Solid state drive performance
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Okay, so now Dan has me thinking about adding SDD to the mix. For those of you who have added these to the mix, a couple of questions. First, how much faster is I/O on one of these things versus a decent 10k SATA? 1x? 10x? HolyCrap!x? I know there are a variety of specs, but I'm talking overall perceived value here, as in "how long before this progress bar goes away?" Second, if I was only going to buy one, where would I get the best bang for the buck? C (for the benefit of the apps themselves), the data drive where I store, say, video files, or use it as the drive for the swap file, temp files, etc?
Christopher Duncan
www.PracticalUSA.com
Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes
Copywriting ServicesRunning a Sony Vaio from the "Windows Selection" when Windows 7 first came out. My laptop has a RAID 0 setup with 2 256GB SSD's. Side by side with every other developer in my company (3) my code compiles 10x faster. My machine boot up is right at or slightly over 7 seconds. There is absolutely nothing faster I have seen in a laptop, and I've got 3 of the same model Sony's, the other 2 are average at best running 7200 rpm (non Raid) drives. I've run these for about 6 months now, 0 problems, 0 trouble, -1 wait time. V
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Okay, so now Dan has me thinking about adding SDD to the mix. For those of you who have added these to the mix, a couple of questions. First, how much faster is I/O on one of these things versus a decent 10k SATA? 1x? 10x? HolyCrap!x? I know there are a variety of specs, but I'm talking overall perceived value here, as in "how long before this progress bar goes away?" Second, if I was only going to buy one, where would I get the best bang for the buck? C (for the benefit of the apps themselves), the data drive where I store, say, video files, or use it as the drive for the swap file, temp files, etc?
Christopher Duncan
www.PracticalUSA.com
Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes
Copywriting ServicesChristopher Duncan wrote:
First, how much faster is I/O on one of these things versus a decent 10k SATA? 1x? 10x? HolyCrap!x?
I've got Weven x64 running from an 128Gb SSD and were talking holy crap this thing is fast. To be able to use an SSD to its full potential, move everything that isn't part of the OS or applications to a seperate drive; magnetic or otherwise. SSD drives are not good when it come to multiple concurrent reads or writes; they are abysmally slow then. If you have enough ram, configure the system without a page file, this will speed things up as well. I have VS2008 and that will load from the mouse click to fully usable interface within 2 seconds. Outlook 2010 loads in less than a second. And Weven itself takes about 5 seconds to boot. In fact, my bios POST sequence takes longer than Weven does.
Christopher Duncan wrote:
Second, if I was only going to buy one, where would I get the best bang for the buck?
Personally, I'd get a smallish, high performance SSD drive and only have the OS and apps on it and leave the big data files on a seperate mechanical, well defragmented drive. One other thing, Weven, afaik, is the only Windows OS to support SSD drives. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRIM[^]
I think computer viruses should count as life. I think it says something about human nature that the only form of life we have created so far is purely destructive. We've created life in our own image. Stephen Hawking
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Okay, so now Dan has me thinking about adding SDD to the mix. For those of you who have added these to the mix, a couple of questions. First, how much faster is I/O on one of these things versus a decent 10k SATA? 1x? 10x? HolyCrap!x? I know there are a variety of specs, but I'm talking overall perceived value here, as in "how long before this progress bar goes away?" Second, if I was only going to buy one, where would I get the best bang for the buck? C (for the benefit of the apps themselves), the data drive where I store, say, video files, or use it as the drive for the swap file, temp files, etc?
Christopher Duncan
www.PracticalUSA.com
Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes
Copywriting ServicesChristopher Duncan wrote:
or use it as the drive for the swap file, temp files, etc?
IIRC, Windows uses the original EXE and DLL files as the swap files for the executables, so getting them on the SSD will help. Putting the page file on the SSD will definately speed up the rest of your virtual memory. Temp files.. depends on how they're used... and whether they're small enough and consumed fast enough to never go to disk. Keep the video files on spinning media. I've clocked the 5400 RPM 500GB spinning drive in my laptop at ~60 MB/sec sustained (sequential) write. Unless you're running a server, any modern spinning SATA drive will be fast enough.
patbob
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I was screwing around the other day in After Effects with just that, a guy getting sucked into a jet engine. Had seen a scene like that on Firefly and thought it would be fun to play with. For me. Not the guy. Just me. :)
Christopher Duncan
www.PracticalUSA.com
Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes
Copywriting Servicesand in the pilot episode of Lost and end sequence of the Incredibles (end sequence - don't wear a cape)
Steve _________________ I C(++) therefore I am
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and in the pilot episode of Lost and end sequence of the Incredibles (end sequence - don't wear a cape)
Steve _________________ I C(++) therefore I am
Apparently getting sucked into a jet engine is an ongoing preoccupation in Hollywood. :)
Christopher Duncan
www.PracticalUSA.com
Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes
Copywriting Services -
Apparently getting sucked into a jet engine is an ongoing preoccupation in Hollywood. :)
Christopher Duncan
www.PracticalUSA.com
Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes
Copywriting ServicesWhile working on a F-16 it almost happened to me (Getting sucked into the engine) luckily my commander caught me on time, wonder what my message would look like if he didnt't :)
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While working on a F-16 it almost happened to me (Getting sucked into the engine) luckily my commander caught me on time, wonder what my message would look like if he didnt't :)
Well, you know what they say... eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines! :)
Christopher Duncan
www.PracticalUSA.com
Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes
Copywriting Services -
Okay, so now Dan has me thinking about adding SDD to the mix. For those of you who have added these to the mix, a couple of questions. First, how much faster is I/O on one of these things versus a decent 10k SATA? 1x? 10x? HolyCrap!x? I know there are a variety of specs, but I'm talking overall perceived value here, as in "how long before this progress bar goes away?" Second, if I was only going to buy one, where would I get the best bang for the buck? C (for the benefit of the apps themselves), the data drive where I store, say, video files, or use it as the drive for the swap file, temp files, etc?
