| 32GB LiteOn Strong-Page MLC SSD LA-32M1S |
| Reviews - Featured Reviews: Storage | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Written by Olin Coles | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sunday, 31 January 2010 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
LiteOn 32GB 'Strong-Page' SSD LA-32M1SHopefully one day soon Solid State Drives will be standard equipment for new computer systems, but first SSDs must become available as an optional upgrade item for build-it-yourself orders. PLDS (Philips & Lite-On Digital Solutions) hopes to bring this service to tier-one OEMs, and computers from Acer, Dell, HP, Lenovo, and Sony could soon offer lightning-fast SSD performance. In this article, Benchmark Reviews tests the LiteOn 32GB 'Strong-Page' SSD, model LA-32M1S, built on the Marvell 88SS8014-BHP2 Da-Vinci controller. Designed to fit into different product lines, LiteOn will offer the 32GB 'Strong-Page' LA-32M1S model to OEMs along side their LA-64M1S standard MLC SSD, and if popularity grows they plan to later release these models to the retail public under the Plextor brand name. The 32GB LA-32M1S model is an eight-channel SSD device, which will be succeeded by the LA-32M2S series featuring ten channels sometime before the end of 2010. PLDS will only offer their 'strong page' edition at 32GB, while the standard MLC SSD series will occupy 64, 128, and 256GB storage solutions. While the SSD market is saturated with new products, LiteOn/Plextor SSDs will offer enhanced reliability and performance. The entire M1S series will feature a 1.5-million hour MTBF, along with S.M.A.R.T (Self Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) and unique flash-NAND wear-leveling for product life extension. PLDS claims that the LiteOn 32GB 'Strong-Page' SSD delivers the same performance regardless of NAND condition, with no data degradation thanks to their Garbage Collection Technology.
Just over two years ago there were only five companies involved in Solid State Drive technology, and as of January 2010 there are nearly 140 names in the business. Without doubt, the SSD market has enjoyed a powerful growth period with relatively painless consumer acceptance. Benchmark Reviews has been on top of the SSD scene since retail products were first introduced at the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show In such a short amount of time, the entire SSD market has created and recreated itself several times over. Counting the generations of SSD processors has become difficult for experienced experts, and keeping-up with controller architecture has come with its own set of challenges. Benchmark Reviews has already tested dozens of Solid State Drive products, and we've seen everything from dual-SATA controllers in RAID-0 to large cache buffer modules used inside of them. In this article Benchmark Reviews tests the Marvell Da-Vinci 88SS8014-BHP2 SSD controller, which is used in the LiteOn 32GB Strong-Page MLC SSD LA-32M1S. While the SSD industry grows daily, only a few select manufacturers offer popularly-accepted Flash NAND SSD controllers. The most popular consumer controllers at the moment are: Indilinx IDX110M00-FC "Barefoot", Intel PC29AS21AA0, JMicron JMF612, Toshiba T6UG1XBG, Samsung S3C29RBB01-YK40, Marvell 88SS8014-BHP2, and SandForce SF-1200/1500. About PLDS (Philips & Lite-On Digital Solutions Corporation)
PLDS (Philips & Lite-On Digital Solutions) is a joint venture between Royal Philips Electronics and Lite-On IT Corporation that is responsible for the sales and marketing of Lite-On branded Optical Disc Drive (ODD) business. The combination of a strong R&D focus and access to enormous production capacity makes PLDS an industry leading company. PLDS is dedicated to excellence and devote best efforts to further expand innovative quality product offerings for the PC industry and strengthen its top global position in the ODD industry. The strategic alliance between both companies demonstrates Lite-On IT's desire and ambition to solidify its global leadership position in the manufacturing of optical storage drives. It continues to carry its heritage and expertise in the supply, procurement, and manufacturing realm to pass on more value and savings to consumers with increased production capacity and productivity. The Research & Development team is dedicated to expand the development in the new generation optical disc formats such as blue laser technology, and other advanced technologies to further enhance optical storage solutions. LiteOn Strong-Page Features
LA-32M1S Specifications
Plextor/LiteOn SSD ModelsStrong-Page MLC
MLC SSD
First Look: LiteOn Strong-Page SSDManufacturers dress-up their products to help them sell, but don't get too caught-up on the flashy stickers because they'll be out of sight soon enough. When it comes to internal desktop and notebook computer drives you've got to remember that once installed, that SSD gets hidden away from view and forgotten. Keeping in mind that this product is also of solid state design and therefore has no moving parts, it takes extra attention towards product presentation in order to help keep consumers feeling comfortable with their premium-priced purchase. The LiteOn version of the LA-32M1S model doesn't come with any manufacturer decals on the enclosure, but the golden-titanium textured finish disassociates itself with so many of the plain black designs we've seen lately, and adds a touch of class to the product line.
