SOLID STATE DRIVE NEWS
Western-Digital joins the SSD scene with marketing muscle in 2010 with it's Blue Series of Flash based hard drives:
WD Silicon Edge Drive
Best Seller : 80GB Intel X-25 Mainstream
Recent Price Drop!
Great Performance
Indilinx Controller
Corsair Reactor SSD
Built-In USB 2.0 Port
On A Budget?
The Best Conventional Drive Technology
World's Fastest
Desktop Drive 3.5"
WD Velociraptor
Samsung F1 Series
FAST 'n BIG 1TB
2.5" WD Scorpio Black Series 7200RPM SATA
Computers Blogs
OCZ Vertex 2 Leapfrogs Intel
Jun/14/10 18:58 Filed in: fast ssd | fastest ssd
OCZ's solid-state drive line must be on it's 6th or 7th iteration of refinements since it first launched it's Solid and Core line barely a few years back. So given their penchant for horrible naming schemes, we now have the '2' line of drives - TWO as in "Let's forget the last FIVE Vertex variants we released..."
Well maybe it's all worth putting up with, cuz advancements in the OCZ Vertex 2 Series
and it's performance should make any speed freak geek happy. Max Read: up to 285MB/s, Max Write: up to 275MB/s, Sustained Write: up to 250MB/s. Take that Intel!
Of note is the change of DRIVE CAPACITY. With the Vertex 2 line, they're now in 50GB, 100GB, 200GB sizes. Lets assume OCZ is setting some room aside on the flash disk to make sure these drives to maintain peak performance over their lifetime.
Well maybe it's all worth putting up with, cuz advancements in the OCZ Vertex 2 Series
and it's performance should make any speed freak geek happy. Max Read: up to 285MB/s, Max Write: up to 275MB/s, Sustained Write: up to 250MB/s. Take that Intel!
Of note is the change of DRIVE CAPACITY. With the Vertex 2 line, they're now in 50GB, 100GB, 200GB sizes. Lets assume OCZ is setting some room aside on the flash disk to make sure these drives to maintain peak performance over their lifetime.
Best Performing SSD Drives In 2010 - Trends and Technology
Apr/14/10 09:05 Filed in: SSD Hardware
As 3rd and 4th generation SATA SSD drives hit the scene in 2010 - Here's some technology advancements, predictions and product trends to watch for:
1. "Me Too" performance. Most SSD's are based on a very few drive and NAND flash controller chipsets available to OEMS. Some SSDs are simply rebranded OEM reference designs - and that puts many of them in the same ballpark of performance.
2. Incremental speed gains thru minor Firmware tweaks, cache size options and flash memory clock speed timing is what differentiates many drives in benchmark tests. But these performance differences may become less apparent to end users.
3. The emergence of SATA III - 6Gbps interface SSD drives. The new Serial ATA 3 spec provides the potential to DOUBLE SSD performance - in theory. As more personal computers begin to include SATA III controllers, solid-state drives will take advantage of the increased bandwidth.
4. 3.5" form-factor solid-state drives will become more common. Consumers want a drop-in drive replacement option and would rather not fuss with SSD adapters and brackets and whatnot.
5. The return of more SSD drives with USB mini ports built-in. JMicron's revised SSD controller chipset supports this very convenient USB transfer option. Many 2nd tier SSD suppliers will rebrand JMicron based drives and compete heavily in the cheap SSD 'value' end of the market.
6. JMicron 612 controller based SSDs won't suffer from the bad reputation of slow writes and 'stuttering' that plagued thier 1st and 2nd generaiton JMF 602 based SSDs. The JMF612 supports much larger DRAM cache sizes and works with a wider variety of NAND flash chips: Toshiba, Intel, and Micron - in addition to Samsung flash.
7. Intel's in-house design fab will continue to push the efficient and optimized SSD performance envelope. Intel will continue to be the SSD to beat.
