Intel has released
a new firmware (02HD) and firmware update tool (version 1.5) to fix the issue with the firmware update process on 34nm (G2) Intel® X25-M SSDs (80GB and 160GB).Intel recommends that end users Download this firmware update tool and upgrade your SSD
* This new firmware provides TRIM support (on 80GB and 160GB G2 34nm drives) and better sequential write performance (write speed increased to 100 MB/s on 160GB drives)
* If you experience any issues during the upgrade process contact Intel Customer Support
* Intel TRIM firmware update info/reviews:
http://www.techreport.com/discussions.x/17826
http://anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3667
http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1112/1/
http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=805
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Why are SSDs better than traditional mechanical hard disk drives?
* If you get a good recent model they have MUCH faster read/write performance
* Virtually 0 second seek times
* No moving parts, no noise
* Shock/drop resistance
* Lower power usage which equates to better mobile battery life
* Low heat output
* Linear performance gains in RAID 0 setups
SSDs are kind of expensive, are they worth it?
Check the goon testimonials in post #2, many came from the last thread.
Almost everything you ever wanted to know about SSDs
http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3631
Which is the best consumer SSD? :
The top, in order of what's considered best, by consumer level performance/support first:
1.) Intel X-18/X-25M Line (Intel Controller) Comes in 40 GB (sold by Kingston), 80 GB and 160 GB capacities. Generation 2 drives introduced TRIM support. Kingston also sells re-badged versions of 80 GB and 160 GB drives.
2.) OCZ Vertex (Indilinx Barefoot Controller) Comes in 30GB, 60GB, and 120GB capacities.
3.) OCZ Agility (Indilinx Barefoot Controller) Comes in 30GB, 60GB, and 120GB capacities.
4.) All other Indilinx Barefoot Controller based SSDs
Are there any SSDs I should avoid? :
Avoid JMicron controller based SSDs, older generation drives had major stuttering issues. Newer ones are better but still have crappy comparative performance (though still much faster than a mechanical hard drive).
OCZ has more than just the Vertex and Agility lines of SSDs, but those are the only ones you want. Don't buy Vertex or Agility EX disks, they're just overclocked regular SSDs at a higher price, for little performance increase. Don't buy the Apex or Solid lines of SSDs as they are based on the inferior JMicron controller.
Avoid buying SSD with new computers. In addition to the premium you'll probably pay for getting it installed by the manufacturer most of them use Samsung SSD's, they used to be second only to Intels, but the Indilinx drives are now superior. More importantly though, Samsungs don't have a user updateable firmware, it has to be sent back to Samsung (even if they were sold by another company such as Corsair or OCZ). It's much better to buy the computer and then put in a Intel or (Indilinx) OCZ.
WARNING IF YOU HAVE A PRE-UNIBODY MACBOOK PRO
Beware the Indilinx drives if you are using a pre-unibody macbook pro, many (especially early 2008 MBPs) can't use bootcamp or flash the drive. Basically, booting anything that is not OSX on an affected machine will cause the system to hang. It's especially annoying because in order to flash the firmware you have to take the drive out and put it in a PC.
Sources:
http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/f...ead.php?t=58191
http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/f...ead.php?t=63545
http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/f...ead.php?t=54425
Links:
PC Perspectives SSD Decoder Ring - Good guide for which drives uses which controller.
Which SSD is the best value? :
Because of shortage of Intel SSDs, and price gouging hikes because of the shortage, the OCZ Agility is considered the current best overall value. Once the Intel drive prices come back to normal the best value drive is the one with the capacity closest to what you wish to get. Want a 30GB or 60 GB drive? OCZ. 80 GB? Intel. 120 GB? OCZ. 160 GB? Intel.
All Indilinx Barefoot controllers of the same spec perform about the same, but with OCZ you get bleeding edge firmware updates, features and support. The Agility is identical to the Vertex with slightly slower memory, they get firmware updates at about the same time.
