Samsung 840 Pro Server Level Testing

[dominick32]

Well, I just built my new rig and figured I would run the SSD through the IOMeter test suite that i made for myself. I run various dedicated servers all over the U.S. and own multiple website and domains so any hardware i/o improvements are a must have and give the WOW factor to me.
I must say, I am extremely surprised at how much punch these SSD's are packing today.

Drive: Samsung 840 pro
Capacity: 256GB
Connection: SATA/600 (SATA III)
Motherboard: Asus Z77 Deluxe
Motherboard Port: Grey Intel Sata3 Port and Controller
**Note** For testing Purposes I tried the Marvell Port initially and was capped to about 40% the speed of the Intel Controller. Barely 347 MB/s sustained read and 35% less random reads/writes. So, for this test we will be using the Intel Controller which of course allows access to the full spectrum of the drives performance.
OS: Windows 7 Sp1 64bit
AHCI: Enabled in Bios
Latest RST Drivers

Testing Software:
1.) CrystalDiskMark

2.) Iometer
Queue Length Per Test: 32 workers (32 outstanding io's)
Testing Capacity: 20000000 Sectors (10GB of drive reserved for Iometer)
Testing Suite Test Areas: 512byte random read IOPS, 4k random read IOPS, 8k random read IOPS , 512byte random write IOPS, 4k random write IOPS, sustained read speed, sustained write speed.
Test Configuration: 100% Purely Random Access Distribution
Burst Length: 1 i/o
Testing Parameters: Web Servers and Database Networking with Specific Finite Average b and k size.

Hope you guys enjoy. Check out picture of results at bottom first.

1.) CrystalDiskMark
1 test, 100MB per test, 1Fill
Sequential Results: 525.00 MB/s Read 507.3 MB/s Write
512K Results: 462.4 MB/s Read 464.8 MB/s Write
4K Reusults: 35.66 MB/s Read 82.48 MB/s Write
4K Queue 32 Results: 406.30.00 MB/s Read 322.90 MB/s Write

2.) IOMeter Server Results
Test Specifications in Above Paragraph
512 byte Random Read: 126,000 IOPS (rounded off to nearest hundredth)
4 K Random Read: 101,000 IOPS
8 K Random Read: 57,000 IOPS

512 byte Random Write: 66,000 IOPS
4K Random Write: 36,000 IOPS

Sustained Read over 10GB : 533 MB/s
Sustained Write over 10GB: 505 MB/s

I dont think many people understand the scope of what these IOP numbers mean for servers and desktops alike. You are talking 10's of thousands of multiples faster than mechanical drives from only 5 years ago or so. To give you an idea of what server administrators used to deal with in terms of disk i/o before SSD's were around check out the iops of these mechanical drives compared to the new Samsung 840 Pro SSD:

Western Digital Raptor 150GB Iometer Results.
10,000 RPM Speed, SATA II
512 byte random read: 196 IOPS
4K random read: 194 IOPS
8K random read: 192 IOPS
512 byte random write: 317 IOPS
4K random write: 315 IOPS
8K random write: 310 IOPS

Seagate 7200.11 1TB Iometer Results
7200 RPM Speed, SATA II
512 byte random read: 149 IOPS
4K random read: 145 IOPS
8K random read: 147 IOPS
512 byte random write: 253 IOPS
4K random write: 245 IOPS
8K random write: 226 IOPS

Now compare those drives to the Samsung 840 Pro:
126,000 IOPS random read 512b
101,000 IOPS ' ' 4k
56,000 IOPS ' ' 8k
FOR 1 SINGLE DRIVE!

Imagine if you were a database administrator and all of a sudden the COO of operations in your company said here is a box of 100 Samsung Pro 840's, migrate to the these. Imagine what the DB and server admins must have felt like when SSD's got this point. Its crazy when you think about it, it really is. That is a staggering 500 TIMES MORE POWERFUL then a 150 GB Raptor at 4k random read specification.

Well, hope you enjoyed the quick review fellas.

-Dominick

 

[ASUS ROG]

That are some very inpressive number, imagine run 2 of them in raid 0
My Corsair force GT SF 2281 sata 6g won't even come close to that number.
If you have a chance, check out the OCZ revo drive x3, it performance will blow you away.

 

[Gen]

I'm considering the Samsung 840 (not pro) Series MZ-7TD250BW 250GB since it's on sale right now, but if this one has more reliability, i'll take one of these as well.

Thanks for taking the time to post your quick review.

 

[dominick32]

Thanks guys.
@Gen. I believe you can get the 256GB pro for 239.99 on newegg right now, and 229.99 on amazon. And I think the regular 840 can be had for 185.00 if I am not mistaken? So, it would be a 45.00 difference in price. But you get the MLC controller with the pro (not tthe new TLC). And a slightly (very slightly) faster random reading drive I would say 5 to 10 % faster random reads, random writes and sustained writes will be a 40% gain, but most people dont need sustained write or random write speed for a gaming rig since you will be doing mostly random reads after the OS and software installation. However, the pro drive would be very beneficial if you have task specific needs that require writing to the drive also. You also get a 5 year warranty on the 840 Pro vs. a 3 year warranty on the standard 840 drive with a longer mean time before failure of NAND.

In a nutshell. Is the 45.00 dollars more worth slightly faster reads, much faster writes, and a 5 year warranty?

Thanks again for the props.

Dom

 

[Gen]

Tiger has a 24 hour sale today for $150 for the 840(not pro) 250gb so i'm really scratching my head. The 5 year warranty for the pro vs 3 non pro makes it even harder to decide since I only have 12 hours left for the sale lol.

The promo code is WZX81952 ends 2/6/2013 11:59 PM ET for the non pro at tiger direct if anyone is interested, its a one day sale...
(If i'm not able to do this feel free to edit and remove and sorry in advance).

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

MLC is theoretically more reliable than TLC. It's too soon to determine if that will be true in actual use but the theory strongly supports it.

 

[dominick32]

MLC is theoretically more reliable than TLC. It's too soon to determine if that will be true in actual use but the theory strongly supports it.

I agree that the MLC 840pro is a more reliable drive vs. the TLC 840 for the time being. dDefinitely too soon to determine longevitiy with either of these two, but i would put my money on the pro for any enterprise or longevity needs.

 

[Boulard83]

great read

 

[dominick32]

great read

Thanks Boulard. Always nice to hear from you!