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Intel & Micron Announce 25nm NAND Flash Production

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This would be in line with what I have read for Intel's next gen SSD coming out in Q4 2010. They were saying the 160gb would sell for $225.

Hopefully they are able to work on their sequential read/write speeds too. If they can get those up to par with Indilinx and Sanforce & make incremental improvements on their random performance we are talking about a seriously dominating drive.
 
That is exciting news isn't it? I just used a 60GB OCZ Vertex Turbo in my new build and let me tell you, even when I haven't done the house keeping chores with it and it has slowed a bit, it's still significantly faster than a mechanical hard drive. Once I tune it up every couple of weeks, that sucker is hitting 200+ reads and 140+ writes.

For anyone considering an SSD, make sure you do your research and, for now, stay away from SSD's that use a Samsung controller. Idilinx controllers are much better. That is, of course, unless you're considering an Intel X25-M type drive. It uses the newest Samsung controllers and Intel has a great way of making the house cleaning duties very easy for the end users.

In particular, I'm talking about staying away from Corsair SSD's until they switch their controllers or implement the newer Samsung controllers. As of now, Corsair SSD's suck due to the controllers they are using.
 
That is exciting news isn't it? I just used a 60GB OCZ Vertex Turbo in my new build and let me tell you, even when I haven't done the house keeping chores with it and it has slowed a bit, it's still significantly faster than a mechanical hard drive. Once I tune it up every couple of weeks, that sucker is hitting 200+ reads and 140+ writes.

For anyone considering an SSD, make sure you do your research and, for now, stay away from SSD's that use a Samsung controller. Idilinx controllers are much better. That is, of course, unless you're considering an Intel X25-M type drive. It uses the newest Samsung controllers and Intel has a great way of making the house cleaning duties very easy for the end users.

In particular, I'm talking about staying away from Corsair SSD's until they switch their controllers or implement the newer Samsung controllers. As of now, Corsair SSD's suck due to the controllers they are using.


Corsair Extremes uses Idilinx controllers. :confused:
 
I love my 2x 80Gig drives currently, just hope they make the drives have a little faster write cycle time. That would help out performance wise a little bit as well. Then agian I'd really like SATA3 in there.

As well an external SSD drive and replace my portable 250Gig I have currently. Smaller, lighter and able to withstand more abuse.

Not getting a new SSD til we hit some SATA3 controllers and good speeds with them + I'd get a card for the PC or get a mobo with a support built in.
 
I'm really looking forward to getting a i3 lappy with an SSD. Soon hopefully!

It'll probably run better than my overclocked desktop =D
 
Corsair Extremes uses Idilinx controllers. :confused:

Then I wouldn't hesitate to use that SSD either. But the majority of their SSD's use the Samsung controller and they suck. One quick look into their forums will show you that. But that's why I said to do your research. I just used Corsair as an example because they are one of the worst people to get SSD's from. Unless you get the one with the Inilinx controller. :rock:
 
It was the Jmicron controller that was the POS.

I have a 60GB OCZ Summit (samsung controller) with GC firmware and Im hitting 230/150 (rated 220/135). Indillinx does seem to be the best though, agreed.
 
I wouldn't say samsung sucks, it is very overpriced though.

Indilix found the sweet spot in performance / price.
 
Just to provide some clarification..

1. Samsung controllers don't suck. The Corsair P-series, and several others, use Samsung controllers with 128MB of cache and they're actually very quick little drives. They might not bench as fast as the Indilinx based SSDs, but there are several real-world application tests showing the Samsung based SSD beating them all (most likely due to larger cache).

2. Corsair X-series doesn't have TRIM even though it's Indilinx-based. So buying that drive over another brand that does have TRIM with the same controller would be bone-headed to say the least.

3. Intel drives use Intel controllers. They have about the fastest read time out of them all, but writes are slower, except for small writes, which are faster than any other drive. So in day-to-day use, the Intel will perform better, but when copying big files and such, the Samsung or Indilinx controller based SSDs will perform faster. Just depends on user preference here.

4. Toshiba is now building SSDs as well, with same brand controller and memory. Very new product, but look good overall. Somewhere in the middle of Samsung and Indilinx as far as speed goes.

5. OCZ and several other makers will be releasing SSDs based on SandForce controllers. Will be the fastest thing out for sure - until 4-6 months from now, when a new faster controller emerges.
 
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My reason for saying Samsung controllers used in specifically Corsair drives suck is due to the lack of TRIM support or any other easy to use house cleaning utilities. That isn't Corsairs fault beyond using those particular Samsung controllers in the first place. But when compared to Intel's controller, and I was wrong on the type of controller Intel uses...don't know why I wrote that cause I knew better, and the Indilinx based controllers, the Samsung controllers used by Corsair in the majority of their drives sucks.

Unless you think having to use a data destructive, labor intensive, multiple step drive clearing and cleaning process to regain performance, then having to reimage your OS or reinstall an OS doesn't suck.

The reason I gave for buying OCZ SSD's is because even if you should inadvertently buy one of their Gen 1 drives, OCZ has extensive, non-data destructive methods by which to keep those drives performing in top condition. As Corsair updates their drives to the newer Samsung controllers, which might be why I made the mistake of saying Intel uses newer Samsung controllers, it will fine to buy Corsair drives. But so far, the drives Corsair has sold with fairly newish Samsung controllers have sucked because those Samsung controllers sucked.