What are the choices for cheap SSDs?
If speed isn't your top concern (such as an SSD for a netbook), but you'd like the other benefits SSDs provide, consider these models:
Kingston 64GB or 128GB SSDNow V Series - Can be had for $110 or $210 respectively. Based on the JMicron 2nd generation chipset, so no stuttering issues, but it's not a speed demon either.
Review:
http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1005/1/
Kingston 40GB V Series Boot Drive - Can be had for around $100. Based on the 34nm Intel G2, with half the sequential write speed of a 80gb G2. The Kingston drive is currently not compatible with the Intel TRIM firmware update or the Intel SSD Toolbox and Optimizer.
Reviews:
http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1111/1/
http://www.anandtech.com/storage/sh...aspx?i=3667&p=4
http://www.overclockersclub.com/rev...ton_ssdnow_ssd/
http://www.futurelooks.com/kingston...t-drive-review/
FAQ:
Should I upgrade my CPU, memory or get an SSD for the best performance boost?
Make sure you have "enough" memory for your computer first. Memory is cheap and if you don't have enough installed it will be an unnecessary source of slow performance. Check the physical RAM usage to make sure your memory usage isn't higher than the amount of RAM you have installed. There's no reason to not to run with at least 2GB of memory on Vista+, and with at least 4GB+ if you do any gaming / 64 bit computing.
Get the right upgrade for the right slowdown. If the tasks you're concerned about are severely CPU bound get a a better CPU. Regardless, moving to decent SSD from a mechanical hard disk will give a noticeable speed boost for many tasks (see the what will / will not be faster with an SSD section below).
What will be faster with an SSD compared to a mechanical hard disk?
Modern SSDs excel at random reads since seek times are virtually 0. The better modern SSDs also have excellent read and very good sequential write performance. In summary, anything that's I/O bound will be much faster with an SSD, this includes:
* Booting
* Closing/Opening applications
* Loading game levels
* Loading/Booting virtual machines
What will not be faster with an SSD?
Anything that's not I/O bound:
* DVD encoding (CPU bound)
* Game frame rates (CPU/GPU bound)
* Video file frame rates (CPU/GPU bound)
I heard SSDs have a limited write lifetime since they're flash based, how long will an SSD last?
Enterprise priced SLC based SSDs have much higher lifetime than consumer priced MLC based SSDs.
SLC vs MLC lifetime, unless you're a business that's constantly writing to the drive, is mostly a non issue. With modern wear leveling techniques on MLC drives such as from Intel line is capable of writing 100gb of data a day for at least 5 years. Way before that happens you'll want to replace the drive with a bigger, faster, and cheaper SSD.
SSD failure due to write wear is not like a mechanical disk failure. With a mechanical disk failure it's bye bye data. Mechanical drives that are constantly used tend to fail way sooner than 5 years on average anyway because of mechanical wear and abuse. When a SSD fails because of write usage it simply can't do anymore writes, but it can still do reads. Also Intel plans to release a tool to monitor your drive SMART data and warn if you're getting close to your write threshold. With SLC drive costing on average 2x+ more than an MLC counterpart it's more beneficial on the consumer level to just replace the drive with a cheaper/bigger drive than to keep around an older drive for longer.
Can I run chkdsk on a SSD, can I run a disk clone tool on one?
Sure, as far as your computer is concerned an SSD as just like any other connected storage device. Acronis, Norton Ghost, and dd have been verified to work just fine on SSDs.
Be careful when restoring an image from a different drive to ensure you get the right 512k or 1024k partition offset, otherwise there could be a significant degradation in performance. Windows 7 will align the partition automatically on initial install of new raw drive, but when you're imaging from different source you have to tell the software to do it manually. The reason is that if you have an oddball partition offset number then the drive is actually trying to read/write 2 blocks for what is effectively one block's worth of information, you can imagine how that's a bad thing. XP I think does 32kb alignment offset which, while it lines up to 4kb sectors, does not line up to 512kb blocks, so people on the OCZ forums started recommending 64kb or 128kb. Vista and 7 both align every partition, whether on a platter or solid state drive, to 1024kb. Older versions of software like Acronis or Norton Ghost tend to use I think 32kb or 64kb.
