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Memoright SSDs: The End of Hard Drives?
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Table of contents
- 1 – The HDD is Beaten
- 2 – Flash SSD Tech Talk
- 3 – Memoright SSD MR25.2-032S
- 4 – Test Controller: Adaptec RAID 5805
- 5 – Test Setup
- 6 – Memoright SDD Benchmark Results
- 7 – Read Transfer Performance
About six months ago, we reviewed Mtron’s Flash SSDs (Solid State Drives), which were the fastest hard drives for desktop PCs until the launch of Western Digital’s new VelociRaptor. Although the VelociRaptor is a conventional hard drive and therefore it cannot offer the extremely quick access times of transistor-based storage media, it is the best choice for most applications - and it offers almost 10 times the capacity at a fraction of the SSD drive’s cost. However, we found an even better drive for the real enthusiast: the Memoright SSD MR25.2-032S, which leaves any other conventional hard drive in the dust as far as performance goes.
It has become difficult to keep track of the developments in the Flash SSD storage market. Flash SSDs look and behave like mechanical hard drives, except that flash memory devices store data in the same way that your motherboard’s firmware device stores BIOS information. USB thumb drives use flash memory as well. Flash memory can offer good throughput and virtually zero access time, although write throughput and write access times can be clearly slower than the read values. While Flash memory doesn’t generate as much heat as a hard drive spinning at high revolution speeds and it’s also extremely robust, the media does not yet offer the capacities that PC hard drives are expected to have. A 2.5” notebook hard drive, for example, can store up to 500 GB and a 3.5” desktop drive’s capacity can total up to 1000 GB.
However, flash-based drives can come in 3.5”, 2.5”, 1.8” or even smaller sizes. Remember that memory cards such as CompactFlash, SD or memory sticks are all based on flash memory. Flash memory typically requires much less power than a conventional hard drive does, and it withstands shocks, such as when a laptop is dropped, better than conventional drives. Flash SSD storage capacities have reached 128 GB, although only 32-GB flash SSDs have moved into a price range that can be considered affordable.
But why do we make such a big deal about SSDs in the first place? There are two simple reasons: performance and energy efficiency. While traditional hard drives do not directly accelerate processing performance for CPU-intensive tasks or graphics performance, they have a very noticeable impact whenever the operating system, applications or application data are launched or terminated. Once software can be executed or data can be accessed from within the system’s main memory, the core components can show their potential. Until this is the case, data has to be loaded or stored from or to the hard drive, which is why we still have to wait seconds or even minutes for Windows or applications to start. Flash SSDs can significantly reduce user idle time by providing a good mix of quicker data access and good throughput. Lastly, flash memory devices can be more energy-efficient than conventional hard drives. However, an SSD’s energy power consumption depends on the number of flash components the device has for its capacity. Flash memory’s power consumption also can vary (MLC, SLC – see next page).
We already looked at various Flash SSD offerings from Samsung, Sandisk, Ridata and the Korean manufacturer Mtron, which has been offering the fastest flash SSD drives to date. Executives from SSD specialist DV Nation read our review of the Mtron drives and offered flash SSD from Memoright for our tests. A company representative said the devices would be an even better choice. He was right.
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Until these clowns come way down on their prices, there is no end in sight for standard hard drives.
This has about the same marketing hype as ddr3 compared to ddr2.
I could care less about access times.
I am not paying their prices for a 32gig "SSD".
It is just not worth the money.
DDR2 and DDR3 have very little difference in any realistic performance measurement which is not synthetic. SSDs have seriously noticeable differences that come into play with everything you do on the system, from bootup to shutdown. The access times alone make them hugely advantageous, especially for RAID.
The key here is that SSDs are optimum for big retailers & enthusiasts, because of the lower failure rate compared to mechanical drives means less hardware failure and RMA and tech support calls. For us, its performance based. Dell and others will flock to these when the pricepoint hits home, and as soon as they jump on, drives will sell in such volume that new plants will have to be made and we'll need SATA-1000 before long.
Anyone whose been in the industry professionally and watched tech roll out over the years can see the writing on the wall, SSDs will dominate at least the "bootdrive" sector within two years. It might take longer to ramp up capacity for the "data" drives for home users, but its coming, and every process shrink to a smaller fab makes capacity go up exponentially.
Also, these "clowns" cant lower the price yet. They dont have the manufacturing capacity yet to ship 5x the current volume and thus cut the cost. They have to use the higher profit margins in the professional and enthusiast market to make back the R&D used to make these drives and prove viability first, and as soon as that's done and new factories or at least retrofitted ones come online solely for SSD uses, then prices will drop as soon as a competitor finishes their sites and competition sets in.
SSDs have weakness in random writes and reads. Unfortunately this was not tested here.
I think the results will be very interesting as soon as SATAII drives become available its just a matter of time till we have some of thise babies on our rigs
personally i'm still waiting for the o dB (SIL) machines and for the 10 milisecounds to boot up an Operating system =D
SSD's are fast, but they're what, almost $20 per gig?
