Samsung 830

Here are some benchmarks for the 830, first on a SATA II Intel chipset, which will then be followed by benches using the SATA III Intel chipset.

http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/5044/wp000015p.jpg

The Toolbox

http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/1411/anvilsataiii.png

http://img847.imageshack.us/img847/4623/toolbox.png

http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/2485/anvilsataii.png

SATA II

http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/3687/nassataii.png

SATA II Black OPS MP

http://img820.imageshack.us/img820/8835/blackopsmp.png

SATA II Black OPS MP Throughput

http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/7...throughput.png

AS SSD SATA II

http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/3039/asssdsataii.png

Result, turns out my mobo has two Intel SATA III ports.

Drive SE'd for SATA III benches

http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/820...nchsataiii.png

http://img696.imageshack.us/img696/1705/1str.png

http://img830.imageshack.us/img830/8835/blackopsmp.png

http://img819.imageshack.us/img819/7...throughput.png

http://img718.imageshack.us/img718/1315/asssd.png

Here is a summary of the 830 in SATA II & SATA III mode. I have also added a Vertex 2 into the mix. The summary covers 4 game traces, played back at the original timings. My understanding is that when the original timings are used latency becomes the major performance indicator. As can be seen from the results there is an insignificance difference in “real world” performance between any of the configurations.

I believe throughput is an average speed over the duration of the test. Peak through put for the 830 in SATA III was around 175MB/s. Peak through put for the 830 in SATA II was around 160MB/s. If anyone is interested I can provide the log files that can be used by the NAS Performance ToolKit Analyzer to provide more detailed information.

http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/8522/compv.png

A little more on the Toolbox. It’s significantly better than Intel’s Toolbox in terms of functionality. The GUI is nice as well.

Here are some screenshots of the built in benchmark app, which has a few user configuration options. I had been hitting the drive for 24 hours with 4K random writes before running the 1st bench. I then used the performance optimiser (it took a couple of mins to run) and it then proceeded to automatically run a new benchmark, which it then compared to the pre-optimised state.

I was hoping that by running the optimiser it would trigger an update in SMART attribute 177, but alas, no. Still all in all this a great little drive made all the better by the bundled hardware & software.

http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/946...enchbefore.png

http://img713.imageshack.us/img713/4...benchafter.png

I notice that newegg is currently out of stock on 7 out of the 8 models of Samsung 830 SSD that they carry. I wonder if it means something. Could Samsung be holding new shipments to fix a firmware bug? Or is it just a screw up with supply chain logistics?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...ame=SATA%20III

Thanks Ao1, the SATA-II vs SATA-III comparison is all I've been looking for so hard!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by johnw

I notice that newegg is currently out of stock on 7 out of the 8 models of Samsung 830 SSD that they carry. I wonder if it means something. Could Samsung be holding new shipments to fix a firmware bug? Or is it just a screw up with supply chain logistics?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...ame=SATA%20III

---

Hmm I guess it's just the supply chain got screwed up, cuz it's been several weeks since the big retailers in the UK said "ETA overdue" about the big 830 models. If it's a firmware problem that they're aware of, then they just need to release a firmware update. If it's a hardware problem then yes they need a recall.

I just got the 830 as well. So for no problems. No freezing that i has with other ssd. Like the toolbox as well. I ordered it Wednesday just in time because after i checked out i went back to look at the specs again on newegg and it was sold out.

For you guys interested in this SSD, there's a new firmware update released today (UK site link):

http://www.samsung.com/uk/support/mo...lDownload=true

US models should perhaps look for the firmware update on the US site? I guess their software can also update it.

http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/2392/capture18j.jpg

Well spotted. It’s not available yet via the auto toolbox update, but it can be installed from the toolbox once downloaded. 177 did not change after the f/w update, but it might be a bit early yet as I had only done a power cycle about an hour previously.

EDIT: yep 177 is fixed.

yah Samsung magician toolbox says i have the latest firmware even though there's a new one on the Samsung site....why wouldn't the toolbox pick it up?

current firmware it shipped with is: CXM01B1Q

however new one on Samsung site is CXM02B1Q as of Jan 9th 2012

Edit: updated to new firmware anyways.... here are some results

http://i1183.photobucket.com/albums/...y/DSCN0421.jpg

http://i1183.photobucket.com/albums/...ung830test.jpg

http://i1183.photobucket.com/albums/...ng830test2.jpg

I cant seem to update the firmware on my 830. When i try it in windows i get a blue screen with words that can read because it reboots too fast. I tried the bootable cd but the words are so blurry i cant make them out

Greetings. Just registered here! :)

bluewhale1, I had the very same problem. I guess you tried to update the FW while the 830 is your OS disk. Right? I tried it 2 times, and BSOD happened. I was a bit frigthened about it, but after a power cycle, it booted and was working without any problem. I was using the boot CD method, and it worked flawlessly, so I suggest you to do the same.