You can read more about partition alignment here:
http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/f...ead.php?t=48309
Mobile Laptop/Netbook Considerations
Something to watch out for when putting a SSD into an laptop is that any laptop based on an older onboard controller (older than ICH8) is probably capped at SATA-150, even if the laptop motherboard chipset says it has SATA-300 (aka SATA II) support. The result is that on mobile platforms the SATA controller the limiting factor in read speeds of some of the better SSDs (such as OCZ Vertex and Intel X25 series). Although this results in possibly slower speed than the full potential of the drive in many cases it's still many times faster than a mechanical hard disk.
More info here:
http://www.madshrimps.be/vbulletin/...150-spec-61982/
Here's some info on some guy trying to hack in SATA300 support into a Lenovo T61 (with no luck so far):
http://forum.notebookreview.com/sho...48&postcount=44
Finding your drive firmware version / SMART Data Info:
A great freeware tool to view your current drive firmware version and if your drive supports TRIM is Crystal Disk Info:
http://crystalmark.info/software/Cr...fo/index-e.html
Intel SSD FAQ:
What's the difference between Generation 1 (G1) and Generation 2 drives:
Generation 2 Improvements include:
* TRIM Support (added with 10/26/2009) firmware.
* Based on 34nm process to allow for eventual 320gb drives.
* Faster random small write speeds/Faster IOPS
* As of firmware released 10/26/2009 the 160gb write speed has been boosted to 100 MB/s.
Where can I get the latest Intel SSD firmware updates?:
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Det...Y&DwnldID=18363
It's fairly easy to install, just burn the ISO contents to CD and boot from it/let it run. The update is non destructive so you shouldn't loose any data, but as with all things Murphy, you always have the option of backing up your drive data first in case something goes wrong.
Are there any specific Intel SSD diagnostics tools?
For generation 2 drives, yes, the Intel SSD Toolbox:
quote:
A set of applications to easily manage the health and optimize the performance of your Intel SSD. The Toolbox includes a powerful set of management, information, and diagnostic tools, and is designed to work best with 34nm Intel High Performance SSDs.
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Det...Y&DwnldID=18182
I have a G2 drive running on Windows XP or Vista is there a tool that lets me run a manual TRIM command?:
Yep, the Intel SSD Toolbox:
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Det...Y&DwnldID=18182
Official Intel SSD support forum:
http://communities.intel.com/community/tech/solidstate
Intel Products Roadmap:
The sequential write speed of an Intel SSD is less than half of much of the competition, why is the Intel drive still considered the best consumer SSD?
The most common read/write usage pattern for most users tends to be small random reads/writes, not sequentially copying large files, if it is for you then a SSD might not be the best choice. When examining an SSD for purchase pay attention the speed of the small (4k) random write performance specification to have an accurate picture of what will give the best overall performance. That's why the Intel drives are considered the performance king. Pretty much every other SSD in the same price category as the Intel SSD has 2x-3x faster sequential write speeds, but the Intel whips every other SSD's ass in 4k random writes, which falls into the most common usage pattern.
How can I tell if a drive is a Generation 1 (G1) or Generation 2 (G2) Intel SSD?
Not every reseller uses the exact same model numbers. The big indicator is the letters G2 (as opposed to G1) in the model number.
Kingston sells a branded version of the G2 80GB and 160GB Intel drives:
Kingston SSDNow M Series SNM225-S2/80GB 2.5"
Kingston SSDNow M Series SNM225-S2/160GB 2.5"
Model SNM225-S2 are the G2's, SNM125-S2's are re-badged older G1's (exception being the new 40GB model under the SNV125-S2 nomenclature, which is based on the 34nm G2). Kingston has stated that the 40GB will get TRIM support in the future.
