SSD desktop

[Silent_Buddha]

Hell, my original OCZ Vertex 1 is still going strong and thats the first ever consumer SSD series.

I beg to differ. I have an OLD 128 gig SSD in a laptop I never use anymore from when MLC SSD's first started to come out based on the really really crappy Jmicron controller at the time (the only MLC controller available for SSDs at the time). If all I do is read from the drive, it's pretty decent. As soon as there is more than a few megabytes of writes however... Pause...pause...pause...pause. Sometimes pauses of up to 30 seconds or more, where the OS is completely unresponsive as it waits for the drive to complete the erase-write cycle. They were priced only where early adopter consumers would buy them, but that was no different from the...

OCZ came along with the Vertex series like a year or two later and that really helped things along with SSD drives. Performance was a lot more consistent. And also even more expensive than the crappy Jmicron drives that preceded it.

I think Samsung started producing their OEM drives shortly before OCZ entered the market as well. And while they were OEM only, you could get them online anywhere you could get an OCZ drive. The Samsung controllers were better than the Jmicron ones, but still suffered quite a bit from the pauses that made Windows unresponsive during the erase-write cycles. Just not nearly as bad as the Jmicron drives.

Regards,
SB

 

[BRiT]

Yes, I forgot about the JMicron with horrible stuttering while they erase/trim the cells. However that is considered "normal operation" and not dieing/dead.

 

[Grall]

Intel really set a new bar for consumer SSDs with their X-25 series, and those drives are hella slow by today's standards, yet for their time they were revolutionary. Never before had someone done such a holistic take on flash storage, and dealt with (almost) all of the pitfalls of that particular storage technology. You can get along quite splendidly on one of these drives even today as a regular user by the way; Windows 10 boots in just a couple secs off of my X25-E.

 

[zed]

So it works fine if you don't use the Crucial software?

I'm talking about updating the firmware with their firmware updation software, heres me following the instructions (I only click on 'update firmware now') whereon it reboots and gives me the error message

I could prolly fix it by mucking around with a ISO bootable loader (and theres no guarantee that a firmware update will fix the SSD), but since my new SSD comes in a day or two, I might as well wait for that

 

[Mariner]

Warning My Crucial MX200 was a piece of junk, I try all programs trying to find an error, nothing gets reported ala 'all A OK' but when I boot it constantly goes 'repairing drive'. Yesterday it repaired it 3x in a row (reboot after each) before windows actually started working, it seems to be getting worse, even during windows it pops up with a message 'drive needs to be repaired'.
I've just done what I should of done at the start and ordered a samsung 850

I upgraded my several year old laptop (Acer 5742z, I think it is) with a Crucial MX100 and encountered no end of problems - freezes, blue screens etc etc. This was with Win 7.

In the end, I managed to find some suitable Intel chipset drivers which would work nice with the SSD and I haven't had an issues since (now upgraded to Win 10). A bit bizarre really as the ACPI Windows driver didn't work correctly, the older Intel ACPI driver didn't work correctly, the newest Intel ACPI driver didn't work correctly etc etc. In the end I resolved the issue with the Goldilocks method - just kept trying various drivers I hunted down online until I found one which was 'just right'!

Acer were no flipping use, of course. It seems they forget about support for their older laptops about 2 milliseconds after they are superseded by a newer model.

 

[eastmen]

Back in june of 09 I bought a 64gig ssd from ocz the verex. My friend has been using it and two weeks ago it caught on fire. Crazy.

I have a 120 gig vertex here that I think I might upgrade on black Friday and just use as a portable drive for pictures. I'm scared now lol

 

[BRiT]

I always thought the OCZ Vertex was blazing!

 

[eastmen]

yea about 3k of damage done to the house. The metal cage melted and morphed and so did the hardrives. The case was bright red from the fire.

 

[Grall]

Seems freaky such a tiny device could catch fire in the first place. Most SSDs have metal case, so I'd think it shouldn't burn outright, but maybe it's flammable gases being generated from inside that escape and are ignited somehow - an electrical short I'd have to assume. *shrug*

 

[eastmen]

Seems freaky such a tiny device could catch fire in the first place. Most SSDs have metal case, so I'd think it shouldn't burn outright, but maybe it's flammable gases being generated from inside that escape and are ignited somehow - an electrical short I'd have to assume. *shrug*

yea it has to have been a short. I do remember that drive running hot back when I had it. So I conly only imagine what another 5 years did to it

 

[Grall]

A pity that the power supply's OCP didn't trigger. Certain high-powered power supplies have only a single rail, and thus such high current rating that even a short might not trigger it.

This is why I don't buy single rail power supplies... Then again, the PSU I have can be configured to deliver up to 40A of 12V per output IIRC, which is quite enough to create quite the blaze if unlucky. I haven't set it that high tho.

 

[Lightman]

A pity that the power supply's OCP didn't trigger. Certain high-powered power supplies have only a single rail, and thus such high current rating that even a short might not trigger it.

This is why I don't buy single rail power supplies... Then again, the PSU I have can be configured to deliver up to 40A of 12V per output IIRC, which is quite enough to create quite the blaze if unlucky. I haven't set it that high tho.

I love single rail PSU's, you can arc weld almost anything with them

My BeQuiet Power Zone 1000W has 83A on 12V so I fear no one!

 

[Grall]

Hah, yeah pretty freaky. I saw a Corsair-branded (I think!) video (read: commercial) a couple years ago where one of their 600W PSUs were hooked up to the battery terminals of a compact car instead of said battery, and then used to start the engine.

Not sure if 600W would be enough to crank a big honkin V8 or a diesel engine though, prolly not though! Heh...

 

[eastmen]

here is whats left of the drive

http://imgur.com/a/Zd4wX

 

[Grall]

Getting a little tired of slow-loading games on my backup PC (as mentioned, main rig keeled over last week), thinking of getting myself a decent but not too expensive SSD to speed things up! As this is an old bastard of a PC, no newfangled M2, SATA Express or such newfangled tech will work. Possibly, I could use my second PCIe 16x slot (old X58 chipset luckily has two full 16x slots), but it would block airflow to the GPU - and heat emitted from said GPU while gaming and folding might cook it - and what decent-priced PCIe SSDs exist anyway? None that I know of!

So... SATA it will have to be, I'm pretty sure. As not much seem to be happening in this market, are the same drives what is still recommended, or what is the general consensus on the internet these days...?

Any advice appreciated! Thanks.

 

[BRiT]

I see good things about the Samsung Evo line. Good quality, fast, cheap, long warranty. I don't think you need the Pro line or anything more to realize a great boost in loading times.

 

[Pressure]

I'm confused.

Doesn't the motherboard come with PCIe slots?

You could buy a Lycom DT-120 adaptor and mount something like the Samsung XP941 or SM951.

 

[Grall]

Yes, but like I said, it would leave the SSD (with its temperature-sensitive flash) squished right up next to a very hot-running R9 390X GPU that needs all the airflow and cooling it can get. This is not ideal...

Also, would my old BIOS-based machine be able to boot off of a frankenstein-like device like that? I'm not 100% sure it would work, and I'd rather spare myself the hassle if it doesn't. SATA is simply put fast enough, especially for an old backup rig such as this one.

 

[Pressure]

Frankenstein device? It's just a dumb M.2 adaptor to PCIe. It only requires AHCI, so it works in my 7 year old motherboard.

I'm experiencing zero problems having my PCIe SSD above my graphic card but perhaps my case is better ventilated.

 

[zed]

FWIW I've put a samsung 850 evo in my laptop and one in my PC, no issues with either