Samsung 830 6Gps review (Toms)

[biostud]

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/samsung-830-ssd-toggle-mode,3034.html

 

[onethreehill]

Repost 🙂
http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=32311801&postcount=25

 

[e-drood]

1- samsung is/will subsidizing the toggle nand price to a certain degree to allow market share ramp-up to achieve "scale of economy" of production cost...

2- pls note no. of controller cores...

3- ultimately no. of channels (8) is price to pay for competitive retail price...
next iteration of smsng ssd will carry increased channels

4- PLSNOTE thermal ventilation hole matrix in pcb --- there are already thermal envelope issues w/ sf controller (& the resin thermal insulator cover ain't help'in at all...) - ssd transient instability can result from several causes - blaming intel is becoming v tiring to hear...

5- at end of day "it's real-world-performance & not test suite 0's" that actually make or break the emerging ssd market

6- and we will see what intel ssd 520 brings to this knife fight...

7- yes 256gb is real point of interest ...

 

[e-drood]

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/samsung-830-ssd-toggle-mode,3034-2.html

pcb image - top / toward lefthand - provision for direct solder data+pwr wires for embedded applications

note ventilation hole matrix - righthand side

 

[=Wendy=]

4- PLSNOTE thermal ventilation hole matrix in pcb --- there are already thermal envelope issues w/ sf controller (& the resin thermal insulator cover ain't help'in at all.

I have no idea where you are getting this info.
I've attached a thermal probe to an SF2281 controller within a Vertex 3, and during a 60 hour soak test while connected to a SATA analyzer, and have never measured a temperature more than 44.7c (ambient temp 21c) which is well within the controllers thermal envelope of 70c max.

The Samsung 830 however, does look like a very nice SSD.

 

[blackened23]

I just wish SF2281 drives didn't have so many reliability incidents, I would have bought 3 of them by now probably.

I've just heard way too many horror stories, which is unfortunate because they are without a doubt benching faster than any other SSD - still to this day.

 

[Emulex]

i like how you can change the reserve % for enterprise use..

the intel 510's work in software raid-1 pretty well (windows server 2008 R2).

I might pick up 2 or 4 intel 710's shortly to try out for raid-1 or raid-10. will let you guys know how they compare.

 

[GoodRevrnd]

I was really looking forward to these drives, but is there a good reason to get this drive over the m4? From what I can tell, the Samsung is a bit faster in writes while the m4 is faster in reads? I guess the m4's had their problems but it's my understanding those have all been corrected now.

 

[Soulkeeper]

I'm not convinced the 830 took a definitive lead
It seems to me that little has changed and, for me at least, buying on price(compared to m4, intel, etc.) is still viable.

Also, one thing I like about the M4 is they have a downloadable bootable iso that you can just burn and use to update the firmware on their drives, samsung relies on a windows only program (recently osx?) if i'm not mistaken. As a non-windows user I appreciate this.

 

[Coup27]

Also, one thing I like about the M4 is they have a downloadable bootable iso that you can just burn and use to update the firmware on their drives, samsung relies on a windows only program (recently osx?) if i'm not mistaken. As a non-windows user I appreciate this.

This is not entirely correct. I have never used a 470 but I did consider getting one so read up on their magician software and how it works. You have to download the latest firmware from the Samsung website and then launch the Windows based magician software. From there, you insert a USB stick and the magician software makes a bootable USB stick with the firmware on it. Then you reboot with the stick, update, then reboot back into Windows.

You possibly still need access to a Windows machine, but I am not sure if the magician does anything different than YUMI or another bootable Linux type program. Either way, most people have access to a Windows machine just to make the bootable USB drive off.

Does all seem a bit silly though. Wouldn't be as bad if they provided an ISO as well.

 

[Soulkeeper]

This is not entirely correct. I have never used a 470 but I did consider getting one so read up on their magician software and how it works. You have to download the latest firmware from the Samsung website and then launch the Windows based magician software. From there, you insert a USB stick and the magician software makes a bootable USB stick with the firmware on it. Then you reboot with the stick, update, then reboot back into Windows.

You possibly still need access to a Windows machine, but I am not sure if the magician does anything different than YUMI or another bootable Linux type program. Either way, most people have access to a Windows machine just to make the bootable USB drive off.

Does all seem a bit silly though. Wouldn't be as bad if they provided an ISO as well.

It seems most every post I make on forums is quoted as "wrong", "no", "not entirely correct" etc.
I fail to see what was incorrect
Of course I didn't post every possible fact on everything ... partly because I don't know everything and have limited energy 🙂

"You possibly still need access to a Windows machine" You do need access to the windows machine to make this "bootable USB stick" thanks for that info 🙂

I thought I read somewhere recently that they were working on or just recently added an osx version of their program ...
which would make sense given the fact that some apple laptops use samsung SSDs

"Does all seem a bit silly though. Wouldn't be as bad if they provided an ISO as well. "
I totally agree, all major os's can burn an ISO

thanks

 

[stargazr]

You have to download the latest firmware from the Samsung website and then launch the Windows based magician software.

There are many ways to make a bootable USB drive, and then copy the update. The firmware updates from a DOS environment.

I agree an ISO would be much easier!

 

[Coup27]

There are many ways to make a bootable USB drive, and then copy the update. The firmware updates from a DOS environment.

This what what my post was getting at. When Soulkeeper said "a windows only program" that might suggest you could only update the drive through Windows.