Warning - I originally published this article for others who were interested in using Solid State Drives with the IL2 1946 game but I thought the results might also be beneficial to XS forum members - Enjoy !
Hello XS Forum Members,
Well I decided to take the plunge a few weeks back and purchase some solid state drives and see how they work for both everyday use and with IL2 gaming (I am a big flight sim fan). I was interested also in how they hold up to the critical I/O (Input/Output) operations that are important to an online competition format like Hyperlobby dogfighting. Before starting to use Solid State Drives (SSDs), I had been using an array of two Velociraptors (300 GB storage size) in RAID 0 for my Windows XP and IL2 gaming needs and two or four Raptor X drives (150 GB capacity) for Ubuntu, which were either controlled from the Southbridge of the motherboard (the ICH9/R of a Gigabyte GA-X48T-DQ6 motherboard) or for this testing, from a separate RAID controller card (Highpoint RocketRaid 3520 in this case which was used for its ability to better scale the drives in RAID 0 and due to PCIe limitations)). The Velociraptors in particular proved to be fairly quiet and very fast, so I was interested to see if they could be unseated from the their performance throne.
Before I decided to buy some SSDs, I had the more difficult choice of deciding which ones. As many of you already know, with traditional spindle hard drives it is the rotational speed and platter density which matter most but with SSDs it is the cell technology and controller which are all important. Single level cell (SLC) memory is often used in the more expensive SSDs in comparison to multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash memory used in which the entire cell must be rewritten when new information is added. This usually means that SLC can beat MLC when it comes to write operations. Despite that theoretical advantage, it turns out that SLC is usually only faster when writing by a slim margin and that read speeds are often about the same. After mulling it over, I finally decided on the OCZ Core Series V2 60 GB models which are rated for 170 MB/sec reads and 98 MB/sec writes (very fast for a MLC drive if true). These are the successors to the OCZ Version 1 SSD models which many reported as not working properly or inducing lags or stutters when used with XP or Vista. The Version 2 models are rumored to contain an improved Intel controller, which is the all important I/O operations logic that determines whether the NAND memory can be used maximally. These version two drives can now be found all over the web and at pricegrabber for about $280 -$320 for the 60 GB models. I decided to purchase four of them and them use them in a RAID 0 array and see what would happen.
The first thing I decided to do was test them with HD Tach (which is freeware). In addition to all the Raptors, I also decided to add in a current high level terabyte drive (the Samsung Spinpoint F1) to see how these high end models compare to a modern high density 7200 rpm traditional drive. Here are the results:
Test System QX9770 cpu at 4.2 GHz (watercooled) on a Gigabyte GA-X48T-DQ6 motherboard, 2GB of Corsair 14400 (1800 MHz) DDR3 (timings of 7-7-7-21), 2x ATI 4870 X2 (in Crossfire)(watercooled), BFG Ageia PhysX card (watercooled), Highpoint Rocket Raid 3520 (which required that I remove one 4870 X2 while using it), Creative Titanium Fatal1ty sound card, LG GGW-H20L Blue Ray/DVD burner and Samsung SH-203B DVD burner, Fan controllers, cute Doo-dads and Internal Swiftech/EK/Danger Den watercooling system, Thermaltake 1200W PSU and Dell 30 inch monitor.
HD Tach Average Read Speed -
4x Core Series V2 in RAID 0 on Highpoint Raid 3520 = 440 MB/sec
4x Core Series V2 in RAID 0 on ICH9/R = 387 MB/sec
2x Core Series V2 in RAID 0 on Highpoint Raid 3520 = 234 MB/sec
2x Core Series V2 in RAID 0 on ICH9/R = 227 MB/sec
2x Western Digital Velociraptor in RAID 0 on ICH9/R = 168 MB/sec
2x Samsung Spinpoint F1 (one terabyte on three platters) in RAID 0 on ICH9/R = 154 MB/sec
2x Western Digital Raptor X in RAID 0 on ICH9/R = 138 MB/sec
1x Core Series V2 (non RAID) on ICH9/R = 129 MB/sec (notice this does not line up with the figure of 170 MB/sec that OCZ publishes for this drive's read speed !)
