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75 Comments
- sully213, on 04/21/2009, -0/+34I encourage everyone to read Anandtech's SSD Anthology for a look at SSD drives (especially OCZ). It's an incredibly long article, but incredibly worth the read. You won't be disappointed. By comparison, this article is quite *****.
http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=35 ... - GenReefer, on 04/21/2009, -1/+22The Vertex is better because it doesn't use the crappy JMicron chip like the Apex.
- Klinky, on 04/21/2009, -0/+14Digg this man up, JMicron makes nothing but crap.
- AlKo, on 04/21/2009, -0/+10http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=35 ...
- pathouston22, on 04/21/2009, -1/+10Tiny detail: RANDOM write performance. Has SUCKED.
And still does for most of the SSDs out there. Only OCZ and Intel make quality SSDs. The rest suck and are faulty products. - Onethirtytwo, on 04/21/2009, -0/+7I can't wait for these to be cheap in 1-2years !!
- slayernine, on 04/21/2009, -4/+11Time for Adblock Plus
- emt1451, on 04/21/2009, -0/+6Apex is total crap. Vertex is the way to go.
- pathouston22, on 04/21/2009, -3/+9This review is pointless and irrelevant, as it fails to touch on the #1 issue facing SSDs, random write performance. When buying a SSD, I don't really care if it can boot Windows in 20 or 30 seconds, I do care if my computer is freezing for a couple seconds often - which almost all SSDs suffer from.
- b3and1p, on 04/21/2009, -1/+7Why is the bootup time on the Intel X25-M so slow? The specs would lead you to believe we would get a 20 second boot.
- libertymeister, on 04/21/2009, -2/+8Until now, write performance has really hindered modern so-called "SSD" devices. I've been watching prices on the OCZ Vertex over at Newegg.com and Geeks.com and wondered how the different SSDs compare even within one brand among the different families.
And in the data center there are options coming for SSD as well. The leaps will come quickly, and should be more linear performance scalers both thanks to the much lower seek latency. Put some decent SRAM cache in with proper RAID controllers and disk I/O contention will become a distant memory.
Spinning disks' days are numbered...finally. - JayD16, on 04/21/2009, -0/+6Why choose? All you need is a small SSD with the OS and your page file. You can still have huge terabyte drives you store your data on.
- Drakh, on 04/21/2009, -1/+6So, did ComputerWorld even think to test the drive after it's been used? I've noticed quite a few articles lately that discuss the issues related to SSD slowdowns after the drive gets filled with a decent amount of data: http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=669&type= ...
- bigbird, on 04/21/2009, -1/+6I wouldn't touch the Apex with a 20 foot stick. The vertex is where the smart money is spent. It has a 64 meg cache which stops most of the stuttering problems that you WILL encounter with the Apex drive. Also the vertex is firmware upgradeable, so it will support things like trim in Windows 7 and OS X snow leopard(it already supports it with a brute force method in Windows 32 bit.) Anyone getting an SSD should seriously spending the extra bill.
If seriously considering buying an Apex go to the OCZ forums, and you will be turned onto the vertex in about 20 mins of reading. - overnine9k, on 04/21/2009, -3/+8OCZ had to slow down its SSDs because OSX can't handle the speed.
http://www.brightsideofnews.com/news/2009/4/9/ocz- ... - Jeremy82465, on 04/21/2009, -2/+6I have to agree with you. I find I constantly need more space as apposed to speed. Very rarely am I in a hurry to transfer data at those speeds, however when they combine the two I will be all over that *****.
On a side note does anyone else feel the need to defrag their drive every time they read anything about SSDs or is that just me? - dayal911, on 04/21/2009, -2/+6OCZ has the best customer service I've ever experienced, no joke.
I try to buy OCZ just on that factor alone. It's cool to see them gaining some ground into the SSD market. - wicketr, on 04/21/2009, -2/+6Ads? What ads?
-signed Adblock Plus user - bigbird, on 04/21/2009, -0/+4That is true, but IMHO a SSD without a cache is dumb at the moment, because trim is not working yet. So when you go to write on that sector that should be empty, its not, causing a delete, then a write. With the cache you get a bit of a buffer to play with, so you shouldn't see the stuttering on smaller files even when your drive has been through a ton of use. I would especially say if your on a mac to get one with a big cache as its impossible at the moment to trim a mac os journaled drive.
Also of note on the mac theirs hibernation/sleep problems, but i have the same problems on my macbook pro without a SSD, so i dont know if its related to the drive. - specialK16, on 04/21/2009, -0/+4Why would you have a RAID setup with a SSD? Aren''t these already fast enough?
*cries*
edit: disregard that i suck *****
http://club.cdfreaks.com/f138/ocz-core-v2-ssd-driv ... - po43292, on 04/21/2009, -0/+3How do you sleep at night?
- Tubal22, on 04/21/2009, -1/+4You can get a loaded Hyundai SUV for about $15,000, or you can get a Porsche boxter for about $60,000. All depends what you are looking for.
- Fedaykin311, on 04/21/2009, -0/+3...and slower operation, even with the theoretical 3x speed of the RAID setup)
http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=35 ...
As a bonus, with the RAIDed HDD you get the soothing sound of a jet engine while you go about your computing tasks!
Best solution =
$200 for a 60GB Vertex as a system drive
$180 for a 1TB RAID 1 array of quiet disks to store all your pirated materials on. - enantiodromia, on 04/21/2009, -0/+3I just got a shipment of 16 Intel X25-M SSDs. It is a happy day.
