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

[cbn]

i suspect 120gb will eventually drop to this level
http://www.ebay.com/itm/272219177510?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

22$ for a sm2246xt (same as sandisk ssd plus) isnt all that bad. when flash gets cheaper, 120gb will eventually cost that much.

Interesting. Thanks for posting that.

The ebay seller (xtrememicro) also has KingFast K6 F6 32GB 2.5" for $15.54 shipped and KingFast K6 64GB 2.5" for $25.69 shipped.

The Hectron brand doesn't have a website (my guess is they might be a house brand of xtenme micro based on this post), but the KingFast one does here.

Unfortunately for KingFast I found they actually had an incident of a fake SSD send directly to TheSSDReview (of all places):

http://www.thessdreview.com/daily-n...w-sample-ssd-contains-fake-nand-flash-memory/

Arguably, the two most important components of an SSD are the controller and NAND flash memory. In the memory industry, manufacturers may dispose of sub-par memory on the open market where, at least in the case of SSDs, more suitable applications may be found.

The potential downside to this commonplace practice is the memory has the potential to be counterfeited and sold, while often suffering performance or capacity concerns.

Up until this report, we have yet to see any instances of counterfeit SSDs. This analysis provides pictures, identification and full analysis of a fake SSD, offering the consumer a tool to assist should they ever believe that their SSD ‘just isn’t quite what it seems’.

I didn't realize there was such a thing as a fake SSD till I read that, but it does give a background on how surplus Memory and NAND is handled on the open market to some degree.

Still with that mentioned and noted, I am not against these off brand SSDs. Some might be legitimate with the lowered cost simply due to not having a presence in the US (rather then being lower quality). But certainly as a community I think it would be good if we could get together and benchmark these as a way of determining the quality of the components.

P.S. For anyone reading this the Hectron SSD is shipped directly from China and comes with a 60 day DOA warranty. According to the product description the buyer pays 50% of the return shipping (to China) if it needs to be returned, and XtremeMicro will charge a 10% restocking fee if it is found working.

 

[StrangerGuy]

I can imagine HDD execs are kept awake with SSD nightmares by now, because their beloved GB/$ is an irrelevant metric once SSDs are the lowest cost storage solution in the consumer markets where price alone is the #1 priority.

 

[hojnikb]

Picked from another forum, here is the Gloway 60GB bench.

Pretty decent for a 60GB budget drive, but nothing to write home about.
I suspect Hectron will perform similarly, given that it uses the same kind of controller and it's rated for similar writes (according to seller anyway).

Will test, once i get it :=)

 

[VirtualLarry]

i suspect 120gb will eventually drop to this level
http://www.ebay.com/itm/272219177510?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

22$ for a sm2246xt (same as sandisk ssd plus) isnt all that bad. when flash gets cheaper, 120gb will eventually cost that much.

Interesting. Thanks for posting that.

The ebay seller (xtrememicro) also has KingFast K6 32GB 2.5" for $15.54 shipped and KingFast K6 64GB 2.5" for $25.69 shipped.

The Hectron brand doesn't have a website (my guess is they might be a house brand of xtenme micro based on this post), but the KingFast one does here.

Still with that mentioned and noted, I am not against these off brand SSDs. Some might be legitimate with the lowered cost simply due to not having a presence in the US (rather then being lower quality). But certainly as a community I think it would be good if we could get together and benchmark these as a way of determining the quality of the components.

P.S. For anyone reading this the Hectron SSD is shipped directly from China and comes with a 60 day DOA warranty. According to the product description the buyer pays 50% of the return shipping (to China) if it needs to be returned, and XtremeMicro will charge a 10% restocking fee if it is found working.

I must be partially crazy. I like shiny things. I bought multiples of the Hectron 60GB and the KingFast 32GB.

I want to give them a workout, hopefully they don't crap out on me.\

Edit: Bought a couple of Gloway Fervent 60GB SSDs too, for ~$25 shipped from same vendor. Figured I'd get a variety to benchmark. Hopefully, none of them will be "fake" (non-working or fake capacity). As long as they are the proper capacity and are functional, I'm not going to complain about the performance, assuming that they bench as well as the benchmark image prior in this thread.

