SSD Reviews Thread

**onethreehill** · 08-07-2011, 03:19 PM

NAND Flash Faces Off - Synchronous vs. Asynchronous

News flash! All flash NAND is not created equal! Sure, you know about multi-level and single-level NAND when it comes to speed, but what about synchronous and asynchronous NAND inside your shiny new SSD? We have answers and tell you where your money is best spent for real data speed ....

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2011/...asynchronous/1

Corsair Performance 3 256GB SSD Review
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum...sd-review.html

Kingston HyperX 240GB SSD Review
http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=31343
http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1675/1/

The SandForce Roundup: Corsair, Patriot, OCZ, OWC & MemoRight SSDs Compared
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4604/t...-ssds-compared

**Ao1** · 08-10-2011, 11:56 PM

Originally Posted by onethreehill

The SandForce Roundup: Corsair, Patriot, OCZ, OWC & MemoRight SSDs Compared
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4604/t...-ssds-compared

I wonder where Anantech got their facts for this statement:

"Intel, as an example, likes to maintain gross margins north of 60%. For its consumer SSD business to not be a drain on the bottom line, sacrifices have to be made. While Intel's SSD validation is believed to be the best in the industry, it's likely not as good as it could be as a result of pure economics. So mistakes are made and bugs slip through."

"Intel used to be our safe haven, but even the extra reliable Intel SSD 320 is plagued by a firmware bug that may crop up unexpectedly, limiting your drive's capacity to only 8MB."

Plague -any widespread affliction, calamity, or evil, especially one regarded as a direct punishment by God: a plague of war and desolation.

"SandForce drives are operating at speeds that just a year ago no one even thought of hitting on a single SATA port. Prior to the SF-2281 I'm not sure that a lot of these motherboard manufacturers ever really tested if you could push more than 400MB/s over their SATA ports. I know that type of testing happens during chipset development, but I'd be surprised if every single motherboard manufacturer did the same."

Strange. Most people report BSOD when the pc is in idle mode or when running low intensity tasks like web browsing.

**Anvil** · 08-11-2011, 12:16 AM

I've experienced first hand what I believe is the BSOD, it was during lots of I/O.
In my case it rebooted "gracefully", the drive was not discovered and needed to be soft-booted to reappear.

**Ao1** · 08-11-2011, 12:38 AM

The point is that a lot of people have been running raid set ups that have pushed SATA to the limits for years now and it has not raised any problems at all, so I fail to see why it is worth mentioning as a potential issue. It's a hypothesis with no grounding. If Anantech was stating that the SSD had a problem operating at those speeds then OK, but even then it would not reflect what most people report when a BSOD occurs.

I'm more annoyed about the Intel comments though. I'm really not sure how Anandtech can claim Intel are cutting corners to maintain a bottom line. If you claim something like that you should back it up with facts.

To claim the 8MB bug is a plague is sensationalist and misleading.

**onethreehill** · 08-11-2011, 07:50 PM

Patriot Wildfire 120GB SSD Review
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum...sd-review.html
http://www.guru3d.com/article/patrio...gb-ssd-review/

Corsair Force GT 120 GB SSD Review
http://www.computerbase.de/artikel/l...sair-force-gt/

**flamenko** · 08-13-2011, 03:30 PM

Just posted a Kingston HyperX Review and must admit it is one of the best reviewed so far. WE also have a OWC 240GB SATA 3 SSD giveaway if anyone is interested and its listed on the site as well.

**onethreehill** · 08-15-2011, 06:22 AM

**onethreehill** · 08-20-2011, 04:23 PM

Future Storage 240GB SSD Review

Todays review is going to take a look at a SandForce controlled SSD which is being sold by a UK based company who are hoping to push low SSD prices in worldwide sales....

http://thessdreview.com/our-reviews/...des-worldwide/

Kingston HyperX 240GB SSD Review

With every other manufacturer well into their enthusiast SATA 6Gbps releases, it was only a matter of time until Kingston joined the fray. Their new HyperX series uses long-life, high performance Intel NAND with a SandForce SF2281 controller which makes it one of the best possible combinations available for enthusiasts.