As I mentioned, do your research to make sure the SSD you purchase is using a controller that doesn't require user intensive methods to keep working at the higher performance levels you're paying such a premium for over a traditional mechanical drive.
 
Corsair drives dont have firmware for TRIM or Garbage collection?

EDIT: Here is a link saying they should get it soon: http://www.legitreviews.com/news/6703/

EDIT: I think its available... Check the Corsair forums. ;)

Q: Will the performance of my P-Series SSD reduce over time?
A: P-Series SSDs with firmware VBM18C1Q offers a “Performance Recovery” feature, which allows the controller to maintain optimal performance over time. For this feature to function the SSD must have at least 15% free space available and be formatted using the NTFS file system. The PC or laptop must then be cold-booted (i.e. turned on from a full power-off state, not a ‘reset’) and left in an idle state for one hour, after which time full performance will be restored.

Q: Does my P-Series SSD support the TRIM function in Windows 7?
Firmware versions VBM18C1Q and earlier do not support the TRIM function. Future firmware versions with TRIM support will be made available as and when they are released by Samsung (the manufacturer of the controller IC).

So it looks like its out.
 
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P-series from Corsair has had TRIM since mid-Dec, X-series still doesn't have TRIM but looks like it will appear fairly soon (according to Corsair).
 
Corsair drives dont have firmware for TRIM or Garbage collection?

EDIT: Here is a link saying they should get it soon: http://www.legitreviews.com/news/6703/

EDIT: I think its available... Check the Corsair forums. ;)



So it looks like its out.

No offense, but they have a data-destructive method to get ONLY the P-series drive to use Trim. And even then, it isn't guaranteed that trim will be enabled. They also use a round-a-bout way to get it done. Not exactly user friendly for enthusiasts. Forget the common user.

The new Samsung firmware and updater tool have completed internal qualification and BETA testing and has been released.

A couple important notes and warnings: Even though this has been released there are still some reasons why it may not work for everyone:

[1] You will need to use a System or MB that will boot and run Microsoft DOS 6.22 or 7.0 and be able to see a SSD Drive set to IDE Mode. (You cannot use a RAID card or an on board controller set to RAID and run this update)

[2] This tool will only work on Corsair P64, P128, and P256 drives.

[3] This tool WILL ERASE the contents of the drive. All data will be lost. You must back up your DATA prior to doing this update.

[4] This tool has been qualified on X86 Based Hardware ONLY with the above listed restrictions and limitations..

[5] This tool must be run from a bootable USB drive. There have been some users in the BETA program that used other methods but at this time they would not officially be supported.

[6] This update has been developed by Samsung to enable Windows 7 Trim Support on NTFS-formatted SSDs. We do not recommend or support its use on any other platforms.

Please read the Firmware Download Guide (attached) and if you are not able to follow these steps as outlined we would not suggest running this update. This utility is supplied as-is, and is NOT guaranteed to run on all systems, regardless of operating system, CPU, drive format, or other factors. Using this utility WILL ERASE the contents of the SSD being reprogrammed. Use this utility at your own risk; Corsair can not be responsible for any damages other than to the P-Series SSD, which is covered under Corsair’s standard warranty. Note that using this utility does not impact in any way the warranty on your P-series SSD.

And as far as their even more expensive Extreme series:

Q: Will the performance of my X-Series SSD reduce over time?
A: Actual X-Series FW does not offer any Performance Recovery/Garbage Collection but it is possible to restore the performance of an X-Series SSD by performing a secure-erase using the DOS utility HDD Erase

Yet another data detructive method that isn't even considered house keeping. This is house rebuilding!

My OCZ SSD, like all SSD's, needs some type of house keeping chores done to keep their performance levels high. It's just the nature of the beast for now. My house keeping chores, once set up once, take all of 20 minutes to run. When this next FW revision goes live, I refuse to beta test it, we will have an even easier method to maintain drive performance.

I'm just not impressed with what I've read on the Corsair forums about their own drives. Too many people standing around wondering what was going to happen next, when it would happen and what would be the end result once something happened. Me, I like that stuff to be put out up front. If I'm going to spend $300 on an SSD, that sucker better already support Trim in Win7, it better have good tools and it better be easy enough for one of my kids to do if I'm out of town. And I shouldn't have to reflash the damned thing to get there either. It was a poor choice by Corsair to go with the Samsung controllers they did. Pure and simple. And I bet you OCZ is selling more SSD's to consumers like you and I than Corsair because of it.

If anyone here loves Corsair, great! I do too! I've used their memory for years, and currently in both machines I have in the house, and their PSU's. Just put in a TX950 in my main rig. It's just this one area they aren't all that great in. And it's the Samsung controllers and the lack of timely support from Samsung to Corsair that has caused it.

I just don't think Corsair is there yet. Not on most of their drives anyway.

As always, it's best to do some in depth research before you buy something. That's even more important with SSD's. I went with OCZ's product due to the level of support they have in their forums by their employees, the performance, the house keeping duties and the controllers they use now and intend to use here soon.
 
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