 

[cbn]

I must be partially crazy. I like shiny things. I bought multiples of the Hectron 60GB and the KingFast 32GB.

I want to give them a workout, hopefully they don't crap out on me.\

Edit: Bought a couple of Gloway Fervent 60GB SSDs too, for ~$25 shipped from same vendor. Figured I'd get a variety to benchmark. Hopefully, none of them will be "fake" (non-working or fake capacity). As long as they are the proper capacity and are functional, I'm not going to complain about the performance, assuming that they bench as well as the benchmark image prior in this thread.

Here is a benchmark on the KingFast K6 64GB:

http://www.alter.si/tabla/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/2425526/Main/1916353/ (scroll down to the middle of the page)

That sequential read seems a bit low, but that sequential write is good for such a low capacity.

Looking forward to seeing how your 32GB Kingfast K6s do.

 

[cbn]

According to the following link the Kingfast K6 uses the SM2246XT DRAM-less controlle and MLC NANDr:

http://item.jd.com/10144734966.html

And according to the link below, the Kingfast F6 (which we haven't mentioned yet) uses the DRAM-less JMF608 controller and MLC NAND.

https://kfast.en.alibaba.com/produc...ler_2_5_Sata3_SSD_60GB_Solid_State_Drive.html

 

[VirtualLarry]

Here is a benchmark on the KingFast K6 64GB:

That sequential read seems a bit low, but that sequential write is good for such a low capacity.

Looking forward to seeing how your 32GB Kingfast K6s do.

Thanks for the benchmark. I expect that, given that the 32GB has half the capacity, that the write speeds for my units will be half of that.

Edit: My KingFast 32GB SSDs are the "F6" model type.

From that linked alibaba page for the F6:
SSD Capacity: 60GB
Size: 2.5"
Interface Type: SATA
Speed: read 380mb/s write 65mb/s, read 380mb/s write 65mb/s

So, I wonder if I'll get half of 65MB/sec write speeds? Ouch, that's pretty low. Then again, 32GB is a pretty small size SSD, I should probably have expected that going in.

 

[hojnikb]

Maybe they use smaller dies for 32GB version (64Gbit possible ?).
Then a similar write speed is likely.

 

[cbn]

Thanks for the benchmark. I expect that, given that the 32GB has half the capacity, that the write speeds for my units will be half of that.

Edit: My KingFast 32GB SSDs are the "F6" model type.

From that linked alibaba page for the F6:
SSD Capacity: 60GB
Size: 2.5"
Interface Type: SATA
Speed: read 380mb/s write 65mb/s, read 380mb/s write 65mb/s

So, I wonder if I'll get half of 65MB/sec write speeds? Ouch, that's pretty low. Then again, 32GB is a pretty small size SSD, I should probably have expected that going in.

My mistake, the KingFast 32GB for $15.54 shipped was "F6" not "K6". (I'll go back and fix the mistake in the original post).

 

[cbn]

Maybe they use smaller dies for 32GB version (64Gbit possible ?).
Then a similar write speed is likely.

Here are some reviews on the 32GB Kingfast F6 from Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Kingfast-Sat...dp/B00MSSERBA?ie=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0

One reviewer mentioned a sequential write of 35 MB/s and sequential read of 243 MB/s.

 

[cbn]

Another cheap SSD with SMI SM2246XT controller and MLC NAND :

KingSpec 64GB (with advertised 485 read and 85 write) for $23.04 with free shipping for orders $49.00 or more:

https://www.amazon.com/Kingspec-SAT..._cp_147_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=X68C21P1ZJ9WCNJ64GJD

EDIT: Also available on Aliexpress for $22.61 free shipping ---> http://www.aliexpress.com/store/pro...d-Drive-KingSpec-SSD/510887_32392506033.html#!

 

[hojnikb]

Just got my Hectron x1

Bench

Uses sm2246xt as expected (4 channel version) and hynix 16nm flash.