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum...sd-review.html

**onethreehill** · 08-23-2011, 02:42 PM

Performance Testing Eight Patriot WildFire SF-2281 6Gbps SSDs on a LSI 9265-8i MegaRAID Card

Its been a while in the making but The SSD Review has finally got its hands on eight (8) new generation SATA 3 SSDs in the name of Patriot Wildfire 120GB SATA 3 SSDs for RAID testing.

With a host of companies offering the latest SandForce controllers on their SSDs, Patriot is setting out to leap above the pack with the Wildfire series.

The latest offering from Patriot is sporting the new SF-2281 controller and paired with higher performing Toshiba Toggle Nand in a 16 chip configuration. Buckle up as these drives are tweaked for performance and going to take you for a wild ride!

http://thessdreview.com/featured/per...megaraid-card/

**onethreehill** · 08-23-2011, 10:36 PM

Originally Posted by onethreehill

NAND Flash Faces Off - Synchronous vs. Asynchronous
News flash! All flash NAND is not created equal! Sure, you know about multi-level and single-level NAND when it comes to speed, but what about synchronous and asynchronous NAND inside your shiny new SSD? We have answers and tell you where your money is best spent for real data speed ....

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2011/...asynchronous/1

Looking at the read performance across the two drives we see that the synchronous flash model is superior in all tests. The amount isn’t that much though and I chose these specific drives since they show the greatest distinction in most of the tests. Other drive pairs were much closer together.

I could have shown a better result in the write test with a different drive that is capable of delivering up to 260MB/s with synchronous flash. I wanted to use the same pair of drives for all the tests though. This particular synchronous flash drive with this firmware only managed to outperform the asynchronous model by 30MB/s but more performance has come from newer models shipping with the latest firmware.

HardOCP could have included results from other SSDs they tested. We do not even know what SSDs were tested.

**onethreehill** · 08-23-2011, 11:21 PM

Mach Xtreme DS Turbo 120GB SSD Review

Mach Technology (MX technology) added no less than four new SATA 6Gb/s SSDs in their MX DS Turbo lineup, in 120GB, 180GB, 240GB and even 480MB capacities .....

http://www.guru3d.com/article/mach-x...gb-ssd-review/

Corsair Force 3 vs. Force GT 120 GB Solid State Drive Review
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/artic...ve-Review/1367

OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 6G 240GB SSD Review (Toshiba Toggle NAND)
http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/425...ew/index1.html

Crucial M4 256GB SSD Review
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum...sd-review.html

Corsair Force Series 3 240GB SSD Review
http://www.hardwareheaven.com/review...roduction.html

**onethreehill** · 08-25-2011, 10:09 PM

I just started this list (incomplete)

ADATA S511 60GB - Intel 29F64G08AAME1
ADATA S511 120GB - Intel 29F64G08AAME1
ADATA S511 240GB - Intel 29F16B08CAME1
Corsair Force Series 3 120GB - Micron 29F64G08CBAAA
Corsair Force Series 3 240GB - Intel 29F16B08CAME1
Corsair Force Series GT 120GB - Micron 29F64G08CBAAB
Corsair Force Series GT 240GB - Micron 29F128G08CFAAB
Corsair Performance 3 128GB - Toshiba TH58TVG7D2FBA89
Corsair Performance 3 256GB - Toshiba TH58TV68D2FBA89
Crucial RealSSD C300 128GB -
Crucial RealSSD C300 256MB - Micron 29F128G08CFAAB
Crucial RealSSD C300 512GB -
Crucial m4 64GB - Micron 29F64G08CFACB
Crucial m4 128GB - Micron 29F64G08CFACB
Crucial m4 256MB - Micron 29F128G08CFAAB
Crucial m4 512GB - Micron 29F256G08CJAAB
Intel SSD 510 120GB - Intel 29F64G08CAMDD
Intel SSD 510 250GB - Intel 29F16B08JAMDD
Kingston HyperX 240GB - Intel 29F16B08CCME2
Mach Xtreme DS Turbo 120GB - Intel 29F64G08ACME2
Mushkin Chronos Deluxe 120GB - Toshiba TH58TAG7D2FBA89
Mushkin Chronos Deluxe 240GB - Toshiba TH58TAG8D2FBA89
OCZ Solid 3 120GB - Micron 29F64G08CBAAA
OCZ Agility 3 120GB -
OCZ Agility 3 240GB - Micron 29F128G08CFAAA
OCZ Vertex 3 120GB - Intel 29F64G08ACME2
OCZ Vertex 3 240GB - Intel 29F16B08CCME2
OCZ Vertex 3 Max IOPS 120GB - Toshiba TH58TAG7D2FBAS9
OCZ Vertex 3 Max IOPS 240GB - Toshiba TH58TAG7D2FBA89
OWC Mercury Electra 6G 120GB -
OWC Mercury Electra 6G 240GB – Intel 29F16BG08CAME1
OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 6G 120GB - Micron 29F64G08CBAAB
OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 6G 240GB – Micron 29F128G08CFAAB
OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 6G 120GB - Toshiba TH58TAG7D2FBA89
OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 6G 240GB - Toshiba TH58TAG7D2FBA89
Patriot Pyro 120GB - Micron 29F64G08CBAAA
Patriot Wildfire 120GB - Toshiba TH58TAG6D2FBA49
Strontium Matrix Series 120GB - Micron 29F64G08CFACB