8. Product branding and SSD naming conventions will continue to confuse buyers in the consumer market. What's the difference between an OCZ Summit - Vertex - Apex - Turbo - EX - Solid - Solid v2 and Solid 2 series SSD? Or... a SuperTalent LE - ME - GX - GX2 - DX drive? Deep analysis of the variants by cross-referencing spec sheets and Read/Write numbers will still be needed.
9. The arrival USB 3.0 SuperSpeed peripherals in 2010 will open up opportunites for SSD's to be used as external backup drives - Largely only for those who can afford the large capacities most people want in a back-up disk.
10. SSD price competition will likely be heaviest in the 128Gb drive market. It seems to be the sweet spot of SSD affordabillity with enough capacity to meet most users needs. Price pressure - and endless rebate promos will likely pull these down from around $400 closer to $300 by the end of 2010.
1. "Me Too" performance. Most SSD's are based on a very few drive and NAND flash controller chipsets available to OEMS. Some SSDs are simply rebranded OEM reference designs - and that puts many of them in the same ballpark of performance.
2. Incremental speed gains thru minor Firmware tweaks, cache size options and flash memory clock speed timing is what differentiates many drives in benchmark tests. But these performance differences may become less apparent to end users.
3. The emergence of SATA III - 6Gbps interface SSD drives. The new Serial ATA 3 spec provides the potential to DOUBLE SSD performance - in theory. As more personal computers begin to include SATA III controllers, solid-state drives will take advantage of the increased bandwidth.
4. 3.5" form-factor solid-state drives will become more common. Consumers want a drop-in drive replacement option and would rather not fuss with SSD adapters and brackets and whatnot.
5. The return of more SSD drives with USB mini ports built-in. JMicron's revised SSD controller chipset supports this very convenient USB transfer option. Many 2nd tier SSD suppliers will rebrand JMicron based drives and compete heavily in the cheap SSD 'value' end of the market.
6. JMicron 612 controller based SSDs won't suffer from the bad reputation of slow writes and 'stuttering' that plagued thier 1st and 2nd generaiton JMF 602 based SSDs. The JMF612 supports much larger DRAM cache sizes and works with a wider variety of NAND flash chips: Toshiba, Intel, and Micron - in addition to Samsung flash.
7. Intel's in-house design fab will continue to push the efficient and optimized SSD performance envelope. Intel will continue to be the SSD to beat.
8. Product branding and SSD naming conventions will continue to confuse buyers in the consumer market. What's the difference between an OCZ Summit - Vertex - Apex - Turbo - EX - Solid - Solid v2 and Solid 2 series SSD? Or... a SuperTalent LE - ME - GX - GX2 - DX drive? Deep analysis of the variants by cross-referencing spec sheets and Read/Write numbers will still be needed.
9. The arrival USB 3.0 SuperSpeed peripherals in 2010 will open up opportunites for SSD's to be used as external backup drives - Largely only for those who can afford the large capacities most people want in a back-up disk.
10. SSD price competition will likely be heaviest in the 128Gb drive market. It seems to be the sweet spot of SSD affordabillity with enough capacity to meet most users needs. Price pressure - and endless rebate promos will likely pull these down from around $400 closer to $300 by the end of 2010.
SSD Standouts As Of Fall 2009
Oct/12/09 01:15 Filed in: Best SSD Models
As we head to the end of 2009 - the truly decent 2.5" SATA SSD's worth buying and give the best bang for the buck can be simplified down to a handful. The broad adoption of Indilinx and Samsung controller chips - combined with ample on-board cache has taken performance to new levels - and leveled out the playing field.
The best value lies in these few drives: An OCZ Agility
, A Super Talent UltraDrive ME
, The Patriot Torqx or Warp V3 Series, and an OCZ Vertex & Summit
-- or perhaps a RAID 0 Apex
. The rest of the chart below - from BenchMarkReviews.com - was cropped out - It just wasn't worth bothering with - altho Corsair's latest Samsung/Indilinx models probably should have had a spot on the list, as the still highly respectable Intel SSD G1 and G2 drives.