A product codes table can be found here:
http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1022/1/
OCZ SSD FAQ:
Until I clean this area up, here's the best resource for OCZ SSD info:
http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/f...splay.php?f=233
What's OCZs Garbage Collection, is it the same as TRIM?
Similar, but no.
http://hothardware.com/News/OCZ-and...lection-Scheme/
TRIM FAQ:
What is TRIM?
Much like rotational hard drives SSDs don't bother to clear out data the OS has marked deleted, instead they clear it off when they need to write something new to it. However unlike a mechanical hard disk this is not a single pass operation and so SSD's take a significant performance penalty for writes once the drive has filled up and there's no clean empty space to write to. This is one of two major issues discovered with first generation SSD's in early 2009. An OS with TRIM support tells the SSD to mark the cell as deleted at the time deletion.
Further reading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRIM_%28SSD_command%29
Are there any benchmarks showing the benefits of TRIM?
Yes, http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3631
What's needed for TRIM support?
You'll need explicit operating system, drive firmware, and operating system SATA/IDE driver that supports TRIM. If you're using a RAID controller you'll also need a RAID controller and drivers that support TRIM (no RAID controllers currently support TRIM).
Which drives support TRIM?
Intel 34nm Generation 2 drives (X-18M G2, X-25M G2, currently not the 34nm Intel based 40GB Kingston) as of firmware released 10/26/2009.
Indilinx based Barefoot SSDs. This includes OCZ Vertex, OCZ Agility, G.Skill Falcon, Patriot Torx, Crucial M225, and the Super Talent UltraDrive. The Indilinx drives listed above support TRIM as of firmware version 1.4, Crucial and Super Talent number their TRIM supported firmware as 1819.
It's also been reported that the Samsung based Corsair says P SSD will also soon sport a TRIM update.
What's the status of TRIM support on Windows?
Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 (same Kernel) have support for the TRIM command. Older Windows operating systems do not support TRIM, with no current plans to add support to older Windows versions. In Windows 7, for now, it's recommended to use Microsoft's AHCI driver, as the Intel Matrix driver doesn't support TRIM:
Source: The Intel Solid-Date Drive Toolbox FAQ
How do I know if TRIM is enabled in Windows 7?
Go to the Command prompt and type:
fsutil behavior query disabledeletenotify
Output definition:
DisableDeleteNotify = 1 (Windows TRIM commands are disabled)
DisableDeleteNotify = 0 (Windows TRIM commands are enabled)
To really verify TRIM is working follow the instructions from post #2 and #3 here:
http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/f...ead.php?t=63495
What's the status of TRIM support on OS X?
Source: http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/f...366&postcount=5
What's the status of TRIM support on Unix?
quote:
Jeff Layton Is there any thought being given to adapting ext4 to SSDs? If so, what concepts are being thrown around?
Theodore Tso: Ive actually written a whole series of blog posts on this subject, which you can see here.
Part of the problem right now is that SSDs are still under going major changes. For example, if you are using Intels new SSDs, the X25-M and X25-E, pretty much no changes seem to be necessary.
Ext4 has support for the ATA TRIM command, which allows filesystems to inform SSDs that blocks have been deleted and do not need to be taken into account by the SSDs garbage collection and wear-leveling algorithms. Unfortunately the ATA TRIM command hasnt been finalized yet, and so (as of today) there are no drives, including Intels SSDs that actually support the ATA TRIM command; and for this reason Linuxs block device layer does not currently issue the ATA TRIM command, since there havent been any devices to test the command. So at the moment, ext4 informs the block layer that blocks that belong to deleted files can be discard, so once TRIM-capable SSDs become available, and the Linux block layer actually sends the TRIM command to the hard drives, everything will be all set to go.