Firing up SMI mass production tool yield some interesting stuff to tweak

Anyone with a 2246xt drive brave enough to tweak it ?

 

[VirtualLarry]

Here are some reviews on the 32GB Kingfast F6 from Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Kingfast-Sat...dp/B00MSSERBA?ie=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0

One reviewer mentioned a sequential write of 35 MB/s and sequential read of 243 MB/s.

Right from the specs on that page:

Price: $23.00 & FREE Shipping
In Stock.
Estimated Delivery Date: June 27 - July 14 when you choose Standard at checkout.
Ships from and sold by Zheino.

for Lenovo HP ASUS Acer Toshiba IBM Sony laptop
Capacity: 32GB
Fast Read/write speed : 200/35 MB/s
Interface : SATA III
Warranty: 3 years

That's one SLOW SSD. My NAS (which I consider slow) transfers over gigabit at 20-25MB/sec. My other NAS transfers at 50MB/sec, and my unRAID server at close to 80-90MB/sec sometimes. (Reads)

 

[VirtualLarry]

Just got my Hectron x1

Hope mine get here soon.

Bench

Uses sm2246xt as expected (4 channel version) and hynix 16nm flash.

Considering it's a 60GB drive, that's not a horrible benchmark, all things considered.

Quite a difference between the Seq. and the 4K (non-QD32) reads though.

 

[hojnikb]

yep, low 4k reads really bother me too. that controller is capable of much more

 

[cbn]

Right from the specs on that page:

Price: $23.00 & FREE Shipping
In Stock.
Estimated Delivery Date: June 27 - July 14 when you choose Standard at checkout.
Ships from and sold by Zheino.

for Lenovo HP ASUS Acer Toshiba IBM Sony laptop
Capacity: 32GB
Fast Read/write speed : 200/35 MB/s
Interface : SATA III
Warranty: 3 years

That's one SLOW SSD. My NAS (which I consider slow) transfers over gigabit at 20-25MB/sec. My other NAS transfers at 50MB/sec, and my unRAID server at close to 80-90MB/sec sometimes. (Reads)

I used an ASUS T100 off and on again for a few days and its eMMC spec of 32GB is much slower on the sequential read and about as fast on the sequential write:

http://www.transformerforums.com/fo...al-discussions/42582-why-my-emmc-so-slow.html

Furthermore, Your 32GB F6 SSD should be much faster on the 4K write compared to the numbers posted in that above thread.

Let us know how this drive works from a subjective standpoint. Your other options at such a low price point would be a New White label fourth generation Raptor (80GB short stroked from a 160GB 2.5" platter, 16MB cache, 10,000 rpm, no ice pack heatsink) for $14.95 or best offer, free shipping from Go hard drive's ebay store. With that mentioned, my guess is that on a low spec machine with 2GB RAM that 32GB F6 SSD would be much more enjoyable to use compared to a White label Raptor. This provided the OS had a small install footprint (thinking Linux Mint as an example).

P.S. It used to be $14.95 (or best offer) free shipping would also let a person buy the New 120GB White label Raptor from Go hard drive on ebay. But now they increased the price of this 120GB drive to $19.95 (or best offer) free shipping which is the same price as the New 150GB model.

 

[cbn]

For M.2 PCIe 120/128GB perhaps a SSD with Jmicron JMF815 could eventually be relatively close in price to a SATA 6 Gbps controller SSD (M.2 or 2.5")?

According to the Anandtech article here, it did sound rather interesting.

On the PCIe side JMicron has canceled the JMF810 and JMF811 controllers, and will now be focusing solely on the JMF815. JMicron made the decision to concentrate on the value segment and thus the JMF815 is a PCIe 3.0 x2 design with four NAND channels (no NVMe, unfortunately). A four-lane design would have required moving to 28nm process node, which would have increased the cost substantially and the packaging would have to move away from BGA to FCBGA (used by e.g. Phison and SandForce in their upcoming PCIe controllers) that would further increase the cost. I think it's a good play from JMicron to focus on a segment that isn't as populated because right now everyone is focusing solely on performance with PCIe, but ultimately cost and power consumption will be a major factors in widespread adoption and JMicron should have an advantage there if the JMF815 is executed well.

