Previewing Maxiotek's MK8115 SSD Controller: Can DRAM-less Drives Make The Cut?
by Billy Tallis on May 9, 2017 8:00 AM ESTAnandTech Storage Bench - Light
Our Light storage test has relatively more sequential accesses and lower queue depths than The Destroyer or the Heavy test, and it's by far the shortest test overall. It's based largely on applications that aren't highly dependent on storage performance, so this is a test more of application launch times and file load times. This test can be seen as the sum of all the little delays in daily usage, but with the idle times trimmed to 25ms it takes less than half an hour to run. Details of the Light test can be found here.
The Light test shows a narrower spread of scores than the other ATSB tests, but the MK8115 drives are in last place with average data rates slightly below their respective OCZ competition, and they trail by a slightly wider margin when the test is run on a full drive. The fastest MLC and TLC SATA SSDs (from Samsung) are 20-25% faster.
Average service times from the MK8115 samples are on par with other SATA SSDs when the test is run on an empty drive, but when the drive is full service times more than double and are substantially higher than any other SSDs.
The number of high-latency outliers above 10ms experienced by the MK8115 drives when the Light test is run on an empty drive is typical for other SATA SSDs. When the drives are filled before the test, the MK8115 with MLC is affected significantly but not as much as drives like the Crucial MX300 or OCZ VX500. The MK8115 with TLC does far worse and ends up almost three times as many outliers as the next worst-scoring drive (the ADATA SU800).
Power consumption for the two MK8115 drives on the Light test is very similar and slightly better than average. The SATA SSDs that consume substantially more power are Samsung's high performers and the two drives using the Phison S10 controller.
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romrunning - Tuesday, May 9, 2017 - link
Here's an example of performance regression - the Intel 600p versus any other Intel PCIe SSD (like the Intel 750 or P3700). Clear performance drop.Don't confuse it with price differences or target buyer - you only asked for an example of performance regression.
MajGenRelativity - Tuesday, May 9, 2017 - link
The 600p isn't even targeted at the same market segment. That's like saying that every single SSD released since the Intel P4800X is a performance regression because it can't come close to those random IOPS. I'm talking about a performance regression within the same price segment.CheapSushi - Wednesday, May 10, 2017 - link
The Intel 600P is TLC NAND and the Intel 750 is MLC NAND.... maybe you don't know the difference? TLC is inherently slower than MLC; 3 bits per cell vs 2 bits per cell.MajGenRelativity - Thursday, May 11, 2017 - link
A. I know the difference. B. MLC vs TLC isn't even the point. C. My point still stands because the 600p is not targeted at the high end.satai - Tuesday, May 9, 2017 - link
There are some cheap models and there some awesome models (Intel 750 and Intel Enterprise models, Samsung 960s, Optanes...). Pick yourself.MajGenRelativity - Tuesday, May 9, 2017 - link
The Intel Optane enterprise drive certainly is awesome, but I find it's price a bit hard to sell an average consumer on.melgross - Tuesday, May 9, 2017 - link
Well, all new technologies cost the most at first, and much less later. Performance is the opposite. The worst at first, and much better later.Next year, the price of Optane will be half of what it is now, but for a 512GB board, rather than the 375GB board it is now. Still expensive, sure. But you just have to learn to be patient.
WinterCharm - Tuesday, May 9, 2017 - link
On the bright side, Optane should be a lot cheaper to produce in the long run. While it's terrible as an accelerator, it's fantastic as a standalone drive. Prices will come down over time.CheapSushi - Wednesday, May 10, 2017 - link
Is the average consumer one that even reads about these things? The average consumer just goes to Best Buy and a salesman tells them what to get. Anyone who reads AnandTech and/or actually read the reviews about Optane aren't average consumers anyway.MajGenRelativity - Thursday, May 11, 2017 - link
True, but I doubt most of us still have the money for a $1,500 375GB SSD