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256 or 512 GB ssd

P

paulobao

Junior Member
Hi everyone,

this is my first post here 🙂
I've bougth a Toshiba Tecra R840-16 last February! It had everything I wanted except a SSD (have a 500 GB hdd 7200rpm).
Now I plan to upgrade (?) to a ssd. After lot of web reading I choosed a Plextor M3Pro!
My problem is that it seems (from the specifications) that the 512 GB model is slower that the 256 or 128 models (the rand. read and write IOPS)!
My questions:
- is this true?
- would I expect that the 512 GB model should have more power consumption?

So my question remain: 256 or 512 GB?

Regards,
paulo
 
How much space do you need? That would seem to be the most important question

In general, 512Gig drives are a little slower then 256gig, BUT you would probably only be able to tell in benchmark scores, not real-world usage.

Since this is a laptop, does it even have SATA III ports? I'd probably try and save money and go with a Plex M3S or M5S, or even a Crucial M4. (I'd say Sammy 830 as well, but they have the highest power draw, and you are using a laptop)

You won't be able to tell the difference between M5S, M3S, or M3P anyway in normal usage.
 
Thanks for the answer!
I think the laptop have SATA III.
About the space I need: ??? I use it for the usual web surfing and Office tasks but most of all for my hobbie: astrophotography! So I have about 70 GB of sw installed in it! About all my data is stored in a separate portable USB 3.0 hdd so I do no not usually store much data in my laptop!
I do not play games or see movies in the laptop too!

I have an old (7 years old) Toshiba Satellite MX30 running XP, with about everything I have in the new one (except the CS5 suite) as a backup!!! (what it was my salvation since this new one got an BSOD last week an I needed to install everything again (my fault because I had not made an image ogf it!)

paulo
 
GarfieldtheCat said:
How much space do you need? That would seem to be the most important question

In general, 512Gig drives are a little slower then 256gig, BUT you would probably only be able to tell in benchmark scores, not real-world usage.

Since this is a laptop, does it even have SATA III ports? I'd probably try and save money and go with a Plex M3S or M5S, or even a Crucial M4. (I'd say Sammy 830 as well, but they have the highest power draw, and you are using a laptop)

You won't be able to tell the difference between M5S, M3S, or M3P anyway in normal usage.
Click to expand...

This^ Pick a size (256GB or 512GB) and buy whichever is priced the lowest. At 256GB, the m4 is usually the cheapest. The 830 has come down to $180 a few times, and the M3 has been $140 & $170 the in past week. At 512GB, it's going to be difficult to beat the M3 (5 year warranty), which is currently priced at $370 on Newegg. Needless to say, these prices could change minutes after this post 🙂

hhhd1 said:
Absolutely not !!

Samsung 830 has one of the lowest available power usages.
Click to expand...

??? 😵

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5851/plextor-m3-pro-256gb-review/9
 
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Jocelyn84 said:
??? 😵

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5851/plextor-m3-pro-256gb-review/9
Click to expand...

I am glad you posted this link, from it:

I would like to note that the power used during I/O actions is only one aspect of total power consumption. If you have a fast drive, it will obviously complete I/O tasks quicker (some might be familiar with the term "race to idle") and hence spend less time writing/reading and more time idling. In terms of laptop battery life, idle power consumption is the most important aspect
Click to expand...

Samsung idle power usage = 0.38w
 
hhhd1 said:
I am glad you posted this link, from it:



Samsung idle power usage = 0.38w
Click to expand...

I feel like I knew this at some point, but it was erased from my mind lol. Thanks for posting what was right in front of me and this is not sarcasm 🙂
 
Definitely the 512GB. I'll choose capacity over speed anytime assuming that they are both SSDs and the speed difference isn't that big. While the 512GB might be slower, it is only slightly slower which might even be fast enough that you wouldn't be able to tell the difference between the 256GB or 512GB unless you're running benchmarks.
 
I would watch the prices to wait for a drop if only for a couple hours. Right before I bought my intel 520 series SSD the price went from $265 (usd) down to $199.99, only to go back up to the original price hours after my purchase. I'm not too sure on speed, but if it were me I'd choose the one that's known to be more reliable and has a good warranty.
 
hhhd1 said:
Absolutely not !!

Samsung 830 has one of the lowest available power usages.
Click to expand...

completely not true for the 512gb it sucks power when it is working so don't put in your laptop if power draw is an issue. idle time is only important if you are idling. I have seen the 512gb pull 15 watts total power vs 10 watts total power on seagate thunderbolt adapter . the testing was in comparison to a crucial m4 512gb.


it measured total power pulled with a mac mini at idle and calling up disk utility to format the disk. the samsung spikes at 15 watts during the partition the crucial spikes at 10 watts. I did hours of different tests and don't think anyone should use a 512gb samsung in a laptop. Every one with power used shows the samsung 512gb spikes when writing. Done in 4 or 5 different setups with 2 different samsung 512gb ssds. Compared to 3 different crucial m4 ssds and a few intel 520 series and 330 series.


yeah it idles at low power but it sucks hard on the battery when it wants power. Of course if your laptop is almost never mobile and runs on a wall wart + battery it is less of an issue.
 