However, even without TRIM support, the X25-M SSD works very well on ext4 today. I have one installed in my laptop, and it works just fine. Unfortunately, older SSDs do not work so well on ext2/3/4. It will be interesting to see how well the next generation of SSDs work on ext4. For example, I expect SanDisk and OCZ to both release new SSDs fairly soon. Both of these SSD manufacturers havent stated how their new SSDs will compare to Intels SSD offerings, but hopefully they will have comparable features. If so, it may not be worth it to try to optimize ext4 for legacy SSDs. Time will tell .
Source: http://www.linux-mag.com/id/7272
I'm going to sell my SSD, what's the best way to wipe it?
Secure erase the entire drive. Secure erase is a special ATA command this is equivalent to wiping the entire drive and doing a TRIM on all the contents, which restores the drive back to factory default write performance. The main way to do this for the Intel drives is to use the HDDErase utility. However, hardware support for HDDErase is pretty mediocre. Another alternative is the use the Unix hdparm tool which can be run from a LiveCD/USB flash drive.
Tweak FAQ
When tweaking, be aware what a tweak actually improves. A lot of tweaks published for older SSDs such as the JMicron based drives were based around the fact that those drives had abysmal write performance compared to a mechanical drive. So the tweaks focused on minimizing writes to increase performance, on modern drives the opposite is true, and thus applying these tweaks would have the opposite effect.
Other tweaks that minimize writes are geared towards increasing drive lifetime rather than increasing performance. A lot of tweaks published out there that minimize read/writes by disabling things like indexing or system restore increase performance regardless if you're using an SSD or not, since there's simply less background I/O happening.
Turning off anything that caches to RAM can still faster when using the cache since RAM is still much faster than SSDs. Turning off things like indexing will increase overall performance at the sacrifice of performance when using something that can use the index such as a file search.
What are good SSD benchmarking tools?
Atto
CrystalDiskMark
HDTach
HD Tune
AS SSD
Enable AHCI:
Make sure to set, if available, your SATA controller to AHCI mode before installing your operating system. AHCI offers numerous noticeable performance improvements over legacy IDE mode, including NCQ support (which the Intel SSDs support). You may have to pre-load AHCI SATA controller drivers on a flash/floppy disk for the operating system installation to recognize your drive.
It's also possible to put your drive in AHCI mode post installation:
* In OSX and Ubuntu this usually requires no change
* In Windows Vista/Windows 7 you can enable AHCI via a registry change.
In Windows 7, for now, it's recommended to use Microsoft's AHCI driver, as the Intel Matrix driver doesn't support TRIM.
* In Windows XP, it's a trickier process since if the driver in use is a not an AHCI driver and it attempts to boot in AHCI mode a blue screen will occur and vice versa. The procedure involves installing the AHCI driver for your SATA controller first, then restart and go immediately into the BIOS to change to AHCI mode then boot normally into Windows XP.
More reading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanc...oller_Interface
Laptop Users:
For you laptop Vista/Windows 7 users make sure to set your power profile to "High Performance", otherwise your SSD speeds may be limited. This was the case with a machine I worked on running a 160GB G2 on a Latitude D630 Windows 7 installation.
Source: http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/f...ead.php?t=61992
Should I defrag my SSD for better performance?
NO, Don't defrag an SSD!
Defragging's purpose is to decrease seek time by placing related files physically contiguous to each other.
Why this is a good for a mechanical hard disk:
A mechanical hard disk has a read head that physically spins a platter to seek to various data locations on the disk. If related files are physically next to each other less spinning (seeking) needs to be done to reach the next data location, leading to faster performance.
Why defragging doesn't increase performance on a SSD:
One of the reasons SSDs are so fast is they have near instant seeks because instead of using a head/platter to spin/locate a data location it just accesses memory location by address. On a SSD accessing one data location is just as fast as accessing any other location (assuming the entire SSD all the NAND across the entire drive has the same specifications, which all modern SSDs do).