http://wenku.baidu.com/view/91061cd0...5cc170a20.html

OCZ Agility 3 240GB SSD - Asynchronous NAND

As always, we look at the part number to tell us what's going on. Micron's part numbers are a little different than Intel's but the key things to pay attention to here are the 128G (128Gbit packages, 16GB per package) and characters 11 and 14. Character 11 here is an F, which corresponds to 2 die per package (2 x 8GB 25nm die in each NAND device) while number 14 is an A, indicating that this is asynchronous NAND. To date I've only encountered 25nm synchronous (represented by the letter B) NAND, but as with any other silicon device there's always a cost savings if you can sacrifice performance.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4346/o...3-240gb-review

OCZ Vertex 3 240GB SSD - Synchronous NAND

These are Intel 25nm NAND devices, looking at the part number tells us a little bit about them. You can ignore the first three characters in the part number, they tell you that you're looking at Intel NAND. Characters 4 - 6 (if you sin and count at 1) indicate the density of the package, in this case 64G means 64Gbits or 8GB. The next two characters indicate the device bus width (8-bytes). Now the ninth character is the important one - it tells you the number of die inside the package. These parts are marked A, which corresponds to one die per device. The second to last character is also important, here E stands for 25nm.

Once again we have sixteen NAND devices, eight on each side. OCZ standardized on Intel 25nm NAND for both capacities initially. The density string on the 240GB drive is 16B for 16Gbytes (128 Gbit), which makes sense given the drive has twice the capacity.

A look at the ninth character on these chips and you see the letter C, which in Intel NAND nomenclature stands for 2 die per package (J is for 4 die per package if you were wondering).

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4316/o...3-240gb-review

**onethreehill** · 08-27-2011, 04:18 PM

Runcore T50 120GB mSATA SSD Review
http://thessdreview.com/our-reviews/...s-the-streets/

First post updated

**LLiH** · 08-28-2011, 03:52 AM

Can anyone recommend an SSD for me?
I have heard the 510 Intels are fast and pretty good for their price.
I was thinking 120-150GB

**SteveRo** · 08-29-2011, 01:38 AM

The new intels are good, the new crucial m4s are also good, SF based drives are having occasional hick ups. Look for SSD FW that has good garbage collection of you are going to raid them, i think most (all?) raid controllers still do no do trim when drives are in raid?

