Intel's 34nm NAND SSDs launch in two weeks

[GunterFalstaff]

If you work with large files all the time then this may not be the best drive for you due to the write speed, but you can minimise this burden by putting a couple in raid 0.

The main advantage the x25-m now has over it's competition in the real world is value.

Now, as a student i barely have the budget for ONE ssd... so RAID isnt an option atm =P. And the main things i do is Game, and download and compile large .iso files (games/movies etc.) and i use WinRAR a TON piecing together partitioned .rar files... and writing them back to the disc. so i think good Write speeds would be a good thing. i currently have a 3x RAID 0 which REALLY sucks for what i do but ive been too lazy to re-install... so im looking for a good FAST single drive solution which would be a ssd =) and thanks for the quick responses

[jimhsu]

I picked that up in the Anandtech review as well. Seems the G2 drives are primarily about consistent performance without degradation, but until TRIM support is implemented heavy use may cause a drop in performance, in which case the G2 drives will not perform optimally until TRIM is enabled and therefore not being TRIM compatible from day one is a bit disappointing, but then again maybe the TRIM capability in public releases of Win 7 is not yet 100%. If it is I wonder why Intel didn’t make these drives TRIM compatible from day one?

Pics of steady state performance on Windows 7 (Intel 80GB X-25M G2):

"New":



"Steady state":



Fragmentation is evident here:



I have 34.5 GB free out of 74.5 GB and did some massive shuffling of files from storage to SSD and back (was setting up a version control system)

Subjectively the system is a tiny bit slower (unnoticeable really, e.g word taking 0.5 instead of 0.3 seconds to launch). That may also be because of the antivirus I installed though.

Overall TRIM will fix this, anyways.

[Ao1]

But the thing is audienceofone as low as the Intel Gen2 prices are at the moment, they will come down due to the stock and demand theory (at the moment there is a large amount of demand but hardly any stock, as soon as the stock fills up then prices will come down even more)
This is fantastic times for the emerging technology that is SSD.

That is what I was trying to say Prices are now only on a downward trend

[JohnZS]

That is what I was trying to say Prices are now only on a downward trend

Yep, I misread your post as only the OCZ et al were coming down in price.
Good times to be getting an SSD it looks as if come October the 160GB Gen 2 drive might cost as much as when I got my 80GB Gen 1 drive (£260)
John

[Ao1]

Pics of steady state performance on Windows 7 (Intel 80GB X-25M G2):

Any chance you could run an AS SSD Benchmark?
Link

[Rhys]

Now, as a student i barely have the budget for ONE ssd... so RAID isnt an option atm =P. And the main things i do is Game, and download and compile large .iso files (games/movies etc.) and i use WinRAR a TON piecing together partitioned .rar files... and writing them back to the disc. so i think good Write speeds would be a good thing. i currently have a 3x RAID 0 which REALLY sucks for what i do but ive been too lazy to re-install... so im looking for a good FAST single drive solution which would be a ssd =) and thanks for the quick responses

I think the best thing you could do at the moment is wait a month or two because there should be some new ssd's coming that may suite your needs better, and they will probably be pretty cheap.

[jimhsu]

That is what I was trying to say Prices are now only on a downward trend

Contrary, prices are skyrocketing in 2009 due to the recession in 2008 which brought 16Gb prices down to the all-time low of $1/GB:

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/...-2010-2011.ars

The overall trend is down, but just like the stock market you can't ignore the dips and rises. Will run the bench later.

[GunterFalstaff]

I think the best thing you could do at the moment is wait a month or two because there should be some new ssd's coming that may suite your needs better, and they will probably be pretty cheap.

Man.... so im going to have to buy a SSD/Windows 7/AND a 5870(90) all at once? =( lol i want to sort of spread out these purchases so i don't FEEL like im throwing all my money away..

[Ao1]

Contrary, prices are skyrocketing in 2009 due to the recession in 2008 which brought 16Gb prices down to the all-time low of $1/GB:

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/...-2010-2011.ars

The overall trend is down, but just like the stock market you can't ignore the dips and rises. Will run the bench later.

Well true, but it’s quite an interesting situation. Intel makes its own nand so it’s not at the mercy of external nand market pricing. Intel seem to have a strategy to drop prices in turn for higher sales of the G2, which forces other SSD companies to drop their price, but as you say nand prices continue to increase. Something has to give.

[Rhys]

Man.... so im going to have to buy a SSD/Windows 7/AND a 5870(90) all at once? =( lol i want to sort of spread out these purchases so i don't FEEL like im throwing all my money away..

Spread out your purchases but get your SSD last of all.
By then you will get more for your money and sata 3.0 SSD's may be out about that time and you may then be getting 600mb/s read and 500mb/s writes which should help with creating/copying those ISO's etc.