First engineering samples of the JMF680 and JMF815 are expected to be ready in Q4'15 with first retail products entering the market in early 2016.

One of the trends I saw at Computex was the move towards DRAM-less SSD controllers. The JMF608 has been relatively popular in China given its ultra-low cost and its successor, the JMF60F, will be available within the next few months. It features an improved ECC engine and a larger capacity support as well as a new, cheaper QFN packaging. Following this trend, I wouldn't be surprised if JMicron also has plans for DRAM-less versions of the JMF680 and JMF815.

(Notice speeds of 1.2 GB/s read and 1.0 GB/s write in the table below)

P.S. There is still a bit of confusion on what has happened to Jmicron's SSD controller business. At this early stage it appears to have reformed as Maxiotek.

 

[VirtualLarry]

My Intel X25-M G2 80GB in my Ultra USB3.0 dock:


My Hectron X1 60GB in my Ultra USB3.0 dock:


My KingFast F6 32GB in my Ultra USB3.0 dock:


Note that my dock or my USB3.0 port apparently doesn't support UASP, so no NCQ, so the QD32 scores are a bit limited / low.

Edit: Hectron has a web site printed on their box:
http://www.hectron.us/

---

My Hectron X1 60GB in SATA6G on H110:
(Edit: My Gloway Fervent 60GB has a nearly identical benchmark. Same controller?)


My KingFast F6 32GB in SATA6G on H110:

 

[hojnikb]

I wonder if it's possible to boost 4K reads. I'm sure this this is capable of more than 70MB/s

 

[cbn]

My KingFast F6 32GB in SATA6G on H110:

Glad to see you are getting better than the advertised 200 MB/s read and 35 MB/s write.

 

[cbn]

I wonder if it's possible to boost 4K reads. I'm sure this this is capable of more than 70MB/s

Here is a review of the Sandisk Z400s (which also uses the SM2246XT controller):

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/sandisk-z400s-dram-less-ssd,4316-3.html

4K Random read was lower at QD=32 than even the ADATA SP 550 (which uses SM2256 and TLC NAND). This due to a lack of DRAM.

Any operation involving random data is slow on the Z400s. SanDisk's 15nm MLC flash can't make up for the lack of high-speed DRAM, even compared to TLC-based SSDs. At low queue depths, where performance really matters, the Z400s isn't that much slower than the 120GB SP550, though.

 

[hojnikb]

There should be no user data in the dram (and you can't cache reads anyway). So the only possible thing could be, that controller has to read the mapping tables off the NAND instead of dram which supposedly slows random access.

I wonder if such mapping tables are stored on the MLC or simulated SLC.

 

[hojnikb]

This is interesting though. Just gave SSD Plus (which apparently uses SM2246XT as well) a bench and this is what i got (mind though, this is a 480GB version).

I ran the benchmark twice. Interesting results. Looking at this, if you have enough NAND, you can easily pull lots of 4K-32 read performance out of this controller.
Although it still baffles my mind, as to why read performance is limited by capacity at all, if sequentially you can pull off 500MB/s+ with only 64GB of flash.

Anyone has any ideas ?

 

[PliotronX]

I <3 this thread so much. The highend of SSD is interesting and all, but 60/120GB is just right for a dedicated system volume and for the cost of a two person dinner, there is really no reason to boot from a mechanical drive any more (aside from notebooks perhaps but even 480GB drives are inexpensive now!).

 

[StrangerGuy]

I <3 this thread so much. The highend of SSD is interesting and all, but 60/120GB is just right for a dedicated system volume and for the cost of a two person dinner, there is really no reason to boot from a mechanical drive any more (aside from notebooks perhaps but even 480GB drives are inexpensive now!).

Yeah, the ironic thing is how SSDs is going replace HDDs in OEM PCs not because of GB/$ or performance, but purely on a lowest cost of entry basis. The HDD makers can't compete here since the enclosure and assembly of HDDs themselves already cost more than slapping chips on a SSD PCB.