**onethreehill** · 08-30-2011, 09:25 PM

Mushkin Chronos Deluxe 120GB SSD Review
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum...sd-review.html

Kingston HyperX 240GB SSD Review
http://www.pureoverclock.com/article1351.html
http://www.ocaholic.ch/xoops/html/mo...l_lang=english
http://www.techspot.com/review/431-kingston-hyperx-ssd/

The Crucial m4 256GB SSD Update: Faster with FW0009
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4712/t...-with-fw0009/1

OCZ Vertex 3 240GB Review
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/O..._240_GB/1.html

EDGE Boost Pro 120GB SSD Review
http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.ph...=814&Itemid=60

Mushkin Chronos Deluxe 240GB SSD Review
http://thessdreview.com/our-reviews/...d-performance/

Kingston HyperX 120GB SSD Review
http://www.techwarelabs.com/kingston...sd-bundle-kit/
http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/427...iew/index.html

ADATA S511 240GB SSD Review
http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/426...iew/index.html

**onethreehill** · 09-07-2011, 03:13 PM

Intel SSD 320 RAID Review
http://www.storagereview.com/intel_ssd_320_raid_review

Crucial M4 256GB Update: The Power of Firmware
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum...irmware-2.html

Crucial M4 256GB vs OCZ Vertex 3 240GB: New Firmware Face-Off
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/sto...ware-face-of/1

Corsair Force Series GT 240GB SSD Review
http://thessdreview.com/our-reviews/...gt-is-on-fire/

**onethreehill** · 09-09-2011, 07:31 PM

Originally Posted by onethreehill

Corsair Force Series GT 240GB SSD Review
http://thessdreview.com/our-reviews/...gt-is-on-fire/

In the HDD suite chart, OCZ Vertex 3 240GB and Vertex 3 Max IOPS 240GB have higher PCMark Vantage Total Points than Corsair Force Series GT 240GB.

In the same chart, OCZ Vertex 3 Max IOPS 120GB has lower PCMark Vantage Total Points than Corsair Force Series GT 120GB.

Am I missing something?

**onethreehill** · 09-11-2011, 02:20 PM

SandForce Driven: Seven SSDs on SF-2281 Controller

We tested seven high-speed solid state drives built on second generation SandForce controller that support SATA 6 Gbps. Please welcome our heroes: Corsair Force 3, Corsair Force GT, Kingston HyperX, OCZ Agility 3, OCZ Vertex 3 Max IOPS, Patriot Pyro and Patriot Wildfire.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/sto...triot-ssd.html

Patriot Wildfire 120 GB SSD Review
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/artic...SD-Review/1379

Super Talent TeraDrive CT3 64GB SSD Review
http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1693/1/

**Ao1** · 09-14-2011, 05:06 AM

Not really a review, but here are the NEWEGG Top Sellers for September, sorted by bets rating, lowest price and highest price.

Internal SSD (x) > Useful Links: Top Sellers (x) Sort by: Best Rating
1- Crucial M4 CT064M4SSD2 2.5" 64GB SATA III
2- Intel 320 Series SSDSA2CW120G3K5 2.5" 120GB SATA II
3- Plextor PX-M2 Series PX-128M2S 2.5" 128GB SATA III
4- Crucial M4 CT128M4SSD2CCA 2.5" 128GB SATA III
5- Intel 320 Series SSDSA2CW160G3K5 2.5" 160GB SATA II
6- Crucial M4 CT256M4SSD2 2.5" 256GB SATA III
7- Crucial M4 CT512M4SSD2 2.5" 512GB SATA III
8- Kingston HyperX SH100S3B/120G 2.5" 120GB SATA III
9- Intel 320 Series SSDSA2CW300G3K5 2.5" 300GB SATA II
10- Intel 510 Series (Elm Crest) SSDSC2MH120A2K5 2.5" 120GB SATA III

Internal SSD (x) > Useful Links: Top Sellers (x) Sort by: Lowest Price
1- OCZ Vertex Plus OCZSSD2-1VTXPL60G 2.5" 60GB SATA II
2- Crucial M4 CT064M4SSD2 2.5" 64GB SATA III
3- Corsair Force Series 3 CSSD-F120GB3A-BK 2.5" 120GB SATA III
4- OCZ Solid 3 SLD3-25SAT3-120G 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC
5- Crucial M4 CT128M4SSD2 2.5" 128GB SATA III
6- Plextor PX-M2 Series PX-128M2S 2.5" 128GB SATA III
7- Corsair Force Series GT CSSD-F120GBGT-BK 2.5" 120GB SATA III
8- Intel 320 Series SSDSA2CW120G3K5 2.5" 120GB SATA II
9- Crucial M4 CT128M4SSD2CCA 2.5" 128GB SATA III
10- Kingston HyperX SH100S3B/120G 2.5" 120GB SATA III