HDD's are slower, but they can be as low as a quarter per gig. I'll stick with my 160GB seagate.
Let's see now, a velociraptor has 10x storage of a memoright ssd, the memoright ssd costs 10x price of a veliciraptor and the memoright ssd is about twice the speed of the velociraptor. Seriously, is Tom's trying to compare an F16 to a 747??? Give me some of what you guys are smokin.
The ONLY, and I mean only, area where ssd drives will get consumer exposure will be in the laptop sector, simply because of the size/power requirements. For that to happen, ssd prices will need to fall "tenfold" and conventional hard drives will need to die out, which won't happen any time soon.
Desktops will will continue to use conventional hard disks for at least the next 5-10 years as they will go down in price and increase in capacities. Sata III 6gbps and newer pmr technologies will keep the traditional hard drive alive for a long time yet.
Servers may transition into a hybrid environment with both ssd and conventional drives, but with the cost of raid now so affordable (controllers incorporated into chipsets) and the fact that traditional fast (velociraptor) and beefy (terabyte) drives will ALWAYS be cheaper than the ssd variants - it's going to be a hard sell.
I'm not saying ssd is bad, but for those who don't have 5-digit monthly income, it is merely a toy for the rich. Sure, prices will eventually fall, but until you can sell the technology for 25 cents/gig or better, it will remain insignificant.
SSDs have weakness in random writes and reads. Unfortunately this was not tested here.
A mix of SSDs and HDDs will probably be the best solution for a long time. They each have their strengths depending on usage patterns. As soon as SSDs become more economical, mixed setups will quickly become the norm. I would have a couple of SSDs in a RAID 0 config to boot on and load applications off of, but I would have a some HDDs in a RAID setup for mass storage.
I really can't wait to build my next system. Gone is the day where I reuse a harddrive on a new build, and the new computer seems only as fast as the old one due to the HDD bottleneck.
You really need to re-benchmark the Mtron with the Pro Series.
I want to say to the person bitching about price and calling the manufacturers of flash drive "clowns" that unless he knows what he is talking about he should stfu. Those prices are dictated by supply and demand. They have fixed costs involved in producing these drives and thus these are the prices they are able to sell enough drives at yet still make money. As technology advancements go to work on those fixed costs you will see a corresponding price cut in the retail space.
As someone else commented on I am HORRIBLY disappointed that Tom's didn't test random writes and reads. If they actually didn't that is, I haven't finished the article but wanted to respond to the "clown" guy. I've noticed a lot of stuff like that with tech sites and it makes me wonder what kind of enticements these guys have to talk up a given product. Please do a follow up with random read&write tests.
Doomsdaydave, I bought a 750gb conventional hdd for $0.19 per gig not too long ago! That is value you can't argue with but as soon as I can get a flash drive thats at least 64gb for 200 or less it will become my system drive with the mechanical drives as storage.
'Beginning of the End' more like, tbh.
Lower capacities compared to standard harddrives, higher prices compared to standard harddrives.. You know what I mean..
What about the number of write times an a flash, compared to a harddisk? Will the flash be reliable for constant rewrites during many years?
What about the number of write times an a flash, compared to a harddisk? Will the flash be reliable for constant rewrites during many years?
I am curious how this affects the price of those DDR2 Ram drives that have a 2.5" HD as their unpowered storage. Those seemed to be the best "sweet spot" storage for high end users. but AFAIK the cost was $3000 for 32gb.
as fas as the size goes. there is only a small amount of XP/Vista that needs benefits from super fast access. Your application and it's data are usually the best canidates for super fast storage.
/And yes show us the random access tests since you do talk about OS storage.
Pretty graphs... Use of I/O and throughput... cannot resist...no! Must...resist...must...restrain...Index Finger of Bankruptcy...(click)
...Taking Mother's Day present out of Shopping Cart, putting MemoRight in...
The end of hard drives??
Give me a break. Maybe years from now but that's not exactly news. Anyway, when it finally happens this specific model will not be the one to do it. It may end up being an entirely different technology that ends the HDD if SSD's don't drop in price fast enough.
Drop the sensationalism, start labeling both the X and Y axis of your graphs like professionals, and try to regain some journalistic integrity.
Toms is going downhill fast.
"Obviously, Mtron’s Flash SSD still is quicker when it comes to starting Windows XP" I mean I see the graph, but why is it obvious, did I miss something? the only test in the article that can give a hint on real world performance, and the Mtron is almost twice as fast as the Memoright..
Performance differences or not, I would rather set of some RAIDed hard drives with good performance, more storage, and a tiny fraction of the cost than buy 1 tiny, quick drive for over a grand. I could spend that money on a better processor or 2 video cards that would give me more performance where I need it.
In fact, even if the 32gb ssd drive was $300, I would still have a hard time justifying the cost for such little space. 128GB at $300-$500 and I MAY think about buying one or more of these.