LSI SAS 9300-8e & HGST Ultrastar SSD800MM: 12 Gb/s SAS, Tested

HGST Ultrastar SSD800MM Specifications

HGST's Ultrastar SSD800MM is an enterprise customer's dream SSD. It combines other-worldly performance with almost every business-oriented feature you could want. This dual-port-capable 12 Gb/s SAS drive is built to satisfy speed and reliability requirements. We have plenty of time to talk about its performance on the benchmark pages, so we'll start by digging into its reliability.

The SSD800MM offers T10 end-to-end data protection and power loss protection. It sports a 2,000,000-hour MTBF and 1E-17 bit error rate, with enhanced error detection and correction.

Ultra-high performance environments with tier-0 storage are this drive's primary target. And, unfortunately, as with many just-announced enterprise-class SSDs, pricing information isn't available yet. Ask your favorite distributor if you want to know more, though. Right now, we're guessing that the SSD800MM falls in the "if you have to ask..." price range.

The SSD800MM ships in three capacities: 200, 400, and 800 GB. The sample we received hosts 400 GB in a 15 mm Z-height. This is the same size as many 2.5" SAS-based disk drives, but quite a bit larger than most other SSDs.

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HGST Ultrastar SSD800MM
User Capacity (GB)200400800
Interface2.5"  12 Gb/s SAS
Sequential Read (MB/s)1150
Sequential Write (MB/s)700
4 KB Random Read (IOPS)145,000
4 KB Random Write (IOPS)70,000
Power Consumption (Active)9 W (11 W)
Power Consumption (Idle)2.1 W
Write Endurance (TBW)3,7007,30014,600

Compared to any 6 Gb/s-capable SSD we've reviewed, the SSD800MM's read performance is particularly incredible-looking. Specified for 145,000 random 4 KB read IOPS and up to 1150 MB/s, those numbers are only matched or beaten by PCI Express-based add-in cards. Sequential write speed isn't quite as impressive, but we're certainly not going to scoff at 700 MB/s, either.

We're still talking about MLC NAND, so endurance isn't much changed from SSDs we've looked at before. Only the 800 GB model's rating is given officially, and at more than 14,000 terabytes written, we at least know we're dealing with enterprise-grade flash. At 10 complete writes across the drive per day for five years, the warranty also lines up with other products in this category.

Interestingly, HGST offers a high-power mode that improves performance. We only wish that there was a turbo button on the drive to engage it; as-is, we weren't able to test that mode. Like Intel's SSD DC S3500/S3700, the SSD800MM is able to operate on both the +5 and +12 V power rails.

  • slomo4sho
    Now only if this technology was viable for home builds. :( Maybe in a couple years?
    Reply
  • major-error
    The performance and relative maturity of this prototype drive certainly is impressive, but this is what the enterprise space demands.
    At the consumer level though, the article takes on a completely different tone--I would be very surprised if we don't start seeing mention of PCIe4 at/before the top of the next CPU cycle (so, in 24-36 months at most.)
    Reply
  • raidtarded
    Actually, Adaptec already saturated PCIe 3.0 with 6GB/s. The chart is incorrect, it doesn't take 12Gb/s to saturate the PCIe bus. Well, not for Adaptec.
    Reply
  • falcompsx
    Remember when mechanical hard drives struggled to saturate their interfaces? Times sure have changed with SSD tech.
    Reply
  • CaedenV
    11006286 said:
    The performance and relative maturity of this prototype drive certainly is impressive, but this is what the enterprise space demands.
    At the consumer level though, the article takes on a completely different tone--I would be very surprised if we don't start seeing mention of PCIe4 at/before the top of the next CPU cycle (so, in 24-36 months at most.)

    Ya, my bet is that we will not start to see SATA4 or PCIe4 until Skymont at the earliest. Considering it is looking like Broadwell may be pushed back due to 14nm die shrink issues I would bet that Skymont will have similar issues when moving to 10nm. But at least for home users you can cram 2 SSDs in RAID0 with a proper RAID card and get a little performance boost until then. I guess the only problem is that most people are going to use the onboard Intel RAID for RAID0, which will get you a killer synthetic benchmark, but in practical reality it is really just expanding your volume with very little speed benefit.
    Reply
  • kj3639
    Go HGST! WOO!!!!
    Reply
  • bit_user
    * wipes drool off floor *

    That's a quality review of some quality products. I like the insights shared, throughout. I especially appreciated the link to the SATA-Express paper. Thanks!

    MORE REVIEWS LIKE THIS!!
    :)
    Reply
  • bit_user
    11006482 said:
    Actually, Adaptec already saturated PCIe 3.0 with 6GB/s. The chart is incorrect, it doesn't take 12Gb/s to saturate the PCIe bus. Well, not for Adaptec.
    How many ports and how many lanes, though? If it's just a 8-port card, the math doesn't support that, as 6x8 = 48 Gbps, which is less than the 8 x 8 = 64 Gbps that a x8 PCIe 3.0 slot should carry.
    Reply
  • raidtarded
    It is the equivalent of a nuke bomb compared to the LSI products. It has 24 Native ports.
    11011736 said:
    11006482 said:
    Actually, Adaptec already saturated PCIe 3.0 with 6GB/s. The chart is incorrect, it doesn't take 12Gb/s to saturate the PCIe bus. Well, not for Adaptec.
    How many ports and how many lanes, though? If it's just a 8-port card, the math doesn't support that, as 6x8 = 48 Gbps, which is less than the 8 x 8 = 64 Gbps that a x8 PCIe 3.0 slot should carry.

    Reply
  • raidtarded
    It is a 24 port native raid controller. smokes the 4 ports.
    Reply