[accesscomp] Dan's tip of the day
- From: "Bob Acosta" <boacosta@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "tektalk discussion" <tektalkdiscussion@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 17 Jan 2013 10:46:53 -0800
Hard disk drives vs. solid-state drives: Are SSDs finally worth the money?
- Computerworld September 2012 by Lucas Mearian
Note from Dan: There are many companies and sites for obtaining the drives
mentioned in this article. Readers can browse through these at the link below
which is the article's main page. The actual article is split up into four
pages on the web. However, I have put it all together here for ease of flow.
I have had several questions regarding comparing SSD hard drives. After much
research, this seems to be the best comprehensive resource.
I will post another article next week explaining hard drive and SSd operating
and makeup.
Below start the main article.
Three years ago, I wrote a story comparing hard disk drives to solid state
drives (SSDs) based on capacity, performance and cost.
A lot has changed in three years. For one, laptops are quickly being eclipsed
by tablets, which have NAND flash memory embedded on their motherboards. In
addition, operating systems like Windows 7 have been optimized to take
advantage of SSD I/O performance.
SSDs today are far more reliable, have greater endurance and perform better (in
some cases, two to three times better) than in 2009.
There are also new SSD categories. For example, hybrid drives combine NAND
flash cache memory with a spinning disk in a hard-drive form factor. In
addition, in adherence to Intel's new ultrabook computer specifications (PDF),
manufacturers are beginning to produce laptops with two drive slots, one for a
hard drive and the other for a low-capacity cache SSD which works with hard
disk drives to speed up boot and application load times.
Perhaps the single biggest change, though, is price. In 2009, SSDs cost around
$3 per gigabyte. That meant a 120GB SSD cost you more than $300. If you were
paying $700 for a laptop, it wasn't reasonable to expect to pay almost half
that for a new drive.
Today, however, SSDs cost close to one-third of what they did in 2009 -- in
many cases, less than $1 per gigabyte. For example, Crucial in July announced
its new low-cost v4 SSD that costs $100 for a 128GB model and $190 for a 256GB
model. This isn't unexpected; in January 2012, research firm IDC predicted that
prices of SSDs would tumble this year. (Of course, hard drive prices have also
plummeted. These days, you can pick up a 7200rpm, 1TB laptop hard drive for a
little more than $100. )
One thing hasn't changed, though: While they may never beat out hard drives in
price, SSDs will always have one major advantage: No moving parts. This means
no mechanics to break, even when a machine is jostled or dropped. SSDs are
natively more resilient than hard drives, particularly when it comes to mobile
applications.
A hard disk drive with mechanics vs. a solid state drive with NAND flash chips
(source: Intel)
Comparing SSDs and hard drives
As in my 2009 article, I tested an SSD and a popular, well-performing consumer
hard drive to see how they rate for performance, cost and general usability:
the Intel Solid-State Drive 520 Series (240GB capacity; $275 to $415) and
Western Digital's 500GB WD Black (previously called the Scorpio Black), a
7200rpm 2.5-in. hard disk drive with 16MB of DRAM ($112 to $262). I also
checked out a hybrid drive: Seagate's Momentus XT Solid State Hybrid Drive
(750GB; $195 to $324), which includes a 7200rpm 2.5-in. drive with a SATA 6Gb/s
interface. A 500GB version of Momentus sells for as little as $89.99.
(When requesting test units, I asked the companies for their highest-capacity
review models. While capacity affects SSD performance, it really doesn't affect
hard drive performance -- at least, not until the drive is filled.)
How I tested
For the benchmark tests, I used an Apple MacBook Pro running OS X Mountain
Lion, with 8GB of RAM and a 2.3GHz Intel Core i7 processor.
To measure read/write performance, I used the Blackmagic Disk Speed Test. To
determine file transfer speeds, I used a 1.19GB folder that held 327 JPG
images. The file was transferred from a desktop folder to the hard drive.
Additionally, I tested application load time by opening a 10MB PowerPoint
presentation and a 372-page, 300KB Microsoft Word document.
The Intel 520 Series SSD
I started with the Intel 520 Series SSD. According to the specifications from
the manufacturer, it had the best performance potential of all three drives I
tested.
