The SSD Update: Vertex Gets Faster, New Indilinx Drives and Intel/MacBook Problems Resolved
by Anand Lal Shimpi on March 30, 2009 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Storage
Final Words
My recommendation still stands: the Intel X25-M is by far the cream of the crop of the desktop SSD world. The Indilinx based drives have the potential to be good, lower cost alternatives to the Intel drive but you still have to approach them with caution. While the OCZ Vertex drive worked fine in my tests and on my testbed, this is a brand new drive with a controller from a company without a proven track record.
In the coming weeks I will be looking at the latest updates to Samsung’s MLC controller. While I haven’t been terribly impressed with the performance of Samsung drives thus far, they are at least reliable and compatible.
While I’ve heard that the JMicron based drives are no longer selling very well, it looks like at least a few manufacturers are going to be using the JMF602B controllers to deliver 512GB SSDs in the coming months. Buyer beware.
I will say this: outside of Intel, Indilinx appears to know what is important when it comes to SSD performance. With more companies releasing drives based on the Barefoot controller, we should hopefully see any compatibility problems get sorted out faster.
There is some even better news that has surfaced since last week. If the 1275 revision ends up being problem-free, it does deliver more than 3x the random-write performance of the Vertex I first previewed and a more than noticeable 10% boost in application performance. That’s not enough to dethrone Intel, but it is more than enough to make the Vertex even more desirable.
The gotcha still applies: this is the first version of an Indilinx controller we’ve seen in the desktop market. Compatibility and longevity have yet to be proven; so far my experience has been positive but that’s merely one datapoint. We have a long way to go my friends.
I’ll keep you posted.
...and Thanks
I spent a few hours last weekend responding to every single email I received about The SSD Anthology. I've got some recent ones that came in while I was at GDC that I still need to get to. For the first year or so of AnandTech I responded to every single email; it didn’t take too long for me to start getting a few hundred a day and for me to have to curb that a bit in order to actually get work done.
The outpouring of support and appreciation in response to my latest article was too good for me not to respond to every single person. To those of you who wrote me, commented, or just took the time to read the article - thank you.
Your words and support are what inspire me to, even today almost 12 years since I started AnandTech, continue to work on things like The SSD Anthology or The RV770 Story. Thank you.
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monoton - Monday, March 30, 2009 - link
Hello Anand,I've read your articles about SSD with great interest and enjoyed the in-depth reviewing very very much.
Now with this update all I asked myself when seeing the headline was: Does it stutter (again)? You do mention random write performance but the maximum latency for random 4kb writes isn't stated at all. You were dwelling on that part so extensively in the other article that I thought it might have been a good idea to have it updated here. Please, pretty please, with sugar on top ;) let us know about it. Why else should we pay the extra cash to get the Intel...
One other thing also: You had a comment in that other article about the method of simulating the "used" drives - did you also fill up the spare blocks this time? Because the comment says, that it would bias the test results towards the Intel drive.
All in all no biggies, and I hope you continue to do these amazing reviews for a long time!
Best,
monoton
monoton - Monday, March 30, 2009 - link
Btw. the comment I'm referring to is the top one on pg. 19 of the comments.mschira - Monday, March 30, 2009 - link
Did you test any SSD directly plugged into the PCI-e slot likethe Fusion-io?Cheers
M.
LinkerX - Monday, March 30, 2009 - link
Anandtech has become the go to site since Toms Hardware turned in to junk. Keep up the great work.JonnyDough - Monday, March 30, 2009 - link
"Your words and support are what inspire me to, even today almost 12 years since I started AnandTech, continue to work on things like The SSD Anthology or The RV770 Story. Thank you."(quote button doesn't work so I just used quotes)
You mean you don't get paid for your articles? Tell the crustacean man to get on it.
Akkuma - Wednesday, April 1, 2009 - link
I recently told my roommate I read AnandTech and have been doing so for years (about 6 or so now). He told me about how he went to high school with him (he is from Raleigh, NC) and was driving Porsches back then, handing out freebies from all the stuff he got to friends, bought his parents a home, etc..I don't hold it against the guy, but he is making some extremely serious bank from the site when he is one of the original computer hardware review sites.
strikeback03 - Thursday, April 2, 2009 - link
Least he earned the money. We had people in my HS driving (brand new) Porsches that their parents had bought them.Bladen - Monday, March 30, 2009 - link
Keep up the good work.I have always seen this site as the most professional of it's kind.
RyuDeshi - Wednesday, April 1, 2009 - link
I agree. I can never read through an entire THG article.. yet I managed to real almost every last word of multiple SSD articles Anand has posted. Keep up the excellent work!semo - Monday, March 30, 2009 - link
"OCZ and Indilinx want to slot their drive in between the JMicron garbage and the Intel drive"gold. those scumbags must have set back ssd adoption by years in certain sectors. i still hear the AMD processors are too hot nonsense every once in a while.