SSD performance scaling question

[clonazepam]

I very much appreciated today's article about SSD performance tweaking. Thank you. I'm in the process of absorbing as much information as possible about SSDs vs. typical HDDs and watching the market closely.

I have some questions. I understand the bandwidth differences between SATA I, II, and III. I am currently using 2 WD 74gb Raptors in RAID 0 with an average read/write of about 150MB/s on a SATA II interface motherboard. If I understand SSDs correctly, I can purchase a single SSD of about 120GB-160GB as a replacement and since using a SATA II interface, I would see a significant increase in read/write as well as seek. If I were using SATA I interface I wouldn't see a big jump in read/write but overall the SSD would make the system much snappier because of the quicker seek times. Is that accurate?

So, with using Win7 Ult x64, a q6600 oc'd to 3.6ghz, sata ii interface on a nforce 750 sli mobo, with 8GB ddr2 ram....

would all the SSDs on the market, from the lowest performers to the highest, scale well on my system, or would I see diminishing returns in performance as I move up the quality/performance scale of products? This current system will be replaced as my main computer in 12-18 months but I doubt I'll ever get rid of it. I like the idea of replacing the noisy raptors for a single SSD and if I'm not going to see the expected performance of a high end product, then I dont want to waste money on it.

 

[groberts101]

NVidia SSD raid will not scale nearly as well as the other top tier alternatives(Intel/AMD) but an SSD would give you the absolute best bang for the buck over what any other single upgrade would allow on that system.

Then just use the raided Raptors for storage speed.

 

[sminlal]

> If I were using SATA I interface I wouldn't see a big jump in read/write but overall the SSD would make the system much snappier because of the quicker seek times. Is that accurate?

Yes, I agree that this is mostly the case. Also note that RAID does not improve "seek" (access) times.

I have no figures to back this up, but my feeling is that you'll get the lions share of the improvement by going from an HDD to ANY decent SSD.

 

[clonazepam]

Thanks guys. I am on a sata 2 interface so I'd probably be looking for a decent ssd that hits around that 300MB r/w mark, if seek time's relatively the same between those in the 300 area compared to the ones in the 4-500s. I wouldn't raid ssd's, I could only afford 1 and it seems 1 ssd would blow away the 2 raptors I have (they are sata 1).

I'll be getting rid of the raptors for good as they are way too noisy. I would probably load linux on one and windows on the other and then bag them up. If I wanted to troubleshoot or experiment at a later date w/o consequence to the important stuff, i'd pull 'em out of their anti-static bags.

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Is there a Tom's reader's Best Buy Recommendation for a SSD that fits in that envelope of 300MB read/write performance with excellent seek and with a storage capacity of about 120-160GB at a good price?

 

[clonazepam]

I'm mostly looking at shopping on newegg.com still just starting to look. I think I'm looking at a SSD that would be similar in spec to this kingston:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820139416

... and the OCZ drives comments not looking too hot either =/

 

[metawin]

The OCZ Vertex series is the all around best and the c300 is the most popular, their prices are dropping somewhat right now due to SATA III becoming the new standard.

With a little patience and digging around you should be able to find some good discounts as sellers try and make room.

The OCZ comments come form them switching to the new smaller NAND without telling people. You can read about it on the net and see if deters you enough.

 

[clonazepam]

Best answer selected by clonazepam.