Do you think it could harm the drive, that the FW update failed 2 times?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by adrianu

Greetings. Just registered here! :)

bluewhale1, I had the very same problem. I guess you tried to update the FW while the 830 is your OS disk. Right? I tried it 2 times, and BSOD happened. I was a bit frigthened about it, but after a power cycle, it booted and was working without any problem. I was using the boot CD method, and it worked flawlessly, so I suggest you to do the same.

Do you think it could harm the drive, that the FW update failed 2 times?

---

I tried to use the cd method at first but i could read the words. Text was blurry. I read the manual and just kept hitting the y(for yes). I rebooted and my ssd has the updated firmware. Other than that no troubles. When i get home ill try to take a picture of the screen to show everyone what i mean

http://img259.imageshack.us/img259/4566/img0178v.th.jpg Uploaded with ImageShack.us

This is what it looks like

Quote:

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Originally Posted by adrianu

Greetings. Just registered here! :)

bluewhale1, I had the very same problem. I guess you tried to update the FW while the 830 is your OS disk. Right? I tried it 2 times, and BSOD happened. I was a bit frigthened about it, but after a power cycle, it booted and was working without any problem. I was using the boot CD method, and it worked flawlessly, so I suggest you to do the same.

Do you think it could harm the drive, that the FW update failed 2 times?

---

hey man, how do you update the FW with the CD method?

Thanks in advance! :)

I downloaded the f/w update and installed it from the toolbox. No problem at all, although my drive is not running as an OS drive.

@adrianu. Welcome to the forum. As long as the f/w updated it should be fine. It’s really not good to have anything interrupt a f/w update as it can brick the device, but it seems you have been lucky.

It seems it might be a bug, I’d let Samsung know about it so they can take care of it.

I just received my 512GB today. Updated the firmware by burning the ISO image to a CD-RW. I used a USB 3.0 enclosure to clone my Intel SSD via WinHex. However the ASU normal endurance testing is capped at around 100 MB/s average. Perhaps it has something to do with the DIPM stuff in laptop, or perhaps it's throttling due to high temperature (yeah this SSD is damn so hot, I mean, high temperature!). I'll leave it running for several loops to see if the 177 (0xB1) can update correctly without power cycling.

Edit: just confirmed that with the 02 firmware, my 830 can update the 177 (0xB1) correctly without having to power cycle it.

I used the ISO to update my drives, not much different from other update utilities, no issues at all on my drives.

@minpayne

Did you remember to disable AV on the TEST folder?
Power Management does make a difference on laptops so you might try some of the tweaks found at notebookreview.
I for one prefer a balance with more battery hours and less heat than peak performance.

^^ Ah Anvil thanks for the remind, you got it! I forgot to disable anti-virus. By disabling MSE the speed is now increasing...

Edit: now 144MB/s and still increasing, still not converged...

The first loop ended at somewhere with more than 100GB free, while the "Min GiB Free" is the default 12GB. Perhaps it has something to do with cloning the previous 300GB disk onto a 512GB disk?

Edit2: the average speed seems to be converged at around 145MB/s at the end of the loop. The loop still terminated with 117GB free. Weird.

Edit3: at the beginning of the loop it's like 180MB/s, and when approaching the end of the loop the temperature went up seriously (reached max 58C)...

Could be that you need to increase the number if files for a single loop.
How much free space?
My F3 produces 12K files per loop at ~49GB free.

^^ Yes dear Anvil you got the right answer again! It terminates at 99980 files in each loop. I'm gonna add another 9 there... (WTF it doesn't allow me to add another 9 :() Sadly I probably never really filled up the M4 512GB and the Intel 320 Series 600GB :( The last resort is perhaps to add some static data?

It is worth to note that this 830 512GB gets REALLY HOT when reaching the end of the loop, where it might be doing fast garbage collection or wear leveling depending on OP or whatever funny stuff there. I'll see to the end of this loop when I actually fill it up, would it exceed the official 60C or not. This (temperature) is disappointing :S

I'll up the limit for # of files :)
(will do that within a few hours)

Something is not quite right for me..

I've added some static data to fill up the 117GB gap. Then at the end of each loop the temperature can go crazily high - as high as 67C, which exceeds the specification of 60C max!

Secondly, the write amplification is 1.7x for me - 3520778199 LBA writes when WL count increased to 7 (note that the WL count started at 1 out of the box). Isn't Ao1 getting only 1.05x WA under such normal endurance testing?

thats so hot for an ssd..interesting..