1x Velociraptor on ICH9/R = 109 MB/sec
1x Samsung Spinpoint F1 on ICH9/R = 97 MB/sec
1x Raptor X on ICH9/R = 81 MB/sec
Even though the Core Series Version 2 is only using MLCs, it still wipes the floor in the read department.
HD Tach Average Write Speed -
4x Core Series V2 in RAID 0 on Highpoint Raid 3520 = 262 MB/sec
4x Core Series V2 in RAID 0 on ICH9/R = 258 MB/sec
2x Western Digital Velociraptor in RAID 0 on ICH9/R = 164 MB/sec
2x Samsung Spinpoint F1 (one terabyte on three platters) in RAID 0 on ICH9/R = 151 MB/sec
2x Western Digital Raptor X in RAID 0 on ICH9/R = 138 MB/sec
2x Core Series V2 in RAID 0 on Highpoint Raid 3520 = 137 MB/sec
2x Core Series V2 in RAID 0 on ICH9/R = 127 MB/sec
1x Velociraptor on ICH9/R = 107 MB/sec
1x Samsung Spinpoint F1 on ICH9/R = 96 MB/sec
1x Raptor X on ICH9/R = 76 MB/sec
1x Core Series V2 (non RAID) on ICH9/R = 73 MB/sec (notice this does not line up with the figure of 98 MB/sec that OCZ publishes for this drive's write speed !)
Here you can see the achilles heel of MLC SSDs which is their rather poor write performance. However, keep in mind that these are still much higher speeds than what you would commonly find in a typical Dell/HP computer or a high-end laptop.
HD Tach Average Write Speed -
1x Core Series V2 on ICH9/R = 0.1 msec (yes, that is 100 microseconds !!! - actually, others have looked closer and it is actually 128 usec, but close enough)
1x Velociraptor on ICH9/R = 7.2 msec
1x Raptor X on ICH9/R = 7.9 msec
1x Samsung Spinpoint F1 on ICH9/R = 13.7 msec
As you can see, the RAT (random access time) is only 128 microseconds... unbelievable. This is the reason why you do not need to ever defragment a traditional NTFS partition on a solid state drive (yes, for the laymen, that means that you should shut off Vista's silly and slow auto-defragmentation feature). And since Ubuntu uses the ext3 file system, imagine the speed increases.
Okay, so far this data is interesting and what not, but how does it do in the real world and with IL2 in particular. Let us not keep you waiting:
Windows XP Boot Times (this is from the power on button being depressed to the usuable desktop with only 37 processes running and AVG and Zone Alarm installed):
4x Core Series V2 in RAID 0 on Highpoint Raid 3520 = 41 sec
4x Core Series V2 in RAID 0 on ICH9/R = 41 sec
2x Core Series V2 in RAID 0 on Highpoint Raid 3520 = 41 sec
2x Core Series V2 in RAID 0 on ICH9/R = 41 sec
2x Western Digital Velociraptor in RAID 0 on ICH9/R = 54 sec
2x Samsung Spinpoint F1 (one terabyte on three platters) in RAID 0 on ICH9/R = 68 sec
2x Western Digital Raptor X in RAID 0 on ICH9/R = 58 sec
1x Core Series V2 (non RAID) on ICH9/R = 58 sec
1x Velociraptor on ICH9/R = 71 sec
1x Samsung Spinpoint F1 on ICH9/R = 73 sec
1x Raptor X on ICH9/R = 72 sec
As you can see, do to the loading of processes, prefetching, etc... it appears that Windows XP probably cannot be loaded faster than about 41 sec. The limitations of load balancing (with processes and services) as the kernel initiates limit start up time no matter how fast the read rates become.
IL2 4.08m load times (this is from the double clicking of the IL2 desktop icon until you see the main IL2 screen (and I skipped the movie intro stuff).
