Recent content by Hellhammer

  1. Hellhammer

    Cheap VS expensive SSD

    I would say this topic is similar to buying a known-brand GPU vs buying a no-name one. The hardware is the same because many of these small brands use contract manufacturers anyway, making them practically marketing and logistics companies. The real difference is in support (and possibly add-on...
  2. Hellhammer

    Replicating 850EVO 1TB test

    If you can't find a suitable adapter, you might want to consider Transcend's JetDrive lineup. The drives are SM2246EN based, which isn't 850 EVO good but miles ahead of SandForce and the track record is solid. Pricing is also reasonable compared to what Apple would charge you.
  3. Hellhammer

    Replicating 850EVO 1TB test

    Ahh, I hadn't heard of that mod so I assumed it was the last (i.e. 2012) classic MBP. There is a possibility that the mod increases the chance of failure since it pulls more power than the system is designed to provide. This is especially true for Macs as Apple only validates specific drives...
  4. Hellhammer

    Replicating 850EVO 1TB test

    I'm still around, but I don't post that often since my view is biased in many topics now :) Anyway, the problem was confirmed to be the mSATA adapter I used to test (or the voltage regulator in the adapter to be exact). The voltage regulator couldn't provide enough power, hence the drive would...
  5. Hellhammer

    Discussion ITT: We predict how low the price floor on 120GB/128GB SSD drops

    Correct. The main reason of doing that is to provide a data point at which all SSDs are comparable since the default OP varies quite a bit.
  6. Hellhammer

    Samsung 850 EVO ReadSpeedTester results (slowdowns yes/no)?

    Ditto. 21nm is bitline half-pitch and it is the same as in 32L V-NAND. The 40nm and 3Xnm figures you see around are measuring a different part of the cell. Technically there is no right or wrong here, it's just a matter of context.
  7. Hellhammer

    Samsung 850EVO going up?

    http://www.businesskorea.co.kr/english/news/industry/15115-rising-chip-prices-prices-nand-flash-memories-sharply-rise-after-those-drams
  8. Hellhammer

    Beware SSDs with missing ATA features! (Team L7 EVO)

    Ahh, my bad then. I thought you meant the Samsung drive, hence my comment.
  9. Hellhammer

    Beware SSDs with missing ATA features! (Team L7 EVO)

    There is a Serial ATA logo on the right hand side.
  10. Hellhammer

    AT's best SSDs Q2 2016 article

    While being active in the forums is encouraged, it's not demanded. Every editor makes their own choice whether they want to participate in forums and social media, and from what I know Billy doesn't seem enthusiastic about either.
  11. Hellhammer

    True SSD capacity - GiB and GB vs overprovisioning?

    For what it's worth, SI prefixes (i.e. kilo, mega, giga, tera...) predate any computer. The mistake was made when someone decided that 1000 and 1024 are close enough, so it's okay to use the same prefixes for both. If you ask me, the problem is that Microsoft etc. are treating GB as GiB, while...
  12. Hellhammer

    True SSD capacity - GiB and GB vs overprovisioning?

    There is more if you count the spare bytes, but those are pretty much solely used for ECC purposes and aren't freely accessible by the controller. SanDisk Ultra II was a special case because it combined TLC NAND with a controller that wasn't designed for TLC. Hence SanDisk had to resort to a...
  13. Hellhammer

    Which PCIe SSD for MacBook Pro?

    Apple uses custom form-factor SSDs in Macs, so you can't just buy any drive from NewEgg. Currently, OWC is the only source for aftermarket SSDs for MBPs, but the downside is that they are slower than the SSDs Apple use (OWC's are just two SATA 6Gbps SSDs behind a RAID controller, which means...
  14. Hellhammer

    True SSD capacity - GiB and GB vs overprovisioning?

    1TB doesn't have to be exactly 1000^4 bytes. See the IDEMA spec for calculating advertised capacities (it's a download link so don't be surprised). Kingston UV400, like all client drives advertised as 480GB, start with 512GiB of raw NAND. Since the usable space is 480GB, the...
  15. Hellhammer

    Discussion ITT: We predict how low the price floor on 120GB/128GB SSD drops

    Or JMicron JMF680 aka Maxiotek MK8213/MK2815