[Rhys]

Well true, but it’s quite an interesting situation. Intel makes its own nand so it’s not at the mercy of external nand market pricing. Intel seem to have a strategy to drop prices in turn for higher sales of the G2, which forces other SSD companies to drop their price, but as you say nand prices continue to increase. Something has to give.

Yep...... The other Nand Manufactures. If OCZ, ST are not making money or are making a loss on SSD's they arn't going to keep buying Nand, so the manufactures have no choice but to sell at lower prices, but they will probably begin manufacturing much more Nand to maintain profits. The lower prices will further increase demand as the people who are holding off due to the cost, will begin to jump in. By this time they had better have 30x nm Nand ready to roll out because if demand suddenly fell off due to an ever deteriorating economy then the manufactures will begin making huge losses like what happened to ram manufactures. And then it's a case of seeing if you can stay afloat long enough, to come out the other side.
Edit:
Apparently Toshiba have got some 32nm Nand being mass produced in September, and I'm sure Samsung shouldn't be too far behind.

[GunterFalstaff]

Spread out your purchases but get your SSD last of all.
By then you will get more for your money and sata 3.0 SSD's may be out about that time and you may then be getting 600mb/s read and 500mb/s writes which should help with creating/copying those ISO's etc.

lol, but that would mean i would need a new motherboard too! 300mb/s is the bandwidth cap on Sata2 right?

[Rhys]

lol, but that would mean i would need a new motherboard too! 300mb/s is the bandwidth cap on Sata2 right?

A bit less than that in reality due to performance overhead.

[pingpong1455]

is sata 3 backwards compatible with sata 2 ?

in other words if it is then ud max out sata 2 with a sata 3 ssd but get awesome performance ?

[Rhys]

is sata 3 backwards compatible with sata 2 ?

in other words if it is then ud max out sata 2 with a sata 3 ssd but get awesome performance ?

I heard it was, but you probably won't get a reduction in latency like you get with sata 3.0

[Telperion]

When are the G2 drives expected to be back on e-shelves? I'm trying to sell my Vertex 30GB but if I can't get a replacement for my OS then it leaves me in a bit of a stranded spot.

[vengance_01]

I would say 2-3 weeks. Intel re-called all current drives because they had a minor bug in the firmware.

[Brahmzy]

I wouldn't be holding your breath for SATA 3. It's gonna be a while, and the first offerings are probably going to be crap (JMicron, Marvell etc.) The one I want is the ICH11R in all of it's golry. That will be 2010 i'd be willing to bet.

[jimhsu]

AS SSD result for "steady state":




A solid performance, esp. with the random writes. Those controller optimizations certainly show up in the massive 4K 64 thread read performance.

Here is a Vertex for comparison:

[cx-ray]

When are the G2 drives expected to be back on e-shelves? I'm trying to sell my Vertex 30GB but if I can't get a replacement for my OS then it leaves me in a bit of a stranded spot.

I ordered mine last Thursday (in the EU). Initially the shipping status was 24-48h. Then, a day later it changed to 2-3 weeks. This morning it's back to 24-48h. I guess I'll find out soon

[JohnZS]

It's almost as if these reviews are really previews, and the actually SSD's will not be readily availible until mid August?
I wouldn't be surprised if the drives might get some last minute tweaks as well as the fix to the password bug resolved too.
Has anyone actually received a Gen2 drive outside of the USA?

[Ourasi]

AS SSD result for "steady state":



A solid performance, esp. with the random writes. Those controller optimizations certainly show up in the massive 4K 64 thread read performance.

AS 4kb random r/w 64Thrd is infact Queue Depth 64, and how a realistic OS operation would look like. This performance on Queue Depth 32 and above is what seperate Intel drives from the rest of the MLC consumer crowd.

Now, those numbers are for sure limited and hurting by the used state, but I do get my confirmation why Intel are shafting the G1 owners out of TRIM, G1 owners would not have considered swapping to G2, the performance benefit is just not there. I could beat most of your fresh benches with a single G1...

The TRIM support is a strong arguement for going for G2, and is being used fully by Intel, with complete lack of moral and honor...

[Rhys]

The TRIM support is a strong arguement for going for G2, and is being used fully by Intel, with complete lack of moral and honor...

So it seems. But people will still continue to Intel, so they can do whatever they like.

[XS Janus]

Is those real world AS times a re any real indication of things Vertex are a better choice from a regular end users point of view

[Rhys]

Is those real world AS times a re any real indication of things Vertex are a better choice from a regular end users point of view

Can't really say, because sometimes the vertex is faster at loading apps/games etc and sometimes the x25-m is faster. On average I would say the M is usually the victor in a large majority of loading tests, but they are usually very close.

But when your creating/copying and saving stuff the Vertex 'should' always win.