It’s the cache (DRAM) and 3 CPU’s. As soon as you work the drive temps go up. When used “normally the drive stays around room temperature, but when pushed it goes up to around 43oC. At 43oC the case feels quite warm to touch, but not hot.

In the toolbox > OS optimisations there is a power config option. “Samsung power schema should be used” Don’t know what that changes but is seemed to help my SSD.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ::Tiger::

hey man, how do you update the FW with the CD method?

Thanks in advance! :)

---

Hey, in the Samsung SSD Magician, there is a radio button to select the Bootable CD ISO, you select the FW folder, insert a blank CD, and it will write to it. Then you should boot from it, press Y 2-3-4 times, and it's ready in some minutes. :)

Hope I could help!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ao1

I downloaded the f/w update and installed it from the toolbox. No problem at all, although my drive is not running as an OS drive.

@adrianu. Welcome to the forum. As long as the f/w updated it should be fine. It’s really not good to have anything interrupt a f/w update as it can brick the device, but it seems you have been lucky.

It seems it might be a bug, I’d let Samsung know about it so they can take care of it.

---

Thanks! :) I'm pretty sure now it's related to the fact that my 830 is in my notebook, the only (and the OS) drive, seems the Magician doesn't like the situation. I just don't know, why it is allowing me to flash it, when it's clearly not working. :|

Yes that what I was aware of, interrupted flashes are never good. But who knows, it might have a bultin restore function. I had to power cycle the very same way I had to after the successfull flash, so maybe it was flashing, but back to the original FW. Who knows. I hope I won't have to RMA it because it's a bit problematic to replace and such. :)

I've been thinking that 235 is basically unsafe shutdown count. Could someone try it? I can't do it remotely, but if you just unplug the drive I think it should increment. I went back and looked at the smart screen shots from the 830 I'm testing, and I think it fits.

If someone gets a minute, could you try unsafely shutting the drive or system down to see if it increments?

Has anyone noticed that the magician software will not let the computer sleep? I had to go in my power profile and turn off allow wake timers in win 7. Does this have anything to do with the magician software power tweak? I undid the tweak and it still happens....

I'm still getting 2.7 WA for normal ASU so far. A side note: they have retracted all the new firmware from their web sites (gone from both US site and UK site). They probably have found something wrong so they recall?

After speaking with technical support of Samsung EU, they've confirmed that there's a problem with the CXM02B1Q firmware update - several customers have bricked their 830, and their SSD was no longer detected in BIOS. Hence they've removed the CXM02B1Q firmware update from their website for now.

I've not heard that, but my drive doesn't update PE cycles as it should, unlike Ao1's drive. So maybe they heard me :banana::banana::banana::banana::banana:ing about it and decided to do fix it for real.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by minpayne

After speaking with technical support of Samsung EU, they've confirmed that there's a problem with the CXM02B1Q firmware update - several customers have bricked their 830, and their SSD was no longer detected in BIOS. Hence they've removed the CXM02B1Q firmware update from their website for now.

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The FW update linked earlier in this thread is still available!

The question is, is there something wrong with the updater or is there something wrong with the fw, I expect it's the updater.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Anvil

The FW update linked earlier in this thread is still available!

The question is, is there something wrong with the updater or is there something wrong with the fw, I expect it's the updater.

---

When I checked this morning the iso file was also gone (I mean, all the "firmware" section was gone). Now the iso file is available for download again, with the same firmware version; however the iso file is different from the one I downloaded yesterday before it disappeared.

http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/8558/compdi.jpg

Edit: just tried to re-run the new iso image and it refused to further update the firmware as it says my firmware is current. Is there any way to force the re-update?

I think it was just a quick fix. Some hours ago I wrote to the Samsung UK support about it. They assured me this is covered by warranty, and the case is being investigated.

"Unfortunately there were some problems with the latest firmware update and Samsung is already aware about it: they removed the firmware from the website and they are investigating the cause of the problem and preparing a new, good firmware update.

In our helpdesk experience we had some customers who couldn't use anymore the SSD after the update, and other customers like you who had a fail but then everything worked fine. The new firmware will be released as soon as possible."

Well, well, well.

At some point in the past 24 hours, the 830 did increment Wear Leveling Count. I'm out of town, and I have a usb cellular modem for my laptop, but not my tablet which I use to remote desktop. So I have to make a trip to a wifi hotspot to check in on the endurance testing rig. PE cycles went from 14109 to 14140. That's not correct, but it's a start at least.

And while I was writing this, it went up by 2 to 14142... crazy.