Internal SSD (x) > Useful Links: Top Sellers (x) Sort by: Highest Price
1- Crucial M4 CT512M4SSD2 2.5" 512GB SATA III MLC
2- Intel 510 Series (Elm Crest) SSDSC2MH250A2K5 2.5" 250GB SATA III
3- Intel 320 Series SSDSA2CW300G3K5 2.5" 300GB SATA II
4- OCZ Vertex 3 VTX3-25SAT3-240G 2.5" 240GB SATA III
5- OCZ Agility 3 AGT3-25SAT3-240G 2.5" 240GB SATA III
6- Crucial M4 CT256M4SSD2 2.5" 256GB SATA III
7- Intel 320 Series SSDSA2CW160G3K5 2.5" 160GB SATA II
8- Intel 510 Series (Elm Crest) SSDSC2MH120A2K5 2.5" 120GB SATA III
9- OCZ Vertex 3 Series – MAX IOPS Edition VTX3MI-25SAT3-120G 2.5" 120GB SATA III
10- Kingston HyperX SH100S3B/120G 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC

**onethreehill** · 09-23-2011, 04:56 AM

Samsung SSD 830 256GB Review
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...mode,3034.html

ADATA S511 240GB Review
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/201...240gb-review/1

Patriot Wildfire 120GB SSD Review
http://www.thinkcomputers.org/patrio...-drive-review/

Patriot Pyro 120GB SSD Review
http://www.kitguru.net/components/ss...gb-ssd-review/

Silicon Power V30 60GB Review
http://www.bjorn3d.com/read.php?cID=2120&pageID=11024

OCZ Agility 3 240GB SSD Review
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum...sd-review.html

Mach Xtreme MX-DS Turbo 120GB SSD Review
http://www.ocinside.de/go_e.html?htt...120gb_ssd.html

ADATA S511 120GB SSD Review
http://www.ocinside.de/go_e.html?htt...120gb_ssd.html

Patriot Pyro 120GB SSD RAID0 Review
http://www.techspot.com/review/434-patriot-pyro-ssd/

Kingston HyperX 240GB SATA 6Gbit/s SSD Review
http://techgage.com/article/kingston...s_ssd_review/1

Super Talent TeraDrive CT3 120GB SSD Review
http://thessdreview.com/our-reviews/...gb-ssd-review/

Mach Xtreme Technology MX DS Turbo 120GB SSD Review
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/artic...SD-Review/1380
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/M...bo_120_GB_SSD/

Seven SandForce SSDs Roundup: ADATA S511, Corsair Force GT, Kingston HyperX, OCZ Agility 3 and OCZ Vertex 3.
http://www.ocaholic.ch/xoops/html/mo...php?itemid=589

Crucial m4 SSD 64GB/128GB Review (Firmware 0009)
http://www.storagereview.com/crucial..._firmware_0009

**GameGuru** · 09-23-2011, 01:38 PM

Looks like the Kingston HyperX will be in my new build

Thanks for all the info here...

**onethreehill** · 09-23-2011, 05:41 PM

Samsung SSD 830 256GB Review
http://www.storagereview.com/samsung...0_review_256gb
http://www.hardwareheaven.com/review...roduction.html
http://hothardware.com/Reviews/Samsu...eries-Preview/

Samsung SSD 830 512GB Review
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4863/t...ssd-830-review

**Vapor** · 09-23-2011, 08:44 PM

Samsung 830 is impressive...only weakness seems to be QD4+ 4k writes and the Storage Review trace tests (but the Tom's Hardware trace test is really, really good and PCMark 7 is good, too).

Thanks for starting and maintaining this thread, onethreehill

**squick3n** · 09-23-2011, 10:28 PM

Anand seems to have a problem with the garbage collection on the 830, as he did with the Crucial drives. But I still don't see how that would ever hit a regular desktop user. And he still keeps testing at QD3. I've really come to appreciate the Tom's Hardware reviews a bit more, simply b/c they explain why each test matters (or doesn't)

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