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Thanks!
I'm in portugal but I will buy it from germany!
At this moment the new M5Pro 512 GB is 76 euro less that the M3Pro 512 GB!!!

paulo
 
Yes, get the M5 Pro. I'm actually a little jealous, because the 256GB & 512GB aren't available in the us yet. 🙂
 
Yes, the M3P only got better with newer firmware and I'm sure the M5P will not be any different. I'd probably go with whichever was priced lower to be honest 🙂
 
philipma1957 said:
completely not true for the 512gb it sucks power when it is working so don't put in your laptop if power draw is an issue. idle time is only important if you are idling.
Click to expand...

You are wrong, SSDs stays idle 99%+ of the time, that is under average usage and not in special situations, how often do you format the drive ??

SSDs are capable of doing 500mb/s, regular applications never requires that much, .. on average, the read speed rarely spikes above 1mb/s, so it read 1mb, then stay idle ...
 
philipma1957 said:
completely not true for the 512gb it sucks power when it is working so don't put in your laptop if power draw is an issue. idle time is only important if you are idling. I have seen the 512gb pull 15 watts total power vs 10 watts total power on seagate thunderbolt adapter . the testing was in comparison to a crucial m4 512gb.
Click to expand...

You are looking at the wrong thing. In almost all cases, what matters is NOT the power draw of the SSD, but rather the energy used per byte written. That can be computed as Power consumed / Write speed.

If you compute that for the Samsung, you will find that the Samsung is middle of the pack for energy used per byte.

However, as others have pointed out, the Samsung is among the best for idle power (tied for first place with the Plextor M5P and M5S, in fact).

Here is a nice chart, although in French (should be translated to English soon on behardware.com). In the energy efficiency chart, they plot the inverse of energy used per byte written ("Debit en Mo/s per watt" -> "throughput in MB/s per Watt") so the best SSDs have a high number. Best there is the Plextor M3P with 154 MB/s per W.

http://www.hardware.fr/articles/860-24/consommation-efficacite-energetique.html
 
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hhhd1 said:
You are wrong, SSDs stays idle 99%+ of the time, that is under average usage and not in special situations, how often do you format the drive ??

SSDs are capable of doing 500mb/s, regular applications never requires that much, .. on average, the read speed rarely spikes above 1mb/s, so it read 1mb, then stay idle ...
Click to expand...

I know you weren't quoting me this time and as I posted above, I do agree with you. I think it was the M5 Pro review that confused me, which stated, "Given that the M3 Pro had such a great power efficiency, I really hope Plextor can provide a firmware with more efficient power characteristics." According to what was said in the M3 Pro review (linked above), the M5 Pro is just fine even if it does use slightly more power than the M3P & 830. Anyway, that's where the original confusion came from in my mind 🙂

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6153/plextor-m5-pro-256gb-review/9
 
hhhd1 said:
You are wrong, SSDs stays idle 99%+ of the time, that is under average usage and not in special situations, how often do you format the drive ??

SSDs are capable of doing 500mb/s, regular applications never requires that much, .. on average, the read speed rarely spikes above 1mb/s, so it read 1mb, then stay idle ...
Click to expand...

when a samsung 512gb starts to write it power spikes every time .. not just on a partition. those spikes are not an issue if you have a good power supply. power usage long term and power usage via spikes are not the same and in no part of my post did I say it runs the battery down super fast. but read this each and every time you begin to write to the ssd it spikes further then any ssd I tested .

So if you have a less then ideal power supply it is not the best ssd to use. If you have a laptop and you are the type to run the laptop battery very low it is not the best ssd.
 
philipma1957 said:
So if you have a less then ideal power supply it is not the best ssd to use. If you have a laptop and you are the type to run the laptop battery very low it is not the best ssd.
Click to expand...

15W is only 3A @ 5V. If you have a PSU that cannot handle that, then it is a pathetic PSU.

Lithium batteries are very good at providing high current. A 3A (or whatever, depending on the battery pack voltage) spike from a Lithium battery should be no problem.
 
Ok, I've received a note that the SSD will be dispatched to me tomorrow 🙂
I hope to not regret I bought this and not the M3P!

About energy consumption (and since the ssd is for a laptop), from the plextor website:

M5P : 0.25W (Mobile Mark)
M3P : 0.7 W (idle)/ 2.8W (active)

But at the Anand review it seems the opposite :-(

paulo
 
I've never seen an SSD manufacturer's power specification that I trust. I'm not sure how they measure them, and terms like "active" are ambiguous, since SSDs can be active with many different types of workloads. Even idle power is ambiguous, since there could be idle-time GC going on (or not), or there could be an idle mode and an even lower-power mode where the controller has gone into a deep sleep (and is slower to respond).

Anyway, I think that with the Plextor M3P and M5P, you can safely say that, most of the time, the M5P will have similar idle power to the M3P but the M5P will use more energy per byte written for most or all write workloads. I say this because hardware.fr and anandtech's measurements seem to agree with the latter conclusion.
 
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jwilliams4200 said:
I've never seen an SSD manufacturer's power specification that I trust. I'm not sure how they measure them, and terms like "active" are ambiguous, since SSDs can be active with many different types of workloads. Even idle power is ambiguous, since there could be idle-time GC going on (or not), or there could be an idle mode and an even lower-power mode where the controller has gone into a deep sleep (and is slower to respond).
Click to expand...

I know this is a bit off-topic but I'm still disappointed that I couldn't get my hands on better power testing equipment. My plan was to borrow a set of Vernier tools but the ammeter maxed out at 0.6A which isn't enough to test SSDs (would have capped us to 3W and many SSD consume more than that). With the right tools, I should have been able to run for example our Storage Suites and see how much power was used during the whole test.
 
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