4x Core Series V2 in RAID 0 on Highpoint Raid 3520 = 9 sec
4x Core Series V2 in RAID 0 on ICH9/R = 9 sec
2x Core Series V2 in RAID 0 on Highpoint Raid 3520 = 10 sec
2x Core Series V2 in RAID 0 on ICH9/R = 11 sec
2x Western Digital Velociraptor in RAID 0 on ICH9/R = 14 sec
2x Samsung Spinpoint F1 (one terabyte on three platters) in RAID 0 on ICH9/R = 17 sec
2x Western Digital Raptor X in RAID 0 on ICH9/R = 15 sec
1x Core Series V2 (non RAID) on ICH9/R = 13 sec
1x Velociraptor on ICH9/R = 17 sec
1x Samsung Spinpoint F1 on ICH9/R = 19 sec
1x Raptor X on ICH9/R = 21 sec
Obviously, cpu limited here with the high-end configurations.
Load times under Hyperlobby 3.9 to the War Clouds Server (this is from single clicking the join button in Hyperlobby until you reach the map/choose base screen of War Clouds (with 100 msec lag time I live in San Diego, CA)):
4x Core Series V2 in RAID 0 on Highpoint Raid 3520 = 18 sec
4x Core Series V2 in RAID 0 on ICH9/R = 18 sec
2x Core Series V2 in RAID 0 on Highpoint Raid 3520 = 20 sec
2x Core Series V2 in RAID 0 on ICH9/R = 21 sec
2x Western Digital Velociraptor in RAID 0 on ICH9/R = 24 sec
2x Samsung Spinpoint F1 (one terabyte on three platters) in RAID 0 on ICH9/R = 29 sec
2x Western Digital Raptor X in RAID 0 on ICH9/R = 31 sec
1x Core Series V2 (non RAID) on ICH9/R = 24 sec
1x Velociraptor on ICH9/R = 31 sec
1x Samsung Spinpoint F1 on ICH9/R = 32 sec
1x Raptor X on ICH9/R = 34 sec
Subjective Impressions It is simple,
. they are smoking fast. Programs under Windows XP and Turdvista snap open. The information and DLLs literally cannot be sent thru the CPU any faster. Although I did not put the data here, other games like Crysis and Call of Juarez load extremely quickly. Programs like AVG antivirus, Open Office 3.0, GIMP, etc... once again, literally snap open. Despite the fact that the Raptors and Spinpoint F1 are faster when writing, this is does not carry over into real world usage in a negative light. In fact since gaming and IL2 are mostly dependent upon read rates, it is very noticeable in real world terms when using IL2 1946 with solid state drives.
Some other items to be aware of include the 1.5 MTBF lifetimes of many SSDs which outlasts most traditional platter based hard drives (this makes sense because a SSD has no moving parts or bearings). Another great aspect of SSDs I have come to enjoy since I purchased them is how quiet they are. In fact they are dead quiet.. literally. You can put your ear right next to one and you hear
.nothing. Since most of the components in my rig were watercooled for the tests and the fan of the PSU was set lower thru a custom mod, I only ran at about 19 dBa. Much praise should go to Western Digital for getting the Velociraptors so quiet, but they still cannot compare to the total silence of SSDs. These OCZ Core 2 drives that I used also produce almost no heat. I touched them with my fingertip while they were running and they were only mildly warm. Nothing compared to the heat that rolls off a Raptor X drive. Possibly the only downside I could find to these drives in their high cost at the moment (although I expect this to fall in the next six months or so) and the one year warranty.
So to sum it up, yes, if you have $280 or more burning a hole in your pocket and would like some real world noticeable speed increases while using IL2 or Hyperlobby, you might want to consider SSDs. I spent almost $1700 for the four SSDs and the Highpoint controller but you would see real benefits if you just bought two of these drives (roughly $600) and used them in RAID 0. And this is only about $30 more than the current asking price for two Velociraptors.
Hope you enjoyed the info,
Jay
Disclaimer I do not work for OCZ or any hard drive company and I am not in any way affiliated with any storage manufacturer. I only did this for my own curiosity and for other IL2 fans who might have the same questions as I did.
The two pictures below are of the OCZ V2 SSDs undergoing testing (two of them in RAID 0 are off to the right hand side of the picture) and of my watercooled PhysX card (.... I watercool everything).
SSD and Raptor Speed Comparison
Amazing lad, simply amazing. Althrough my Veloci reading speeds are higher [ I presume adding a third drive won't speed it 50% + ] 
Linear Mode
