What's the most reliable 512GB SSD for ~$300?

[exdeath]

LSI raid controllers rock for SSDs.

[exdeath]

Originally Posted by lehtv

3TB of SSD's? Seriously? Is there really no better way to spend money?

No.

4 x 240GB Patriot Wildfires + LSI 9260-4i and I did it for speed and don't even use 1/4 of the capacity.

We no longer make CPUs out of relays, so hard drives need to go away too.

With modern computers capable of performing trillions of operations per second and moving 50+ GB/sec of memory bandwidth, "Please wait loading..." needs to become a thing of the past.

[exdeath]

While you're at it, might I suggest doing this SSD array as a SAN and converting your LAN to TCP over 10 gigabit Infiniband.

[BFG10K]

Originally Posted by exdeath

With modern computers capable of performing trillions of operations per second and moving 50+ GB/sec of memory bandwidth, "Please wait loading..." needs to become a thing of the past.

You could have infinite I/O and that still wouldn’t happen as there are bottlenecks elsewhere.

The fact is, a RAID SSD setup isn’t going to be significantly faster than say, a single 1TB VelociRaptor, in the vast majority of game load times.

Here are a couple of RAM disk tests that confirm my own findings:

[Mfusick]

I see no link or charts

[serpretetsky]

Originally Posted by BFG10K

You could have infinite I/O and that still wouldn’t happen as there are bottlenecks elsewhere.

The fact is, a RAID SSD setup isn’t going to be significantly faster than say, a single 1TB VelociRaptor, in the vast majority of game load times.

Here are a couple of RAM disk tests that confirm my own findings:

I think it really depends on the game. I don't have enough data to disagree with you on your comment that the "vast majority" are not significantly faster, although i also don't know what you define as significantly faster.



http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...d,3062-12.html
http://www.anandtech.com/show/2614/14
http://techreport.com/review/23937/o...sd-reviewed/10

also, if any of your games experience stuttering during game content streaming then an ssd may decrease those stutters as well.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/2614/14
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/fea...me_performance
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...d,3062-13.html

I do believe there are appreciable differences in ssd vs hdd in gaming.

[Zap]

Originally Posted by exdeath

With modern computers capable of performing trillions of operations per second and moving 50+ GB/sec of memory bandwidth, "Please wait loading..." needs to become a thing of the past.

I think what will make loading 10x faster is not in increasing the performance of our storage, but in game makers getting rid of splash screens and clickthroughs. Seriously.

Example: Borderlands 2

You start the game in Steam, and it gives you a launcher with a menu. You click on Play, and then you get about six splash screens where you can either wait for the whole thing to go through, or you can madly click your mouse to hurry them along. Then it gets to the screen where it says "click to play" and you have to click, where it FINALLY loads the main game menu. If you don't click, it will start cycling through other splash screens and videos that you have to click to get back to the "click to play" screen.

What. The. Heck.

Really?

Then you start the game, choose the character, and finally... nope, can't play yet, because you have to verify that you made the right choices. Yes, another click.

Originally Posted by Mfusick

I see no link or charts

Site probably disallows hotlinking or something. Try opening these in a separate window/tab.

image 1

image 2

[BFG10K]

Originally Posted by serpretetsky

I think it really depends on the game. I don't have enough data to disagree with you on your comment that the "vast majority" are not significantly faster, although i also don't know what you define as significantly faster.

Let’s start with some tests I ran a while ago:



Note that these are in-game level load times (not starting up), so they’re not bottlenecked by cut scenes, Steam, user input, or anything else like that. You can see how close a 1TB VelociRaptor is to the SSD.

Now you might say “but what about six SSDs in RAID”? Well, see the “RAM” scores? That’s how fast the games would load if you essentially had infinite I/O performance. That means instant loads on a six-SSD RAID system are a pipe dream unless you were getting near-instant loads on the HDD anyway, in which case it doesn’t matter.