- TheWindBlows, on 04/21/2009, -0/+3EasyList Subscription just keep it upto date.
- copypastry, on 04/21/2009, -3/+6Buried for advertising.
- kextype, on 04/21/2009, -0/+3JMicron Sata ports all ways die on me
- fluxion, on 04/22/2009, -0/+2anand gives you his blessing:
http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=35 ... - DarkStryke, on 04/21/2009, -0/+2He means the author trying to spam his columns all over the place.
- MasterDave0, on 04/21/2009, -0/+2the joke is somewhat lost if you aren't realizing that the entire -article- is an advertisement.
(which is quite obviously an impossibility for an adblock program) - ell0bo, on 04/22/2009, -0/+2My most recent build has a 64gig SSD as primary with the OS and primary programs, and a 1TB RAID 1 for all the other stuff. Boots up in about 20 seconds and is fast as hell. Loving it so far.
- wicketr, on 04/21/2009, -0/+2I did not understand that one either. If the data is correct, the only thing that I can think of is that the Intel drive is not using some pre-caching bootup methods the other two drives are using. Bizarre.
- TrentDeux, on 04/21/2009, -1/+3OGC? Sounds "solid" to me!
- fluxion, on 04/22/2009, -0/+2and a 30GB ocz vertex is only $129, and hits all the marks
- DarkStryke, on 04/21/2009, -1/+3Bury'd for useless computerworld spam, and the fact that drive is *****.
- mrsteveman1, on 04/21/2009, -0/+2The root drive of a machine always needs to be fast, and in machines that use 2.5" hard drives SSDs offer an instant speed increase.
- painkillr, on 04/21/2009, -0/+2the latest firmware for the vertex ssd's has support in place for an upcoming TRIM utility that should address this problem. though down the road, the filesystem driver for the OS itself needs to incorporate TRIM support so that it's automatic instead of user initiated.
- Suricou, on 04/21/2009, -0/+2I use a OCZ 32GB drive in my router. It resides in my arric, and due to the extreme day-night temperature variations has a history of disk drives failing. The OCZ part is much faster, uses less power, and has no issues with the temperature variations.
- specialK16, on 04/21/2009, -0/+2Why? Do you actually have single files bigger than 60GBs?
- bigbird, on 04/21/2009, -0/+2The drive is actually the same drive with the same speed, just os x can't use it as quickly as windows can currently. The drive is absolutely identical, down to the firmware being used. (check the ocz forums if you dont believe me, there is a bunch of posts on it.) It will be interesting once snow leopard and windows 7 both natively support trim and SSD's to see who has the quicker performance with them, as neither windows or os x are ready for SSD"s yet.
- bigbird, on 04/21/2009, -0/+2put em in raid 0!
- Yarkz, on 04/21/2009, -3/+5Honestly for me I prefer large size over speed, it's just more useful for me, I am never in a situation where I NEED a fast hard drive...
- Culyt, on 04/22/2009, -0/+1Wow, so slower but larger harddrives cost the same as faster smaller ones.
Good work there gumshoe. - cosequin, on 04/23/2009, -0/+1I think the joke was it's a "solid" choice, heh heh heh
- winterspan, on 04/22/2009, -0/+1Anyone considering these should definitely look into the OCZ VERTEX or SUMMIT series, not the Apex. They are barely more expensive than the APEX, and they use far batter flash controllers than the JMicron in the Apex. and the Summit series has a 64MB DRAM cache which vastly improves on random write speed.
At this point I would tell most people to ONLY buy an SSD after you've seen their performance on a site like Anandtech or PCperspective. Unlike harddrives that pretty much have similar performance characteristics among different major products segments, SSD performance is all over the map. Many of the cheaper drives are incredibly slow and not at all worth the price. - teefs, on 04/21/2009, -0/+1Agreed. I would definately never invest that much money in a JMicron based drive. Save some extra money and get the Vertex. It is much better.
- nogami, on 04/22/2009, -0/+1Easy Answer? They screwed up their testing. And they also didn't test the SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT SSD FACTOR - RANDOM WRITES.
Anyways, my 160gb X-25M can boot my Macbook Pro from a cold start (timed when the apple logo appears on the screen when it starts loading the OS from the drive) to a usable desktop in 19.5 seconds.
Loading Final Cut Pro - 7 seconds
Photoshop CS4 - 4 seconds
MS Word - 4 seconds
DVD Studio Pro - 12 seconds - blankoboy, on 04/22/2009, -0/+1Agreed. SSD are still not ready for primetime IMO. It will be another couple of generations until the technology is perfected and the pricing at a realistic (GB/$) level. When that time comes though I will gladly plunk down the $$$.
- fluxion, on 04/22/2009, -0/+1true story:
http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=35 ...
dunno bout this ocz apex, but i got an ocz vertex in the mail :) not spectacular like the intel drives...but even in the worse case scenario, my random writes are faster than a velociraptor (unlike the other drives listed...including the uber-expensive samsung slc one)
good article btw (the anandtech one), gets in pretty deep about performance degradation on ssd's and how TRIM might be useful, and provides "used" performance stats for the new gen drives - Kamujin, on 04/21/2009, -0/+1The X-25 doesn't. This guy is a buffoon. OCZ SSDs with the JMicron controller are total crap. I had one, returned it for an X-25 which works much better without the stutter.
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