Christopher Duncan
www.PracticalUSA.com
Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes
Copywriting ServicesHmm, real world...work - dual quad xeon 6gb ram, 15k sas disk. home - hyperthreaded quad i7, 6 gb ram, 256 ssd (Samsung that came with dell studio xps 16). Let me put it this way, the laptop makes my bad a' work computer look like a rock, while the laptops a jet. Both use win7x64 and multiple visual studio's open at a single time, with outlook 2010. The laptop is literally instantaneous, it's dumbfounding fast. Best bang, use the SSD for the os disk with your programs and everything on it. Use a slower disk for storing data. But it also depends on what your doing as well.
I like dead people. They are quiet and happy with what you give them.
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Okay, so now Dan has me thinking about adding SDD to the mix. For those of you who have added these to the mix, a couple of questions. First, how much faster is I/O on one of these things versus a decent 10k SATA? 1x? 10x? HolyCrap!x? I know there are a variety of specs, but I'm talking overall perceived value here, as in "how long before this progress bar goes away?" Second, if I was only going to buy one, where would I get the best bang for the buck? C (for the benefit of the apps themselves), the data drive where I store, say, video files, or use it as the drive for the swap file, temp files, etc?
Christopher Duncan
www.PracticalUSA.com
Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes
Copywriting ServicesHi, I haven't done any benchmarking, nor have I timed my boot process or anything (so this might not help much as an answer) but I recently got an HP EliteBook 8540p at work which has a 160gb SSD in it... and Weven ranks it as 7.7 (I belive out of a possible 7.9?) for performance.
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Okay, so now Dan has me thinking about adding SDD to the mix. For those of you who have added these to the mix, a couple of questions. First, how much faster is I/O on one of these things versus a decent 10k SATA? 1x? 10x? HolyCrap!x? I know there are a variety of specs, but I'm talking overall perceived value here, as in "how long before this progress bar goes away?" Second, if I was only going to buy one, where would I get the best bang for the buck? C (for the benefit of the apps themselves), the data drive where I store, say, video files, or use it as the drive for the swap file, temp files, etc?
Christopher Duncan
www.PracticalUSA.com
Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes
Copywriting ServicesHolyCrap! I have the Intel 25 in a machine - very nice. Compliation of one project now takes about 1 min instead of 1:30 (but does have faster CPU too). I recently treated myself to a Quad SSD Vaio (http://www.sony.co.uk/product/vnp-z-series/vpcz11z9e-b) and OMG I am a total SSD convert. I have 2 striped WD Raptor's in my main dev machine and they are much slower than the laptop! So now, after spending far too much on a laptop, it is forcing me to spend more on a desktop ;-)
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Okay, so now Dan has me thinking about adding SDD to the mix. For those of you who have added these to the mix, a couple of questions. First, how much faster is I/O on one of these things versus a decent 10k SATA? 1x? 10x? HolyCrap!x? I know there are a variety of specs, but I'm talking overall perceived value here, as in "how long before this progress bar goes away?" Second, if I was only going to buy one, where would I get the best bang for the buck? C (for the benefit of the apps themselves), the data drive where I store, say, video files, or use it as the drive for the swap file, temp files, etc?
Christopher Duncan
www.PracticalUSA.com
Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes
Copywriting ServicesI bought a Crucial OCZ 120G. When I first put it in, it was definitely HolyCrap fast. Now I'm used to it, but when I use my colleague's laptop (exactly the same brand and model), I cannot believe how sluggish and unresponsive it is.
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Okay, so now Dan has me thinking about adding SDD to the mix. For those of you who have added these to the mix, a couple of questions. First, how much faster is I/O on one of these things versus a decent 10k SATA? 1x? 10x? HolyCrap!x? I know there are a variety of specs, but I'm talking overall perceived value here, as in "how long before this progress bar goes away?" Second, if I was only going to buy one, where would I get the best bang for the buck? C (for the benefit of the apps themselves), the data drive where I store, say, video files, or use it as the drive for the swap file, temp files, etc?
Christopher Duncan
www.PracticalUSA.com
Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes
Copywriting ServicesI bought an Intel X-25M 160gig to upgrade my laptop to Windows 7. When I got it I wanted to see how fast it really was, so I used a partition manager to move my old Vista system to the new drive. No other changes. Booting time went from 230 to 100 seconds. Starting VS2008 went from 44 to 14 seconds. Then I wiped it clean and installed Windows 7 64-bits... :omg: BTW: The old disk was a 7.2K Seagate Momentus
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Okay, so now Dan has me thinking about adding SDD to the mix. For those of you who have added these to the mix, a couple of questions. First, how much faster is I/O on one of these things versus a decent 10k SATA? 1x? 10x? HolyCrap!x? I know there are a variety of specs, but I'm talking overall perceived value here, as in "how long before this progress bar goes away?" Second, if I was only going to buy one, where would I get the best bang for the buck? C (for the benefit of the apps themselves), the data drive where I store, say, video files, or use it as the drive for the swap file, temp files, etc?
Christopher Duncan
www.PracticalUSA.com
Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes
Copywriting ServicesAdd to that, lifetime. How does the SSD lifetime compare to that of a magnetic hard disk? If I keep my page file on the SSD, will it wear out sooner? Etc., etc., etc.