The RAM disk tests here back my findings (link fixed): http://www.behardware.com/articles/8...l-510-320.html

I’ve checked your results and my original comment stands: the fact is, a RAID SSD setup isn’t going to be significantly faster than say, a single 1TB VelociRaptor, in the vast majority of game load times. I mean some of your tests are using slow 5400rpm green drives.

Except Intel’s result, which was done on a VelociRaptor, but not on the new 1TB version, which is a lot faster than the old one. I’ve tested several games that experience in-game pausing/hitching (e.g. the Stalker series), and they weren’t significantly reduced on the SSD compared to the 1TB VelociRaptor.

The fact is that game streaming is generally designed so that regular HDDs can manage.

[serpretetsky]

Originally Posted by BFG10K

Let’s start with some tests I ran a while ago:



.

that's some indepth testing, thanks!
Did you do any testing on ssd effect on mininum framerate (load streaming stuttering) by any chance?

[AdamK47]

The ASRock Extreme11 and G.Skill memory are waiting for me at home. I should have it all together either tonight or tomorrow. After that, on to the SSD array! Right now it's looking like it will be six 512GB Vertex 4s.

[Insomniator]

I don't think there are 850 PC games worth playing... or games from any platform for that matter... even for benchmarking. Is this an epeen thing?

gl with the array

[AdamK47]

Yes

[jimhsu]

Game loading times are especially pertinent for games that stream content (nearly any MMORPG, most open world games, any TES games, etc). There load times matter less than frame rate stability. I wouldn't even imagine trying to play a heavily modded Skyrim setup on anything less than a SSD - the frame rate stability would probably be disastrous even on a Quad SLI setup. Last time I tried Borderlands 2 on a HDD (being too lazy to copy it to an SSD), it was a miserable experience.

For games that are level-based, or that have a single map (strategy games for instance), I think SSDs are a waste of premium space.

Still for the OP I think some written batch scripts (shouldn't take more than 10 minutes) to copy the data from your storage drives to your SSD, and back, would save a considerable amount of money. I don't have thousands in disposable income to spend, so to each their own.

[AdamK47]

[kache]

M4

[kache]

Incredible how much prices dropped. Just 1 year ago I bought a 256GB M4 for 360euro. Now can buy a 512GB M4 for that price...
I wonder if in 1 more year we'll be able to buy a 1TB SSD for that price...

[Mfusick]

Originally Posted by AdamK47

Very nice !

[Mfusick]

Originally Posted by AdamK47

I'm looking to get 6 of them to run in RAID-0.

You are my hero.

[AdamK47]

Here's one of the first tests I've performed on the array.



There are supposedly some further tweaking I can do with the controller, but honestly I'd be happy leaving the performance here. It's a bazillion times better than the 4TB Hitachi that's been used for my installs.

Edit: For comparison, this is my 256GB Vertex 4 on the Intel SATA3 controller. This drive is still used as my OS/Boot drive.

[Mfusick]

Wow!

That is some speed dude.

[Mfusick]

Was those benchmarks when the drive was bare and clean erased ???

[serpretetsky]

also, let us know if the raid fails in the near future for whatever reason. I'd be interested to know.

[AdamK47]

Yes, that benchmark was after creating the array.

I'll let you know if the array fails. I bought a 2 year replacement plan at Micro Center when I bought the drives. Only bought the plan for one drive. Micro Center doesn't attach the plan to any specific drive, so if any drive fails I can use it.

[KentState]

Originally Posted by exdeath

While you're at it, might I suggest doing this SSD array as a SAN and converting your LAN to TCP over 10 gigabit Infiniband.

Not enough bandwidth with 10 gigabit and the latency is much higher.

[Mfusick]

Originally Posted by AdamK47

Yes, that benchmark was after creating the array.

I'll let you know if the array fails. I bought a 2 year replacement plan at Micro Center when I bought the drives. Only bought the plan for one drive. Micro Center doesn't attach the plan to any specific drive, so if any drive fails I can use it.

lol.....

Slick.. 5 for one deal.