engiNURD's HDTune Scores

2010-05-05
Changed the table of screenshots to a dropdown menu listing instead and added some style to the page so it's not such an eyesore. I need a more elegant solution for these dropdown menus (view source), but I simply have no time to learn new web stuff right now, hehe. PM me if you have any suggestions, thanks!

I've been running my X18-M 80GB G1 drives in RAID0 since late 2009 and I haven't seen any slowdowns. According to the AnandTech article, no TRIM in RAID0 isn't such a big deal if you leave at least 20% of your capacity free.

It looks like the SandForce drives are kickin' some ass, but are still quite pricey. I'll wait 'til the prices drop a bit before grabbing a couple. On that note, the Agility/Vertex G1 drives' sale prices are VERY tempting. :( must... resist...

Oh, picked up a couple more HD502HJ F3 500GB drives for some RAID0 fun. Screenshots below. They're FAAAAAST!!! Also added screenshots for WD Caviar Blue 500GB and 1TB drives. My Co-worker said he gets much better results for his X25-V RAID0 array on the 890GX SATA600 board... maybe I'll open mine up and give it a spin with my Kingston 40GB rebrands.

BTW, Crucial/Micron is still haveing FW issues with their RealSSD models, so either save your money, avoid using it if you already bought it, or backup your data, hehe.

2010-03-17
Picked up the Kingston 30GB SSDs since they were on sale. Left it sitting on my bench for a week, since I'm just way too busy to play with it right now.

Saw AnandTech's article on the same exact drive and decided to return it, lol. My co-worker had already opened his, so I borrowed it for some testing before he returned his. BTW, Newegg did not charge a restocking fee for my return since it was sealed/unopened. Screenshots available below. This drive is definitely going back, lol. The other reviews of the larger sized Toshiba/JMicron controlled drives seem to be better than this 30GB version, but still not worth their prices, IMO.

2010-02-21
Picked up an Intel X25-M 80GB G2 while it was on sale at eWiz/Superbiiz for $205. I ran the tests then crammed it into my Sony Vaio. My co-worker said it's like putting 20's on a civic, lol. Well, not exactly, but I know what he means. Anyhow, all I do on that laptop is browse, and I must say, it no longer feels like a $400 laptop, lol. BTW, my browsing consists of about 40+ FF tabs plus a dozen or so chrome tabs.

I can't seem to find the damn screenshots, so when I pull it out, I'll run the tests again. grrr... Performance is similar to the X18-M G1 anyhow, so no biggie.

2009-11-29
Added some screenshots of the X18-M in RAID0 using ICH10R. Coming soon will be more HDD scores and tests of the new Patriot PS-100 PS32GS25SSDR SSDs ($60AR). More info on the Patriot drive found here: http://www.servethehome.com/?p=206; it's performance doesn't look so good... back to Fry's they went!

2009-11-23
The new screenshots are of the Intel X18-M 80GB G1 SSD, on ICH10 (IDE Mode), brand new. Similar performance to the X25-M 80GB. Its G1, so no TRIM, but the garbage collection should be fine for me, and I can run the manual TRIM every so often (when Intel puts it back up on the site... grrr...). Win7 installed from a USB in under 10 minutes, quick format (9m 52s; from first post beep to usable desktop, not counting user input time -- reboots included, though). Thats about the same amount of time it took for my Vertex RAID0 array.

Sold my Vertex drives a couple months ago, hoping the price will come down on them... too bad flash memory prices have doubled since end of summer, lol. gfg. Damn, I shoulda grabbed another G.Skill 6GB DDR3-1600 kit for $85 when I had the chance. :( a;lkdsjfaldksjfa;lsdkjf...

2009-10-09
Personally, I went from a 'cuda.10 to a Raptor150 and did not think the performance difference was worth the price premium and space sacrifice. Then I went from a caviar.black640 to a VRaptor300 and again, did not think the performance difference was worth the price premium and space sacrifice. Next I went from a VRaptor300 to an OCZ Vertex 30GB, and yet again, was underwhelmed. Then I picked up a 2nd Vertex 30GB and threw them in RAID0... WOW... I must say, the performance difference is VERY noticeable, but again, the price was pretty steep ($180 total AR in June'09). Regardless, it was a much bigger performance improvement than any of the Raptors ever were, for even less money than the raptors cost.

The Intel X25-M SSDs have fast small random write speeds, but have slower sequential speeds. Conversely, the Indilinx based drives have faster sequential speeds, but slower small random write speeds. When you setup the Indilinx drives in RAID0, the small random write speeds increase enough to more than compensate for the single drive's deficiency. Likewise, when you RAID0 Intel drives, the sequential speeds increase more than enough. Small random write speeds are more important for the avg desktop user than sequential speeds. For single SSD usage, the Intel is a better choice because of this. However, Indilinx based drives' small random write speeds are still faster than mechanical drives, so even in a single drive config, it's still a good choice if you can afford it.

2009-07-01
These tests were run on an ICH9R controller in XP SP2 without any "tweaks" aside from RAID0.

I haven't read up on the new Samsung based SSDs yet, as I haven't found any good articles that have comparable reports to many of the Intel and Indilinx reviews. If you know of any, please send me a PM on [H] or AT. Thanks.

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