The SSD was actually tested on two separate platforms: First, I ran the tests
described above using my MacBook Pro with an SATA 3.0 internal drive interface.
However, because SSDs will perform better right out of the box than after
they've been filled with data, I decided to also send the SSD to a professional
drive testing service, Calypso Systems, which benchmarks drives for drive
vendors and system manufacturers.
Testing the SSD with a MacBook
Microsoft Word opened in about two seconds, which would allow a user to begin
writing to the top of a document, or reading it, regardless of its size.
However, the Word document took 57 seconds to load all 372 pages, so you
couldn't access the later pages until it had finished loading.
Intel's 520 Series SSD
Opening a 10MB Power Point presentation took 2 seconds. Copying the 327 JPG
images took 15 seconds.
The Blackmagic benchmarking software recorded a maximum read rate of 456MB/sec.
and a write rate of 241MB/sec. using 4KB blocks.
Intel's specification sheet states that the 520 Series SSD sports sequential
read/write speeds of 550MB/sec. and 520MB/sec., respectively. I'm guessing that
those specs were attained using higher-end hardware, such as a storage array.
I also tested the Intel 520 SSD on a MacBook with a SATA 2.0 3Gbps interface.
The read/write speeds dropped significantly -- in this case, the 520 Series SSD
offered a maximum sequential read and write rate of 280MB/sec.
Intel's drive also took it easy on laptop batteries, sipping a maximum of 5.25
volts while operating and only 600 milliwatts when idle.
Testing the SSD using Calypso's service
Calypso Industries uses the Solid State Storage Initiative Performance Test
Specification (SSS PTS) and a standardized hardware platform to evaluate and
compare drive performance. Developed by the Storage Networking Industry
Association, there is no more accurate method to test drives.
Slower -- but still better
The drive I currently have installed in my MacBook Pro is an Intel 510 Series
SSD with 256GB of capacity. When I installed it about a year ago, the system
booted in about 25 seconds and shut down in about 2 seconds. Today, it boots in
45 seconds and shuts down in 7 seconds. It's slower than it was -- but believe
me, it's still a vast improvement over a hard drive.
My Outlook mailbox still loads in about 3 seconds and Word opens in 2 seconds.
Near instantaneous application load times are a wonderful luxury.
I could never go back to when I used a hard drive and I would turn my computer
on, go and grab a cup of coffee and come back to wait for it to continue
booting up. -- Lucas Mearian
The SSS PTS method requires that drives first be "conditioned" prior to
testing, meaning data is written to the SSD until its performance levels out.
New SSDs perform better than used ones because their controller chips don't
have to move existing data around to accommodate new data writes. They can just
stick the data anywhere without "thinking" about it.
Once all the blocks of an SSD have been used, however, then operations get more
complicated and drive performance slows and then levels out. So the SSS PTS
methodology calls for filling a consumer-class SSD to 75% of its capacity twice
before it is tested so that the results reflect real-world performance.
Calypso's throughput tests showed the Intel SSD handily outperforming both the
hybrid drive and, not surprisingly, the hard drive. The SSD had a blazingly
fast top random read throughput of 505MB/sec, and a random write rate of about
225MB/sec. More importantly, the Intel SSD had an average "steady state"
throughput of 223MB/sec. This means that most read and write operations will be
performed at 223MB/sec.
Western Digital WD Black hard drive
Unlike the two other drives tested in this review, the WD Black uses a SATA 2.0
(3Gbps) interface, not a SATA 3.0 (6Gbps) connection. Manufacturers don't make
laptop hard drives with a SATA 3.0 interface because the drive's performance
can't even fully use a SATA 2.0 interface.
Western Digital's WD Black hard disk drive After I installed it into my MacBook
Pro, the drive booted up in 20 seconds. Restart took just 21 seconds. While
that's not SSD or hybrid drive load time, it's not that far behind; the speed
can be attributed to the generous amount of DRAM on board. As the drive fills
up over time, I would expect those bootups to slow down significantly.
Opening a 300KB, 372-page Word document took 10 seconds, then an additional 38
seconds to load all the pages.
The second time I opened the document, the RAM cache had obviously kicked in.
