Now this is interesting: Microcenter branded Sandforce SF1200 64GB SSD

[magreen]

This was really interesting. It's a 64 GB Microcenter branded SSD with Sandforce 1222. (And it's 99.99 with no rebates)

Link: http://www.microcenter.com/single_pr...eNews+20101116

What do y'all think of this? It seems like it could be like a cheaper OCZ Agility 2. But, I would think, no support or neato OCZ software for running TRIM on it manually if you don't have Win7. Any thoughts?

 

[Emulex]

dude i posted benchmark results.

they use the 13% method so its 55gb formatted. SF uses compression for rates so with uncompressable data the speed is about on par with the x25-M 80gb. wins a little and loses a little .

check in my ebay dir:
http://www.dj7up.com/ebay/nokia/ASx25m80versusG2.png
http://www.dj7up.com/ebay/nokia/cdmX25MversusG2.png

I turned on disk compression (NTFS) and it increase read by 10x and decreased write by 10x lol.

Overall i think its best suited for raid-0 given the formatted capacity being less than i anticipated. X25-m = 74 out of 80gb, G2 = 55 out of 64gb

 

[magreen]

Those numbers do look good. But I still have a bunch of questions.

- garbage collection or support software for manually running TRIM. I'm running XP. Anyone know if OCZ's cleanup software utils could run on this?

- is this more like a Vertex 2 or Agility 2? Does that matter?

- Is the sandforce 1222 the same exact controller as on the Vertex2/Agility2?
edit: it looks from the pic on this page that it's the same. it says SF-1222TA3-SBH. link: http://www.anandtech.com/show/3667/oczs-agility-2-reviewed-the-first-sf1200-with-mp-firmware/2

- which firmware release does this drive have? I remember Anand talking about Sandforce 1200 drives being sold with only the release candidate firmware instead of SandForce's MP firmware. link1: http://www.anandtech.com/show/3667/oczs-agility-2-reviewed-the-first-sf1200-with-mp-firmware/3 ; link2: http://www.anandtech.com/show/3681/oczs-vertex-2-special-sauce-sf1200-reviewed/2 . Something about the MP firmware having a cap on small file random writes in the MP and some vendors using the buggy release candidate firmware versions with workarounds for the bugs. Any idea about whether this Microcenter drive (1) has MP firmware, and (2) has the cap on small file random writes?

Thanks. Hope somebody's got some info on this.

edit: over at fatwallet someone's claiming it's a rebadged Adata S599. Link: http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/hot-deals/1043360/

 

[BBMW]

I got the email also. Anyone know the OEM?

 

[dlai]

I got the email also. Anyone know the OEM?

I brought one of these. There's an A-Data sticker on the drive, so it's A-Data.

 

[Emulex]

yup its just ADA S599 with the lower % reserve

 

[BBMW]

Love to see this in ~120GB

 

[magreen]

Love to see this in ~120GB

Yeppers. Esp. since there's only about 55.7 billion bytes usable for user data on this "64 GB" drive, which amounts to about 51.8 GB as reported in Windows. That's pretty darn slim for a laptop drive, even if you don't stockpile movies on it.

 

[Emulex]

win7 says 55.8gb for this drive. now if i told you it was a 60gb drive would you be happier? Like an indilinx 60gb?

x25-m say 74.5 (for 80gb). We know intel rules the roost in everything but price.

 

[magreen]

huh. interesting. Ok, 55 it is. Yep, I suppose it's like other 60G drives, that's true.

Anyways, glad to see rebranding going on. I was actually hoping this wouldn't just be a Microcenter rebranded drive, but their own type of OEM drive, like their cheap flash cards/thumb drives. If and when that happens, prices on SSDs will be a lot closer to commodity pricing on flash, I would think.

 

[BBMW]

For me, it would be a boot drive, with a terabyte magnetic behind it, so it could work. But I really want at least 80GB.

Right now, I'm looking at the GSkill Phoenix 100 and 120

Yeppers. Esp. since there's only about 55.7 billion bytes usable for user data on this "64 GB" drive, which amounts to about 51.8 GB as reported in Windows. That's pretty darn slim for a laptop drive, even if you don't stockpile movies on it.