In the OCZ Vertex drive variants and Firmware Revs shown below - the performance differences may matter only to the incremental Tweaky-Geeks who live by a stop-watch or have bleeding-edge wallets. The designs, controller chips, clock-speed of the flash memory chips used - are all leveling out to a basic commodity used in most of the drives these days. Any of the handful of SSD's above will deliver GREAT performance far, far exceeding your original SATA hard drive.
The best value lies in these few drives: An OCZ Agility
, A Super Talent UltraDrive ME, The Patriot Torqx or Warp V3 Series, and an OCZ Vertex & Summit -- or perhaps a RAID 0 Apex. The rest of the chart below - from BenchMarkReviews.com - was cropped out - It just wasn't worth bothering with - altho Corsair's latest Samsung/Indilinx models probably should have had a spot on the list, as the still highly respectable Intel SSD G1 and G2 drives.In the OCZ Vertex drive variants and Firmware Revs shown below - the performance differences may matter only to the incremental Tweaky-Geeks who live by a stop-watch or have bleeding-edge wallets. The designs, controller chips, clock-speed of the flash memory chips used - are all leveling out to a basic commodity used in most of the drives these days. Any of the handful of SSD's above will deliver GREAT performance far, far exceeding your original SATA hard drive.
Patriot TORQX SSD On OCZ's Tail
Jul/12/09 13:33 Filed in: Patriot SSD
OCZ ain't the only game in town for solid-state drives. Patriot Memory is aggressively nipping at their heels for mind and market share - and is gunning after OCZ's latest offerings by countering with the Patriot Torqx solid-state drives
using the same 'Barefoot' Indilinx controller for comparable performance to OCZ's highly respected Vertex lineup.
As this consolidation in the flash memory drive market continues - and as OEM components used in the marjority of drives becomes more common -- Price, and not 'me too' performance will differentiate variosu brands of drives. Performance will flatline somewhat because they're using basically the same hardware, so a leveling of the playing field will characterize the SSD drive market in late 2009. Several companies are now using the Indilinx or Samsung controller chipset - and regardless of brand - you'll love the smooth performance!
On the low-end, JMicron is revising it's somewhat dissapointing controller chip with a redesign and larger cache. Should help with occasional SSD Write issues and noticeably improve SSD performance on the value end of the market.
using the same 'Barefoot' Indilinx controller for comparable performance to OCZ's highly respected Vertex lineup.As this consolidation in the flash memory drive market continues - and as OEM components used in the marjority of drives becomes more common -- Price, and not 'me too' performance will differentiate variosu brands of drives. Performance will flatline somewhat because they're using basically the same hardware, so a leveling of the playing field will characterize the SSD drive market in late 2009. Several companies are now using the Indilinx or Samsung controller chipset - and regardless of brand - you'll love the smooth performance!
On the low-end, JMicron is revising it's somewhat dissapointing controller chip with a redesign and larger cache. Should help with occasional SSD Write issues and noticeably improve SSD performance on the value end of the market.
OCZ 3.5" Standard Form Factor Colossus Announced
Jun/08/09 22:32 Filed in: OCZ SSD
Coming later this year: At Computex, OCZ pre-announced its OCZ Colossus and Cascade
SSD line - which will feature dual Indilinx controllers and a JMicron RAID chipset to deliver huge storage capacity, stunning performance, and the drop-in ease of a standard 3.5" form factor for desktop systems.
For those of us with more meager budgets and smaller needs - OCZ has revamped it's mid to 'low-end' lineup with an affordable MLC drive: Check out these prices on OCZ Agility Series SSD drives
. This 'value' drive is nothing-to-sneeze-at with an improved controller chip and decent cache. Peak read performance reaches 220Mpbs altho it's write speeds are more modest - just under the Apex SSD line. The Agility series is likey to make a phase-out of the Core and Solid SSD lines highly likely as technology marches on.