The Word document opened in 2 seconds, and all 372 pages took only 25 seconds
to load. The third time I opened it, Word again loaded in 2 seconds and the
entire document loaded in 7 seconds, beating the SSD and hybrid drive alike. I
had not expected that.
Opening a 10MB PowerPoint slide took just 2 seconds, the same time as the
hybrid drive and the SSD.
Using the Blackmagic Disk Speed Test, the WD Black showed a sequential
read/write performance of 122.2 MB/sec. and 119.6MB/sec., respectively. Random
(as in Random Access Memory, or RAM) performance is where the drive fell flat:
the disk had a random write performance of 67.6 MB/sec and a random read
performance of 34MB/sec.
Random performance is particularly important as the drive begins to fill with
data and the read/write head must move across the spinning disk to locate the
information you want. That requires more and more time as more data fills the
drive.
Seagate's Momentus XT Solid State Hybrid Drive
There are industry analysts who believe the hybrid drive's time has come and
gone. If you blinked, you missed it.
I respectfully disagree.
Hybrid drives can be a bridge between hard drives and SSDs. They offer SSD
performance on critical operations such as boot up and application load times,
and provide vastly higher capacities for the money than an SSD.
Fang Zhang, an analyst with IHS iSuppli, says most consumers purchasing a $700
PC or laptop aren't going to spend hundreds of dollars on an SSD. Hybrid
drives, on the other hand, can be had for as little as 14 cents a gigabyte. For
example, a 500GB Seagate Momentus XT can be purchased on Amazon for $69.99. The
owner of that $700 laptop would be a lot more willing to spend one-tenth the
price for a significant storage-performance upgrade, Zhang contends.
On the other hand, is that what consumers are most concerned with? In the
immortal words of that Home Alone kid: I don't think so. I believe that the
average consumer is more concerned with capacity than performance. And with a
hybrid drive, you get both.
But while hybrids offer significant performance improvements over traditional
hard drives, like hard drives, they have mechanics (moving parts). If you drop
your laptop while it's powered up, there's a chance you'll damage the hard
drive component of a hybrid drive. That's another factor to think about when
deciding what type of drive to get.
Testing the hybrid
During its initial OS installation, the Momentus XT captures boot files and
places them in a special segment of the NAND flash where they remain for the
life of the drive. The feature ensures that the drive always boots from flash
and not from the spinning disk.
Seagates Momentus XT hybrid drive with the back cover removed
The drive also has an "Adaptive Memory" algorithm that monitors which
applications and data are initially loaded into a system and then "learns" to
place that data on the SSD to speed up performance. Over the course of three
boot-ups, system performance becomes optimized to each user's preferences.
In my benchmark tests of the Momentus XT, the initial boot up took 20 seconds,
the same as the WD Black hard drive. Then I rebooted -- and the Adaptive Memory
firmware kicked in and began optimizing the drive for my system. The second
boot took 15 seconds; by the third boot, the drive was down to 12 seconds --
very impressive.
Copying the 327 JPG images took 29 seconds. Opening a 300KB, 372-page Word
document took 1 second and then an additional 57 seconds to download all 372
pages.
On the second try, opening the Word document took 1 second again, but all 372
pages loaded in only 15 seconds. By the third try, the cache had really kicked
in and it loaded all 372 pages in 10 seconds.
When it came to using the Blackmagic benchmarking software, there was an
obvious problem: The software shows only the Momentus XT's hard drive
performance, and that doesn't really reflect the drive's true capabilities.
With that in mind: For sequential read/writes, the Momentus XT showed
106MB/sec. and 114MB/sec., respectively. On random read/writes, the drive came
back with 99MB/sec. and 90MB/sec., respectively. Those results demonstrate that
the SSD was not in use for these functions; these read/write speeds came from
the spinning disk in the drive. And, while very respectable for a hard drive,
the results come nowhere near SSDs' results, which are anywhere from 200GBs to
250GBs.
If you're looking for a hybrid drive, there aren't a lot of choices out there.
There's Seagate and, well ... Seagate. Last year, SSD maker OCZ introduced its
RevoDrive hybrid drive, but it came in a PCIe card form factor -- in other
words, unusable in a laptop. The RevoDrive is targeted for workstations and for
people working with high-bandwidth applications like video production, as well
as gamers who love the performance that a high-end, high-priced desktop system
offers.
