TRIM Performance

In practice, SandForce based drives running a mainstream client workload do very well and typically boast low average write amplification. However if subjected to a workload composed entirely of incompressible writes (e.g. tons of compressed images, videos and music) you can back the controller into a corner.

To simulate this I filled the drive with incompressible data, ran a 4KB (100% LBA space, QD32) random write test with incompressible data for an hour and a half, and then ran AS-SSD (another incompressible data test) to see how low performance could get:

Kingston HyperX 3K - Resiliency - AS SSD Sequential Write Speed - 6Gbps
  Clean After 1.5hr Torture After TRIM
Kingston HyperX 3K 240GB 312.4 MB/s 103.9 MB/s 245.8 MB/s

I usually run this test for only 20 minutes but after seeing an unusually resilient performance by the 240GB drives I decided to extend the test period to a full 90 minutes. Performance does drop pretty far at that point, down to 103MB/s. TRIMing the drive does restore some performance but not all. If you have a workload that uses a lot of incompressible data (e.g. JPGs, H.264 videos, software encrypted data, highly random datasets etc...) then SandForce just isn't for you.

Power Consumption

SandForce boasts fairly low power consumption, particularly at idle. Even with incompressible data the HyperX 3K's power draw is competitive:

Drive Power Consumption - Idle

Drive Power Consumption - Sequential Write

Drive Power Consumption - Random Write

 

AnandTech Storage Bench 2011 - Light Workload
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  • Coup27 - Tuesday, April 10, 2012 - link

    the last page is missing
  • Coup27 - Tuesday, April 10, 2012 - link

    also all easter weekend I've had rendering issues with the comments section. It doesn't load up correctly and it's like a text version instead of html. This has happened on 3 different PC's so I think its something with the site.
  • Ryan Smith - Tuesday, April 10, 2012 - link

    What browser are you on? To the best of my knowledge we are not currently having any site issues, and at the moment the comments section is working fine for me.
  • bji - Tuesday, April 10, 2012 - link

    A similar thing happened for me too with several stores in the past few days. The comments section would show up without indentation (all comments lined up at the left) and comments would be separated by some weird looking title bar (looked a little like an Apple candy theme thing from the early 2000's, only clunkier). A reload of the page would bring it back to the normal view. My browser is Firefox on Linux.
  • bji - Tuesday, April 10, 2012 - link

    stores -> stories
  • Hockster - Wednesday, April 11, 2012 - link

    I'm using the latest Firefox and don't see the last page either.
  • Hockster - Wednesday, April 11, 2012 - link

    Oops, didn't realize there wasn't a conclusion page.
  • Ryan Smith - Tuesday, April 10, 2012 - link

    Actually the last page is there; it just isn't a conclusion page. We went with something a bit different this time and did an abridged review since it's using a controller & NAND we've already reviewed. The first page is the complete review from an editorial standpoint, while the following pages are all of the benchmarks and analysis.

    -Thanks
    Ryan Smith
  • Coup27 - Tuesday, April 10, 2012 - link

    tbh I missed that. I hadn't read the article and thought the end had been chopped off by this rendering issue. I have just uploaded a screenshot of what happens. This is the 4th PC in 3 different places it's happened on so it must be the site:

    http://www.elmleigh.co.uk/Paul/ATissue.jpg
  • Ryan Smith - Tuesday, April 10, 2012 - link

    Humm, from that screenshot it looks like you're not getting part or all of the main style sheet. All I can really suggest is flushing your cache and disabling any add-ons. The style sheet is being served up correctly and hasn't changed in the better part of the last year.

    http://www.anandtech.com/content/main.css

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