The SSD Relapse: Understanding and Choosing the Best SSD
by Anand Lal Shimpi on August 30, 2009 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Storage
PCMark Vantage: Used Drive Performance
Immediately after finishing my PCMark Vantage runs on the previous page, I wrote one large file sequentially to the rest of the drive. I then deleted the file, rebooted and re-ran PCMark Vantage. This gives us an idea of the worst case desktop performance of these drives as you create, delete and generally just use these drives.
The biggest difference here is that the Samsung based OCZ Summit drops from 5th to 9th place. All of the drives get slower but the Indilinx drives hardly show it. When it comes to dealing with write speed, SLC flash does have the advantage and we see the X25-E and Vertex EX rise to the top of the pack. The G2 is slightly faster than the G1 and the Indilinx drives follow in close pursuit.
The mechanical drives don't change in performance since they don't get slower with use, only as they get more full.
Again we see the two SLC drives at the top, this time followed by a mixture of Indilinx/Intel drives, and the Samsung based Summit is at the bottom of the pack before we get to the HDDs.
The spread in SSD performance here is only 10% between the slowest non-Samsung drive and the fastest. That tells me that we're mostly CPU bound, but the worst performers other than the Samsung drive are the two Intel X25-Ms. That part tells me that we're at least somewhat bound by sequential write speeds. Either way, the Indilinx drives have a good showing here.
Intel followed by Indilinx SLC with Samsung in league with the MLC Indilinx drives. This is an SSD's dream.
Despite the improvements, the G2 can't touch the much lower write latency of SLC flash here. The Indilinx and Intel G1 drives intermingle while the Samsung drive pulls up the rear. All are faster than a regular hard drive of course.
In the multitasking test we once again see Intel rise to the top. The Samsung drive does surprisingly well and the Indilinx drives continue to perform admirably.
The breakdown between SSDs here is almost linear. The X25-E leads the pack, followed by OCZ's SLC drive. The G2 and G1 are next, then a ton of Indilinx MLC drives. The slowest SSD? The Samsung based Summit of course.
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Anand Lal Shimpi - Monday, August 31, 2009 - link
Intel insists it's not an artificial cap and I tend to believe the source that fed me that information.That being said, if it's not an artificial cap it's either:
1) Designed that way and can't be changed without a new controller
2) A bug and can be fixed with firmware
3) A bug and can't be fixed without a new controller
Or some combination of those items. We'll see :)
Take care,
Anand
Adul - Monday, August 31, 2009 - link
Another fine article anand :). Keep up the good work.CurseTheSky - Monday, August 31, 2009 - link
This is absolutely the best article I've read in a very long time - not just from Anandtech - from anywhere.I've been collecting information and comparing benchmarks / testimonials for over a month, trying to help myself decide between Intel, Indilinx, and Samsung-based drives. While it was easy to see that one of the three trails the pack, it was difficult to decide if the Intel G2 or Indilinx drives were the best bang for the buck.
This article made it all apparent: The Intel G2 drives have better random read / write performance, but worse sequential write performance. Regardless, both drives are perfectly acceptable for every day use, and the real world difference would be hardly noticeable. Now if only the Intel drives would come back in stock, close to MSRP.
Thank you for taking the time to write the article.
deputc26 - Monday, August 31, 2009 - link
been waiting months for this one.therealnickdanger - Monday, August 31, 2009 - link
Ditto! Thanks Anand! Now the big question... Intel G2 or Vertex Turbo? :) It's nice to have options!Hank Scorpion - Monday, August 31, 2009 - link
Anand,YOU ARE A LEGEND!!! go and get some good sleep, thanks for answering and allaying my fears... i appreciate all your hard work!!!!
256GB OCZ Vertex is on the top of my list as soon as a validated Windows 7 TRIM firmware that doesnt need any work by me is organized....
once a firmware is organised then my new machine is born.... MUHAHAHAHAHAHA
AbRASiON - Monday, August 31, 2009 - link
Vertex Turbo is a complete rip off, Anand clearly held back saying it from offending the guy at OCZ.Now the other OCZ models however, could be a different story.
MikeZZZZ - Monday, August 31, 2009 - link
I too love my Vertex. Running these things in RAID0 will blow your mind. I'm just waiting for some affordable enterprise-class drives for our servers.Mike
http://solidstatedrivehome.com">http://solidstatedrivehome.com
JPS - Monday, August 31, 2009 - link
I loved the first draft of the Anthology and this is a great follow-up. I have been running a Vertex in workstation and laptop for months know and continue to be amazed at the difference when I boot up a comparable system still running standard HDDs.gigahertz20 - Monday, August 31, 2009 - link
Another great article from Anand, now where can I get my Intel X-25M G2 :)