The SSD Anthology: Understanding SSDs and New Drives from OCZ
by Anand Lal Shimpi on March 18, 2009 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Storage
Sequential Read/Write Performance
To measure sequential read and write performance I created an iometer test script to read and write 2MB files to the drives. The writes are 100% sequential and are performed on an unpartitioned drive for 3 minutes.
Performance is reported in MB/s, higher numbers are better.
The sequential read performance of the latest generation of SSDs is nothing short of amazing. The OCZ Vertex pulls through with 250MB/s, over twice the speed of the VelociRaptor and 2.5x the speed of the Samsung SLC drive that OCZ used to sell for $1000.
Looking at write performance we see things change a bit. The OCZ Summit and Intel X25-E are the only two drives that can outperform the VelociRaptor, and they do so handsomely. The rest of the drives fall below even the 7200 RPM Caviar SE16. They are by no means slow, they just don't destroy the fastest hard drives as they do in other tests.
While the X25-E should perform the way it does, the OCZ Summit uses MLC flash yet it performs like an SLC drive. This is a very important benchmark as it shows the sort of performance Samsung has optimized for with its controller. This drive is designed to shatter bandwidth barriers, but what about latency?
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
250 Comments
View All Comments
Hrel - Thursday, April 9, 2009 - link
although, I have some issues which I have put in an e-mail sent to Anand; can't wait for you response.Hrel - Thursday, April 9, 2009 - link
Instead of making me dinner can you send me that test system instead??? Please!!!Hrel - Thursday, April 9, 2009 - link
I was wondering what controller the OCZ solid Series is based on??? Will I experience hiccups with that drive or not? Is the point of my question.sfisher64 - Wednesday, April 8, 2009 - link
I just purchased a Dell Latitude E6400 with a 64GB Ultra Performance Solid State Drive. Does anyone know what type of drive this is, and where it fits in the spectrum described in this article?Baffo - Saturday, April 11, 2009 - link
The Dells use the Samsung drives (you should see this on the bottom if you pull it out). However, as much as I wish this was one of the newer controllers (I have a few of these at work as well), the testing cycles demanded by Dell probably mean these are the older controllers.marraco - Tuesday, April 7, 2009 - link
This article is popular :)BLHealthy4life - Monday, April 6, 2009 - link
Intel 9.1.1.1010 (Intel) Where are these drivers? I can only find version 1007 and not 1010....Thanks
BLHealthy4life - Sunday, April 12, 2009 - link
found it....Intel obviously keeps the X58 chipset drivers current for their own boards, just not other mfgs boards....
They installed fine on my R2E..
BL
irondukes - Friday, April 3, 2009 - link
Hi-- Do SLCs suffer from performance degradation, or are the controllers pretty agressive at erasing the data since they have far longer read-write cycles? Please help! Deciding between an X25E and X25Mmdavies - Friday, April 3, 2009 - link
I'm reading this about a day late - got my Patriot PE256GS25SSDR 2.5" 256GB yesterday since I'm bad about destroying hard drives. this drive, in a word, was excruciating. I'll be replacing it with one of your recommended drives today.Thanks