 

[Emulex]

i'd do raid-0 with two 64gb just for kicks. then pass them down to HTPC's for quiet fanless mode.

 

[pjkenned]

i'd do raid-0 with two 64gb just for kicks. then pass them down to HTPC's for quiet fanless mode.

This is basically what I've been doing. Everything from X25-V 40GB and smaller from a SSD perspective has been relegated to HTPC or server boot disk (in RAID 1) duty at this point. Small SSDs are just excellent for that type of application.

 

[BBMW]

Don't you give up trim by going raid?

 

[VirtualLarry]

I was actually hoping this wouldn't just be a Microcenter rebranded drive, but their own type of OEM drive, like their cheap flash cards/thumb drives. If and when that happens, prices on SSDs will be a lot closer to commodity pricing on flash, I would think.

No thanks! Microcenter's OWN-branded USB flash drives are SLOW! Like 0.3MB/sec write speeds! I don't want an SSD made out of that quality flash.

 

[pjkenned]

Don't you give up trim by going raid?

You do, but garbage collection is a lot better than people give it credit for.

 

[scrubman]

I just picked one up last night and am so happy to get into a SF1200 64GB drive for only $99!! I just bought an OCZ Onyx a week ago for the same price and its going back. Though I will say it had excellent read times.

This is on a 680i running Q6600@3.4GHz in Win7 64bit with Trim enabled.

 

[TrueBlueLS]

I'm tempted to pick one up and pass of my X25-V to my fiancee's laptop. I'm just not sure if I want to see what Black Friday brings.

 

[magreen]

No thanks! Microcenter's OWN-branded USB flash drives are SLOW! Like 0.3MB/sec write speeds! I don't want an SSD made out of that quality flash.

Heh. Yes they are. I was under the impression, though, that the speed is due to the controller and architecture, not due to the quality of the flash. And so as long as they put a high-end controller in there like the Sandforce 1200, using readily available flash is fine. Am I off base?

 

[pjkenned]

I just picked one up last night and am so happy to get into a SF1200 64GB drive for only $99!! I just bought an OCZ Onyx a week ago for the same price and its going back. Though I will say it had excellent read times.

This is on a 680i running Q6600@3.4GHz in Win7 64bit with Trim enabled.

That is a VERY interesting benchmark. On Intel ICH9R and ICH10R's 270ish MB/s write and 285MB/s read you can reproduce all day long in ATTO.

Here is an example of the ADATA S599 sibling of the Microcenter drive:


I just received seven more of the S599 64GBs yesterday and found the 660MB/s ICH10R on the X58 chip set limit with only three drives!

I have my old EVGA 680i SLI motherboard sitting on a desk with a Q6600 in it. I was thinking of trying it out with the SSDs but after seeing that I guess I don't need to.

 

[scrubman]

Yeah, I was happy to find Trim supported on this old 680i. The only thing that I did not investigate further was if there are any Intel drivers that I could use to get closer to what you are showing. I guess it could just be the difference in the drives as well.

 

[Emulex]

Atto is useless it sends zero-fill data.

use CDM (default random) or AS SSD for real numbers please.

 

[scrubman]

here is CDM for anyone interested - all benchmark results I listed in this thread are left with the default settings..

^^Microcenter G2

^^OCZ Onyx

 

[magreen]

Hey this is also interesting. SandForce is trying to become a major industry player in terms of marketing. They've developed a new "intel inside"-like logo sticker for their drivers -- "SandForce Driven." Link: http://www.sandforce.com/?id=163
I first noticed it placed prominently on their Microcenter drive in the new Microcenter email that came around today. I didn't realize their SandForce name had enough clout to move products (besides among a few enthusiasts. Though it did get this thread going!)

There's also this press release: http://www.businesswire.com/news/ho...enter-Teams-SandForce-Offering-Blazingly-Fast

 

[Emulex]

X25-m feels faster to me.