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PNY Optima 240GB SSD uses SandForce

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can one of you owners run a crystal disk benchmark with the drive at 50% or more. no empty drive. 75% or more be even better.

please post crystal disk screen shot.

please note 1) SMI or LSI controller
please note 2) firmware version.
please note 3) sata2 or sata3.

thanks.
 
PNY is not a very known competition... IMO get a 560 GTX and it will play nice with your CPU,, beyond that might have to put low detail hehe
 
Firmware N0307A
Sata II

Code: 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 3.0.3 x64 (C) 2007-2013 hiyohiyo
                           Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]

           Sequential Read :   259.613 MB/s
          Sequential Write :   235.291 MB/s
         Random Read 512KB :   232.940 MB/s
        Random Write 512KB :   228.292 MB/s
    Random Read 4KB (QD=1) :    22.437 MB/s [  5477.8 IOPS]
   Random Write 4KB (QD=1) :    68.142 MB/s [ 16636.2 IOPS]
   Random Read 4KB (QD=32) :   110.210 MB/s [ 26906.6 IOPS]
  Random Write 4KB (QD=32) :   119.955 MB/s [ 29286.0 IOPS]

  Test : 1000 MB [C: 74.1% (165.6/223.5 GB)] (x5)
  Date : 2014/11/24 19:07:44
    OS : Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 [6.1 Build 7601] (x64)
 
Last edited:
thebearstate said:
The Optima with SMI controller latest FW is N0815B and Optima with SandForce controller latest FW is 600A. Both FWs will have vast improve on performance tests.
Click to expand...

Any idea where the SMI firmware can be found? I just bought the 240GB drive and the firmware is N053, but the PNY site doesn't show any firmware (at all) being available.
 
To be honest I don't know why there is so much commotion about it.
I wrote on the V300 thread that unless Kingston specifically indicated sync nand, it was not bait and switch. I'll say the same here, unless PNY specifically indicated SMI controller, it is not bait and switch.

Even with a different controller, I would worry more about the NAND used. Something that those "tech" sites are failing to mention is that the Optima is value line of PNY's SSDs, so they should have picked on where cuts were made vs the XLR8 line. If we enthusiasts know about products lines among brands, the "tech" sites should be paying closer attention that we do. A value line performing as well as the premium line? What is the catch? how does it affect the premium line? Is the great performing value line sample representative of final production? Those are the questions the "tech" sites should be asking!

I think cuts on the optima are more than just the controller, I would bet the optima also uses inferior NAND. The SMI optima performs better than the SF optima as I suspect the SMI controller is better at working with the inferior NAND. The SF-2281 in SSDs with premium NAND performed great, just see the reviews of the Sandisk extreme, Kingston HyperX 5k (original hyperX) or OCZ Vertex 3 max Iops, all of them among the fastest SSDs of their time. All of them had toggle NAND, and I would bet money on any of them handily beating a current SMI based optima, so it is not "is slower because of the SF-2281"
 


This was done on SATA 2 with my 240 GB PNY Optima. Not sure what firmware it's running though. Just bought it, and threw it in to replace my downed HDD ASAP.
 
Last edited:
gregp20009 said:
Try the freeware AS SSD Benchmark tool -- it'll tell you at least part of the firmware version number.
Click to expand...
Firmware seems to be N053.

Speaking of which, where do I find the updater? The one linked has the Sandforce logo, and doesn't seem to detect my drive, so I assume mine is the SMI variant.
 
Zodiark1593 said:
Firmware seems to be N053.

Speaking of which, where do I find the updater? The one linked has the Sandforce logo, and doesn't seem to detect my drive, so I assume mine is the SMI variant.
Click to expand...

Right, mine shows N053 too. And I had same issue with updater -- only detects Sandforce. It seems there's just no way to update SMI variants anymore, unfortunately.
 
Hi, anyone can provide me with a link to download PNY Fw 560 or latest version available?

Mine has FW 530 and PNY support is now answering my requests.
 
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