Why defragging is bad on a SSD:
It uses up the SSD write cycles reducing drive life time. Some defraggers run constantly in the background and can quickly kill your drive. Since a defragger is also moving files in and out of empty memory cells it has the opposite effect of TRIM, quickly degrading write performance by moving data to areas of the drive marked empty. Defragging is a very non standard write pattern and is hard to wear level, that's why it reaches the write limitation quicker.
Microsoft Windows 7 detects when it's being installed on a SSD and automatically applies various changes to tweak performance on a SSD drive. One of these tweaks is to turn off the background defragger. The Disk Defragmenter schedule (to see it go to start menu, start Disk Defragmenter) will not be turned off by default, but should have the SSD drive unselected under the choose disks settings to prevent the SSD from being defragmented when the schedule runs. Double check to make sure the SSD drive letter is unselected here.
Source: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorial...e-turn-off.html
I heard Windows 7 has improvements for SSDs, what are they?
Windows 7 detects when it's being installed on an SSD and automatically sets some tweaks. Also Windows 7 introduces TRIM support.
quote:
Other changes? When an SSD is detected, defrag, Superfetch, and Readyboost will be disabled by default. Microsoft will also disable boot and application launch prefetching on "SSDs with good random read, random write and flush performance". These were all tweaks integrated into Vista designed to improve application/boot performance with conventional hard drives. But why are these features only disabled for select SSDs? Here Microsoft provides a little more insight:
"Initially, we had configured all of these features to be off on all SSDs, but we encountered sizable performance regressions on some systems. In root causing those regressions, we found that some first generation SSDs had severe enough random write and flush problems that ultimately lead to disk reads being blocked for long periods of time. With Superfetch and other prefetching re-enabled, performance on key scenarios was markedly improved."
Source 1: http://en.gamers.com/news/view_5418.html
Source 2: http://blogs.msdn.com/e7/archive/20...drives-and.aspx
What about SSD Tweaks for the Apple Mac OSX?
Mac OSX doesn't have a full background defragmenter so you don't have to concern yourself about turning it off. The file system automatically does optimize allocation of files smaller than 20 megabytes, from what I've read this isn't really like a full defrag, regardless it's a native file system feature and can't be turned off.
You can read a discussion of OSX SSD tweaks here:
http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/f...ead.php?t=52845
Can I put an SSD in a XBox 360?
No. Microsoft locks down the ability to use ANY drive not provided by them. That said, there are some modding hacks out there to let you use a 3rd party hard disk, but you'd have to research what the limitations of those hacks/mods are. Here's a case of Microsoft insider doing it:
http://digg.com/xbox/Major_Nelson_G...ive_on_Xbox_360
If you're thinking about installing an SSD into a 360 because of noise note that the majority of noise on a 360 comes from system fans, not the hard drive.
Can I put an SSD in a Sony Playstation 3 (PS3)?
If you have extra cash to burn, sure.
http://www.gamespot.com/features/6192258/index.html
http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/15/...ttered-budgets/
How can I put a 2.5" SSD in a 3.5" desktop drive bay slot?
Some people just use Velcro, double sided tape, gravity, etc... You can also get a 2.5" to 3.5" bay adapter, I picked one up at Fry's for about $6:
http://www.frys.com/product/5855663
If you have a CentralComputers by you there's also these:
http://www.centralcomputers.com/com...d=1256703593140
http://www.centralcomputers.com/com...d=1256703716921 (just bought 2 of these)
There's a bunch on Newegg too, but shipping usually doubles the price, here's one with free shipping:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16817994072
More Reviews
Reviews:
Intel G2:
http://hothardware.com/articles/Int...ormance-Review/
http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1022/1/
Credits
Thanks to Aquila for providing some of the OP content and motivating me to put this damn thing up, and the rest of the goons that provided valuable testimonials and information.
scarymonkey fucked around with this message at Dec 03, 2009 around 01:47
