data blocks in a single files remain together. But flash memory already has a high read rate, so the gains are negligible – but the process of shuffing the data around the SSD gradually wears out the drive due to the need to ‘flash’ each cell with a burst of high voltage.

Shu also says that Windows 7 will come with a new “trim” feature that will cut down on the amount of data to be deleted (to further extend an SSD’s lifespan) and delete garbage data in advance (to speed up the writing of data, which is the activity where SSDs are slowest). Windows 7 will also use particular ATA commands which further improve SSD write speeds.

Microsoft also intends to launch a certification program for SSDs which give priority to reading data over slower data writes rather than treating both equally and use a native Serial ATA interface rather than Parallel ATA.

Entire Article here:

http://apcmag.com/windows_7_gets_ssdfriendly.htm

Also, you realize that even if I didn't take care of my SSD, with wear, it would still be faster than a Velociraptor right?

Still, I'm going to install Windows 7 64 as soon as the final release is ready (RTM copies released today but still not verified) to save and take advantage of my SSD even more.

[valryte]

Although still much easier to configure than XBMC for the PC and once configured, doesn't screw up if rescanned

Nah, I just think XBMC is way to complicated for you. I have 3 friends here hooked up with it and none of the have the kind of problems that you have. I'm seriously starting to question your tech skills. Hell I bet you even have it set to use the program files folder for the library like a total newb

Also, you realize that even if I didn't take care of my SSD, with wear, it would still be faster than a Velociraptor right?

Doesn't mean anything to me. I like speed, but personally and financially I need reliability. I can't afford any sort of downtime. It's the reason I run mirrored drives, Acronis images nightly plus offline backups. I've never lost any data, especially pictures. But I'm definitely glad there are people like you out there testing this shit for me. I can't wait to see the development of SSD tech over the next couple of years.

Here's the important info regarding Windows 7 and SSDs, specifically TRIM which helps alleviate wear and tear on SSDs:

Yeah, I was going to say, you should use Windows 7 which handles SSDs better.

[Winnow]

Here's the important info regarding Windows 7 and SSDs, specifically TRIM which helps alleviate wear and tear on SSDs:

Yeah, I was going to say, you should use Windows 7 which handles SSDs better.

One step behind.

Continue to follow in my footsteps while questioning my tech skills. Nice. This is my second go around with XBMC, the first was when you were still watching S-VHS thinking you were hot shit.

Played around with XBMC some more today. It's has some cool tweaks. Too bad it crashed like mad.

There's also conflicts galore. Tried out the iPhone XBMC remote app, media server, and some of the plug ins. All had some potential but buggy as hell and mostly crap.

Typical open source.

Nah, I just think XBMC is way to complicated for you. I have 3 friends here hooked up with it and none of the have the kind of problems that you have. I'm seriously starting to question your tech skills. Hell I bet you even have it set to use the program files folder for the library like a total newb

Are you serious? You discover XBMC years after someone else on this board and all the sudden you're calling people newbs? I can set up XBMC just fine. I'm pointing out that it's a buggy and has serious issues beneath its glossy UI.

I've never used he default folders in windows for anything although I'm guessing you did until someone pointed you in the direction of the Windows for Idiots books to kick start your self discovery of the world beyond AOL.

[Fash]

This is like watching Grumpy Old Men, but a lot less fun... you're both idiots!

[valryte]

Are you serious? You discover XBMC years after someone else on this board and all the sudden you're calling people newbs? I can set up XBMC just fine. I'm pointing out that it's a buggy and has serious issues beneath its glossy UI.

Yeah I just discovered it years after someone else on this board. That's why I have an original hacked xbox that has in it's lifetime run just about every beta/release of xbmc, but dam I didn't document it here on Veeshan like Winnow, so I must know jack shit about XBMC cause Winnow says that only your VV posts represent what you know. Does your life really revolve around VV that much?

I can set up XBMC just fine.

Obviously not because your scans keep fucking up your library and shit keeps breaking for you.

Are you serious? You discover XBMC years after someone else on this board and all the sudden you're calling people newbs?

No you fucking idiot. That's me fucking with you, but apparently you take things too serious.

I've never used he default folders in windows for anything although I'm guessing you did until someone pointed you in the direction of the Windows for Idiots books to kick start your self discovery of the world beyond AOL

Just remember, you're the one who can't get XBMC to work, not me. Mine works perfectly fine and I can get mine not to crash. If you want to keep fumbling around with it and blaming it all on XBMC, go ahead. If you want to stop being an asshole don't let me know cause we all know VV is boring as shit if there isn't some sort of conflict. So we need to keep on bickering so the rest of the users have something to laugh at, but you can PM me, no one has to know

[Winnow]

Are any of these plug ins working for you?

TV Shack
Veoh
Animeseed

[Aslanna]

Is anyone surprised that a SSD is faster than any magnetic hard drive?

[Winnow]

Is anyone surprised that a SSD is faster than any magnetic hard drive?

The speed is the obvious part.

A Donkey is faster than a paraplegic but until you make sure that jackass is going to get itself to the desired location without first wandering off, shitting on the sidewalk, and eating some flowers that you wanted to keep, there's no reason to switch from using the paraplegic.

So far the SSD is fast as well as reliable.

[Xatrei]

I'm seriously starting to question your tech skills.

I did this two years ago during his exhaustiveing linux experiments.

[Fash]

exhaustiveing

[Winnow]

I'm seriously starting to question your tech skills.

I did this two years ago during his exhaustiveing linux experiments.

That's because you failed to realize the importance of being able to spin hentai wall paper images on a cube desktop while raindrops are splashing on the screen.

My new system and virtual box can now handle 3D acceleration so I have SuperOS (Enhanced Ubuntu 9.04) running smoothly with all 3D affects operational from within Vista. Every once in awhile, I'll load it up, jiggle a window around to watch the jelly effect, and then close it down again.

Some pics from the old thread:





yeah baby! Now that's what linux is all about!

[valryte]

Are any of these plug ins working for you?

TV Shack
Veoh
Animeseed

http://www.veeshanvault.org/forums/view ... 25&t=24307

[miir]

Newegg has a smokin' deal (today only) on a OCZ 60 gig SSD.

$137.59 CDN
http://www.newegg.ca/Special/ShellShocker.aspx

$129.99 USD
http://www.newegg.com/Special/ShellShocker.aspx

[valryte]

Hey Winnow, hows the SSD drives working out?

[Winnow]

Hey Winnow, hows the SSD drives working out?

Best thing I can say is that I don't even notice it...until I use another computer and see how damn low those ancient tech spinning drives are : )

The only precautions I took with SSD was moving my page file (split between two different non OS hard drives for even faster access) and moving my Firefox cache completely into memory (and if not that, move it off the main SSD OS drive). uTorrent (bitorrent is bad for any hard drive, not just SSD) crunches a different HD than my SSD as well.

The SSD 2.5 inch drive is so light, it feels like it's just an empty 2.5 HD case. I have it tucked away behind some wires inside my PC case. It's been hassle free and fast. Windows 7 takes care of the "write/erase" slow down issues with SSD (yet another reason to switch to Window 7)

PS: new version of Boxee (moving from alpha to beta version) is being released December 7!

http://blog.boxee.tv/2009/11/12/a-boxee-box-is-coming/