The Magician Toolbox has just alerted me to a new firmware: CXM03B1Q

ohhh I'm excited :D

I wonder if its performance will be increased

CXM03B1Q

Release Date: 2012-01-18
Release Note
-Improved compatibility and stability of Firmware Update Tool. (Fixed update scheme from previously released CXM02B1Q firmware package)
- Features and functionalities are identical to previous CXM02B1Q firmware.
- Added optimized firmware update package for each update solution (Windows, USB, CD)Windows update folder name: Win_CXM03B1Q
Bootable USB or CD/DVD folder name: USB_CD_CXM03B1Q

I updated it using the bootable CD method, and it went very smooth. As the release note says, I cannot experience any speed changes (did a Magician benchmark).

shocked:eek:

http://i.imgur.com/yjPPy.png

That's pretty awesome.

Here is my 64GB at the moment:

This is after a secure erase
https://www.box.com/shared/static/c7...vujpiah7ya.jpg

Notice anything strange? Writes are where they should be, but reads aren't.

It's been like this for a while.

@ l0ud_sil3nc3Nice
Nice. :up: I think I’ll pick up a 120GB drive. Have you tried benches with RST?

@ Christopher
I’d love to know what is going on with your drive. It seems to perform very differently to my drive, which has been exposed to a significantly more onerous workload, albeit over a short duration. :shrug:

My drive is hosed, but it writes fast. Host writes outstrip reads something like a million to one.

Here is a CDI shot from day 10:
https://www.box.com/shared/static/tx...8b69uaqlh6.jpg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ao1

@ l0ud_sil3nc3Nice
Nice. :up: I think I’ll pick up a 120GB drive. Have you tried benches with RST?

---

during the country cup I tested the RST drivers on my Sandforce drives it was actually slower for single drive and r0, so no RST for me.

My testing 830 is now avg 140.50MB/s. And it's a 64GB drive....

What about the alignment ? It is better to align an default 1024 or at 4096 ?

Has anyone experience any improvement ?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mathewgx

What about the alignment ? It is better to align an default 1024 or at 4096 ?

Has anyone experience any improvement ?

---

Well, by default Win7 will put 1024K in the front of the partition of an SSD -- any value divisible by 4094 bytes will work and there is functionally no difference in performance between a drive aligned with 1MB (1024K) or 4MB (4096K).

http://i.imgur.com/UTTNG.png

Ha, l0udSil3nc3! Can you beat... this!?!?

https://www.box.com/shared/static/cc...a7mkd0ru1x.png

Sata III negotiation is working fine, and this is on a "clean" drive. It's just... busted.

Despite the wackyness, I still contend they're some of the most excellent consumer drives one can get at the moment. I'd rather have an 830 than my M4 -- and maybe even my Intel 510.

Samsung 830 - Series MZ-7PC256D

Samsung 830 - Series MZ-7PC256N

whats the difference???

I'm pretty sure that N=Notebook and D=Desktop

There are no differences to the drive, the difference lies in what's included like mounting bracket, ...

MZ-7PC256N - Notebook Upgrade Kit
Drive, USB to SATA Cable, Drive Spacer for 9.5mm drive bays, Norton Ghost 15, SSD Magician 3.0, Documentation

MZ-7PC256D - Desktop Upgrade Kit
Drive, Bracket, SATA Cable, Power Cable, Norton Ghost 15, SSD Magician 3.0, Documentation

Thanks :)

Thinking about getting a M4 or 830 and since prices are close leaning to the 830 but one big issue I have is this.

I will be upgrading this spring to a z77 / ivy setup and since Win7 will not like me changing parts and want to reinstall everything should I wait until the z77 setup ??

I also read I can't ghost my VR-300 drive to a ssd due to alignment retension

Reloading all my games + OS + Office sucks so don't want to do it multi times if possible. Suggestions??

I don't think you should have any issues with the alignment, and it's not a problem to fix (There are some good free and paid tools to fix it in place). But Windows isn't going to like going from a 1366 to IB. And if you have an OEM license for Windows, that goes double.

If you don't have a SSD now, upgrading to one might make you start thinking about keeping your system around for a while longer yet.

The random performance and low access times of an SSD (any decent one) will crush a raptor array. The small randoms don't scale. The random performance of newer SSDs is pretty spectacular, but there is still lots of room for improvement.

There is a new 830 SKU that ends in WW instead of AD or AN. Its not on the Samsung site yet. Wonder what the difference is?

AD = Desktop kit
AN = Notebook kit

WW is just the drive, no extras.

Anvil has all the answers! :D

I was hoping the WW was something interesting -- its not any cheaper. Its actually more expensive at the moment.