Both Toshiba and Western Digital are rumored to be developing hybrid drives,
but neither company would confirm that anything is in the works.
Even if they never catch on in a big way, I think hybrid drives have a lot to
offer the average laptop user and they should be considered by anyone who is
upgrading a laptop or desktop system.
The bottom line
I recommended an SSD in 2009. Now, in 2012, I do it with even more enthusiasm.
A word on cache SSDs
Coming soon to a store near you: Laptops that sport two drives, a high-capacity
hard drive and a low-capacity solid state "cache" drive. By "low capacity," I'm
talking about 20GB to 50GB of storage space.
Cache SSDs come in several sizes. Most are 2.5-in. mini-SATA drives, just like
a typical laptop hard drive.
The cache SSD works in the same way as Seagate's Momentus XT: The OS and most
frequently used applications are loaded from the flash memory, while the files
and other less frequently used data are stored on the hard disk drive. The
result is a lower-cost laptop with similar performance to a laptop with just an
SSD.
Intel, Micron and OCZ are putting out cache SSDs; while Lenovo, Asus, Acer, HP
and Dell are beginning to build laptops and ultrabooks that use them. For
example, a number of Lenovo's ThinkPad and ThinkPad Edge notebooks support
cache SSDs.
The Asus Zenbook UX32VD ultrabook combines up to a 500GB hard drive with a 24GB
SSD. In fact, according to Intel's specifications, a device must use either a
cache SSD or a full-sized SSD to achieve the performance required to be called
an ultrabook. -- Lucas Mearian
To begin with, prices have dropped significantly. If you can afford to spend a
couple hundred dollars on even a 128GB SSD, it's a superior proposition to even
a 1TB hard drive. Why? The overwhelming majority of end users will never fill a
1TB internal drive, while just about everyone will be able to appreciate the
incredible performance boost that an SSD provides.
For the money, there is no other system upgrade that will give you the
performance boost of an SSD. That goes for consumers and data centers alike.
One caveat, though: Some may say that SSDs do not stop working or slow down
over time, as hard drives do. I've been using SSDs in my personal computers for
years now. Some do die and, just like a hard drive, they do slow down over
time. Don't let anyone tell you different.
If you do decide to go with an SSD, it's best to order it when you first buy
your system. That way, it can be configured correctly by the manufacturer,
which will optimize performance and ensure your system's warranty isn't voided.
However, even if you decide to throw an SSD into your existing system as an
upgrade, you'll still experience a significant boost in performance,
particularly on boot-up and application load times.
If you don't have a few hundred dollars to plop down on an SSD, a hybrid drive
is an excellent alternative. Of course, you're still dealing with a mechanical
drive that can break if a laptop is dropped while the drive is running, but
you'll still get performance vastly superior to a hard drive.
In the very near future, however, buying your own SSD may become a moot point
as new ultrabooks and other lightweight systems enter the market. At that
point, you may want to consider an entire system upgrade.
Below is a comparison chart.
SSD vs. HDD performance chart
Intel 520 Series SSD
Western Digital WD Black HD
Seagate Momentus XT Solid State Hybrid Drive
Capacity
240GB
500GB
750GB
Price
$229
$72
$134 ($89 for 500GB)
First/third boot-up time
12/9 sec.
20/21 sec.
20/12 sec.
Max. read speed (4K blocks)
456MB/sec.
122MB/sec.
106MB/sec.
Max. write speed
241MB/sec.
119MB/sec.
114MB/sec.
1.19GB file transfer
15 sec.
34 sec.
29 sec.
First/third time opening a 372-page Word doc.
57/10 sec.
48/9 sec.
58/10 sec.
Opening a 10MB PowerPoint document
2 sec.
2 sec.
2 sec.
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Psalms 91-1, "He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the
shadow of the Almighty.
Psalms 91-2, I will say of the Lord, he is my refuge and my fortress, my God in
whom I trust.
"
Robert Acosta, President
Helping Hands for the Blind
Email: boacosta@xxxxxxxxxxx
Web Site: www.helpinghands4theblind.org
You can assist Helping Hands for the Blind by donating your used computers to
us. If you have a blind friend in need of a computer, please mail us at the
above address.
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