The Seagate BarraCuda (500GB) SSD Review: Getting Back In The Game
by Billy Tallis on December 7, 2018 8:00 AM ESTIdle Power Measurement
SATA SSDs are tested with SATA link power management disabled to measure their active idle power draw, and with it enabled for the deeper idle power consumption score and the idle wake-up latency test. Our testbed, like any ordinary desktop system, cannot trigger the deepest DevSleep idle state.
Idle power management for NVMe SSDs is far more complicated than for SATA SSDs. NVMe SSDs can support several different idle power states, and through the Autonomous Power State Transition (APST) feature the operating system can set a drive's policy for when to drop down to a lower power state. There is typically a tradeoff in that lower-power states take longer to enter and wake up from, so the choice about what power states to use may differ for desktop and notebooks.
We report two idle power measurements. Active idle is representative of a typical desktop, where none of the advanced PCIe link or NVMe power saving features are enabled and the drive is immediately ready to process new commands. The idle power consumption metric is measured with PCIe Active State Power Management L1.2 state enabled and NVMe APST enabled if supported.
The active idle power consumption of the Phison S10 controller has always been pretty good, though the Seagate BarraCuda draws a bit more at idle than some of the older S10 drives we've tested. When SATA link power management is enabled and the drive is put to sleep, the BarraCuda's power consumption is only cut in half and every other drive with working power management comes out ahead.
The Seagate BarraCuda had relatively poor idle power management, so it's appropriate for it to have one of the quickest wake-up latencies, slightly faster than the two older Phison S10 drives featured here. The BarraCuda wakes up seven times faster than the fastest Silicon Motion-based drive, and 26 times faster than the Toshiba TR200 that uses Phison's DRAMless S11 controller. The BarraCuda should definitely be used with the OS configured for the most aggressive drive power management, because the performance impact is minimal.
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takeshi7 - Friday, December 7, 2018 - link
"they bought controller designer SandForce right around when SandForce drives disappeared from the market for good."That's not strictly true. Seagate still use controllers based on SandForce for some of their enterprise SSDs. Look for DuraWrite Technology in their marketing materials to know which ones.
The_Assimilator - Friday, December 7, 2018 - link
SandForce disappeared from the *consumer* market, to be precise. And it was all the more surprising because of how much they shaped the formative years of mainstream SSDs. Reading about the reasons behind that company's implosion in someone's autobiography is going to be interesting.mikato - Friday, December 7, 2018 - link
I would like to know this also. Did the top brains get hired away to somewhere else somehow right when Seagate bought them or what?DanNeely - Friday, December 7, 2018 - link
IIRC Rumor mill at the time was that their next gen controller wasn't competitive and unable to get the design wins they needed they ran out of money and got snapped up on the cheap.Qasar - Friday, December 7, 2018 - link
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SandForceBeaver M. - Wednesday, December 12, 2018 - link
Nothing was surprising. Every expert knew they wouldnt last long with their focus on compressed performance and manufacturers promoting that without criticism.Many customers felt scammed when the controllers never delivered the performance they promised, because the real high numbers were only achievable with compressible content (who the hell has a 5 GB doc file?).
In every forum experts told people not to buy Sandforce SSDs or memory sticks, because of that fact. That sealed their fate.
HighTech4US - Friday, December 7, 2018 - link
Not competitive on price.$84.99 for the 500GB model.
I just purchased on Dec 4th a brand new Intel 545s 2.5" 512GB SATA III 64-Layer 3D NAND Internal Solid State Drive SSD from Newegg for $34.99 (after $20 PayPal coupon)
Death666Angel - Friday, December 7, 2018 - link
"after $20 PayPal coupon" So, Christmas offerings plus another coupon? Great comparison!HighTech4US - Monday, December 10, 2018 - link
So show me where I can get the this 500GB model for $54..99 then. That was what I paid pre-coupon for the 512GB Intel SSD.Like I said Seagate is not competitive on price.
Donkey2008 - Thursday, December 13, 2018 - link
I used a $50 Amazon gift certificate to get my Samsung SSD for $4.99. Seagate will never beat that price.(sarcasm)