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#1
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ssd esata drives
Hello,
Are SSD eSata external drives really that good? Specs say that they usually read at 90Mb/s while my HDD does 65, according to hdparm. So this doesn't look as such a great performance... Regards, Przemek |
#2
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ssd esata drives
P. Kaminski wrote:
Hello, Are SSD eSata external drives really that good? Specs say that they usually read at 90Mb/s while my HDD does 65, according to hdparm. So this doesn't look as such a great performance... Regards, Przemek There is a lot to know about SSDs. Sustained performance is not a good metric (you can make them faster, by using more flash channels). It is the management of the flash and its block orientation, that degrades their performance. (Picture of a ten channel flash) http://techreport.com/r.x/intel-x25e/guts-top.jpg (Article reviewing the characteristics of contemporary SSDs) http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3531 To use an SSD, you have to tweak the OS (turn off things that do unnecessary writes). Also, it may help to align the partition on the drive, to a certain starting block. So there are little tuning tricks. Again, this makes it less convenient than a conventional drive, if you want to get the best performance from it. Tests like the following one, are not indicative of long term write performance. A freshly erased drive, might work like this, but once the drive has been used for a while, writes will degrade. But reads should remain fast. http://techreport.com/articles.x/15931/10 You can put more devices in parallel, and get numbers like the ones shown in this advert. But the question would be, how well does this device do, once it has been used for a while ? Can you sustain 200MB/sec writes, under any conditions ? $1500 to $3400. Uses MLC chips. http://www.ocztechnology.com/product...ci_express_ssd Paul |
#3
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ssd esata drives
To use an SSD, you have to tweak the OS (turn off things that
do unnecessary writes). Also, it may help to align the partition on the drive, to a certain starting block. So there are little tuning tricks. Again, this makes it less convenient than a conventional drive, if you want to get the best performance from it. I guess standard linux configuration with ext3 filesystem is enough? $1500 to $3400. Uses MLC chips.http://www.ocztechnology.com/product..._z_drive_pci_e... This is too expensive. Instead, I found the Kingston SSDNow drives http://www.kingston.com/ukroot/ssd/e_series.asp and http://www.kingston.com/ukroot/ssd/m_series.asp They are based on Intel X25-M chips which these reviews consider very nice. But these are internal -- I guess I can attach them to the eSata interface though a SATA - eSATA cable? Przemek |
#4
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ssd esata drives
P. Kaminski wrote:
To use an SSD, you have to tweak the OS (turn off things that do unnecessary writes). Also, it may help to align the partition on the drive, to a certain starting block. So there are little tuning tricks. Again, this makes it less convenient than a conventional drive, if you want to get the best performance from it. I guess standard linux configuration with ext3 filesystem is enough? $1500 to $3400. Uses MLC chips.http://www.ocztechnology.com/product..._z_drive_pci_e... This is too expensive. Instead, I found the Kingston SSDNow drives http://www.kingston.com/ukroot/ssd/e_series.asp and http://www.kingston.com/ukroot/ssd/m_series.asp They are based on Intel X25-M chips which these reviews consider very nice. But these are internal -- I guess I can attach them to the eSata interface though a SATA - eSATA cable? Przemek I guess it all depends, on whether you can find a website that discusses operation of an SSD with Linux and EXT3. General optimizations (WinXP) http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/fo...ad.php?t=43460 Discussion about alignment http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/fo...ad.php?t=48309 http://groups.google.ca/group/comp.o...182b9961333829 The thing is, the device is going to work, right out of the box. But whether you're getting the maximum performance from it, depends on how well you understand the habits of your OS. For example, the Windows practice of updating the "last accessed" time is just silly, and is an example of something that should be disabled. The connectors on the 2.5", could be standard SATA connectors. If you're using an externally mounted ESATA connector, you'd be advised to use a short cable. (ESATA allows 2 meters, but you'd want both ends to support ESATA signal levels. If the devices are SATA, then a shorter cable is recommended.) There are some 1.8" drives, but they use non-standard connectors. The companies making 1.8" drives, don't provide adapter cables. It is a good idea, to find some pictures of the product, and double check that the connectors are standard. So while I think the 2.5" drive uses standard connectors, you should verify that. If using the device externally, you'd need a power source. The ESATA to SATA cable, solves the data connector. But you'd also need an extension cable from the PC, that provides power to the 15 pin power connector on the SSD. An external enclosure might be another way to get power (some of those come with adapters). A product like this (internal array $65), may be one way to plug in the SSD, without a lot of cables dangling. http://www.addonics.com/products/rai...e4rcs25nsa.asp User manual http://www.addonics.com/support/user...E4RCS25NSA.pdf If you were using 2.5" hard drives in the Addonics product, you'd have to shut down, before pulling out a hard drive. (Otherwise, it would still be spinning when you pull it out.) In the case of the SSD, you'd use the Windows "Safely Remove" icon to disable the data interface, and because nothing is spinning in an SSD, then you should be able to just pull it out. Since the SSD is an expensive item, if I was using it, I'd shut down the computer, so there was no power present when it was removed. That is the safest thing. If you're going to try dangerous experiments with the SSD, do them before the warranty has expired. HTH, Paul |
#5
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ssd esata drives
Also, what do you think of the NILFS filesystem
http://www.linux-mag.com/id/7345/1/ It says that it's not for SSDs as it can wear out the NANDS, but from what I've seen current SSDs would require like 20 years of continuous usage to be worn out,,, |
#6
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ssd esata drives
P. Kaminski wrote:
Also, what do you think of the NILFS filesystem http://www.linux-mag.com/id/7345/1/ It says that it's not for SSDs as it can wear out the NANDS, but from what I've seen current SSDs would require like 20 years of continuous usage to be worn out,,, Buy one with SLC chips, rather than MLC, as that will give you a bit better rating on lifetime. SLC can be written more times than MLC, plus you have the wear leveling features of the drive itself. The spec for a X25-E SLC drive, is "1 petabyte of random writes" or 10**15. http://download.intel.com/design/fla...eme/319984.pdf http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petabyte You could try a test install of the file system, then find a utility that can monitor write traffic to the drive, so you can analyse it and determine the impact with respect to 1 petabyte. SSDs are currently an "early adopter" technology, which means people buying them, are doing it mainly to experiment. They're kind of expensive as a bulk storage solution (at least, if you want one with good properties). There are some very cheap and nasty ones, that will put you off the technology forever. They use MLC, and badly designed controllers. Good luck, Paul |
#7
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ssd esata drives
All I want is for the system and apps to start faster, so I guess an 8
GB drive would be sufficient. I'll have a look at those SLC drives. Thank you very much Paul for nice hints! Przemek |
#8
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ssd esata drives
On Mon, 8 Jun 2009 08:41:45 -0700 (PDT), "P. Kaminski"
wrote: All I want is for the system and apps to start faster, so I guess an 8 GB drive would be sufficient. I'll have a look at those SLC drives. Thank you very much Paul for nice hints! Przemek Better SSDs use highly parallelized chip access, meaning with more chips you will typically get significantly higher performance - with something larger than 8GB. Bare minimum size might need be 30 to 64GB, and keep in mind that in some cases you can just get two SSDs and RAID0 them, instead of one larger one though keeping them internal is then probably more convenient than running two eSATA. Peak throughput isn't quite the whole story, generally the firmwares are tweaked for some combination of concurrent I/O and peak throughput, with the former tending to be at least as important for running the OS or apps off of one, and the later more important for linear I/O as with video editing. http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.ph...18&Item id=60 |
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