anandtech's SSD update

http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3667&p=1

Notable points:

1. Official TRIM support has been released for OCZ & SuperTalent Indilix drives and Intel's G2 drives.

2. The various TRIM firmwares only work with W7 provided storage drivers. To get around this, Indilix and Intel both have released manual wiper tools that can TRIM within Windows.

3. The TRIM firmware update boosts the 160GB G2's seq. write speed to 100MB/s.

4. Kingston releases a sub-$100 AMIR 40GB X25-M G2 drive which suffers from a large decrease in max seq. write speed, a noticeable decrease in max. seq. read speed, and slight but not alarming decreases in everything else. Good buy for those with light OS installs wanting the SSD experience without forking the cash for a bigger drive.

The Intel speed increase has me interested. The initial X25-M G1 firmware update made everyone wonder whether or not Intel would be increasing speeds down the line with more updates. Odd that it doesn't do anything for the 80GB drive though.

Also interested in possibly getting the Kingston drive, it sounds like a great upgrade for my gaming box.

EDIT: Whoops, Shiggity created a thread about the update before I did. Might be a good idea for a mod to move this post into his thread.

wasnt trim already supported by 1.3 firmware for OCZ Vertex drives.

From what I understand, 1.3 allowed for manual use of the TRIM wiper tool whereas 1.4 allows for automatic TRIM. Let me know if that's incorrect.

The Intel SSD Toolbox says my X-25M G2 is not supported...nice...

Maybe I need to update firmware...

4. Kingston releases a sub-$100 AMIR 40GB X25-M G2 drive which suffers from a large decrease in max seq. write speed, a noticeable decrease in max. seq. read speed, and slight but not alarming decreases in everything else. Good buy for those with light OS installs wanting the SSD experience without forking the cash for a bigger drive.

Click to expand...

This looks like it might be a good choice for my laptop.

Marshmallow64 said:

wasnt trim already supported by 1.3 firmware for OCZ Vertex drives.

Click to expand...

FW 1.3 has GC in it not TRIM ,GC is an automatic running (during idle or S1 sleep) of the OCZ Wiper tool which has to be run manuely ..

New FW for Vertex & Agility series includeing both EX series is on the forum

FW 1.4 is TRIM & FW 1.41 is with more agressive GC for those running a raid setup which cannot recieve TRIM commands as of yet....

Damn, nothing new for vertex turbo yet x.x

Thank you for clearing that up for me. Anyone know if the 1.4 firmware update on ocz forums is the official one?

I want to get one of those Kingstons!!!!

It is already raining on Intel's TRIM parade: Intel pulls its TRIM firmware due to data corruption issues.

Intel really needs to beef up their SSD firmware QA.

Marshmallow64 said:

Thank you for clearing that up for me. Anyone know if the 1.4 firmware update on ocz forums is the official one?

Click to expand...

Yes it is ...

Mr Alpha said:

It is already raining on Intel's TRIM parade: Intel pulls its TRIM firmware due to data corruption issues.

Intel really needs to beef up their SSD firmware QA.

Click to expand...

Well thats good to know was going to try it this weekend. Guess not!

Ashura said:

4. Kingston releases a sub-$100 AMIR 40GB X25-M G2 drive which suffers from a large decrease in max seq. write speed, a noticeable decrease in max. seq. read speed, and slight but not alarming decreases in everything else. Good buy for those with light OS installs wanting the SSD experience without forking the cash for a bigger drive.

Click to expand...

Sounds like a netbook win to me.

Theres some caveats though; no TRIM support (yet) and can't be updated with Intel firmware despite being Intel hardware.

Theres some caveats though; no TRIM support (yet) and can't be updated with Intel firmware despite being Intel hardware.

Click to expand...

With the issues we're seeing, I don't think you'd want to update the firmware anyway.

nightelph said:

Sounds like a netbook win to me.

Theres some caveats though; no TRIM support (yet) and can't be updated with Intel firmware despite being Intel hardware.

Click to expand...

For me, I am going to wait until fast 120GB SSD's are affordable before I put them in my laptop
Though it is nice to see 40GB go under 100 bucks