In addition to notebooks and desktop computer application, the 32GB Strong-Page MLC SSD can be utilized for mission-critical backups or high-abuse data systems; but its real focus is on high-performance data transfer speeds. Unfortunately, the LiteOn LA-32M1S model does not offer any integrated USB Mini-B port for making this into a portable backup storage device.
Standard 2.5" drive bay mounting points are pre-drilled and threaded into the LiteOn 32GB Strong-Page MLC SSD, which allows for quick upgrade or addition into any existing notebook or desktop system. The mounting positions matched up to the drive bracket on my notebook computer, and after only a few minutes of drive cloning I was quickly loading the Windows O/S.
Unlike most Hard Disk Drive (HDD) storage products, SSDs are nearly impervious to impact damage and do not require (or benefit from) any kind of special vibration dampening or shock-proof enclosures. LiteOn utilizes a textured rough-looking metal enclosure for their 'Strong-Page' Solid State Drive, which reveals the internal components after removing just four small counter-sunk Phillips-head screws on the underside.
Thanks to a new Marvell 88SS8014 controller architecture (detailed in the next section), the LiteOn Strong-Page SSD offers good performance at value-driven prices. Now that you're acquainted with the basic exterior features of the 32GB Strong-Page MLC SSD, it's time to peek inside the LA-32M1S enclosure and inspect the internal components... Marvell 88SS8014 ControllerAfter the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show concluded, Benchmark Reviews was fortunate enough to test a few Solid State Drive samples built from the Marvell 88SS8014-BHP2 Da-Vinci SATA controller chip. Introduced with the LiteOn 32GB Strong-Page LA-32M1S and LA-64M1S MLC SSDs, the Marvell 88SS8014 chip is the latest addition to Solid State Drive control processors. Designed to offer quick transactions in traditional SSD fashion, this Marvell controller also packs plenty of features for the entry-level value segment. As of January 2010 several major companies offer Flash NAND SSD controllers. with many more in development. The most popular consumer controllers are: Indilinx IDX110M00-FC "Barefoot", Intel PC29AS21AA0, JMicron JMF612, Samsung S3C29RBB01-YK40, Toshiba T6UG1XBG and SandForce SF-1500. PLDS (Plextor/LiteOn) and others hope to add the Marvell 88SS8014-BHP2 controller onto this list very soon.
In most respects, the new Marvell SSD circuit board follows the design of several past products. The Marvell 88SS8014 SATA processor is joined by up to sixteen flash NAND modules (Samsung K9HCG08U1M-PCB0 here), and a single Hynix HY5DU121622 chip for buffered transactions. The top and bottom views of the Da-Vinci SSD printed circuit board reveal some versatility in the overall capacity. Although only 32, 64, 128, and 256GB capacities are presently in production, anything is possible as demand grows with the development of Samsung's 0.6mm-thick 8-chip Memory Package.
Let's begin with the printed circuit board (PCB), which is labeled "Da Vinci 2.5 INCH SOLID STATE DRIVE". The Da-Vinci PCB receives part number 69P34128M1S301X. Although it's difficult to ascertain the specifics so early in the pre-launch product cycle, we've got enough background to build an early anatomy article on the individual components.
At the center of the Da-Vinci PCB is a single Marvell 88SS8014-BHP2 SATA controller, with the marking YPM21495 beneath the chip's model number. At the time of this writing (14 January 2010), there was very little information available online regarding the Marvell 88SS8014 SSD processor. The features and specifications listed in this technical brief were provided by PLDS for their LiteOn 32GB Strong-Page LA-32M1S storage solution.
While the internal NAND flash DRAM used in SSDs is usually a decision left to the OEM's (such as OCZ, Crucial, Intel, and Kingston), the Plextor LA-32M1S 'Strong-Page' and LA-64M1S MLC SSDs each use Samsung K9HCG08U1M-PCB00 IC parts (pictured below and branded with K9HCG08U1M-PCB0). These lead-free RoHS-compliant 48-pin ICs are multi-layer, with one IC directly atop another to offer 64GB in 16x organization for 256GB total capacity.
A single 128MB Hynix HY5DU121622DTP-D43 module offers 200MHz CL3 (3-3-3) DDR400 buffer space for the Marvell 88SS8014 processor. The Hynix HY5DU121622DTP is a rather old part from late 2006, but still offers a low power envelope of 2.6 volts typical.
In the coming months, Benchmark Reviews will test several new Solid State Drive products based on the Marvell 88SS8014 SSD controller. Our entire collection of SSD articles is available in the Benchmark Reviews Featured Reviews: Storage section. SSD Testing MethodologySolid State Drives have traveled a long winding course to finally get where they are today. Up to this point in technology, there have been several key differences separating Solid State Drives from magnetic rotational Hard Disk Drives. While the DRAM-based buffer size on desktop HDD's has recently reached 32 MB and is ever-increasing, there is still a hefty delay in the initial response time. This is one key area in which flash-based Solid State Drives continually dominates because they lack moving parts to "get up to speed". However the benefits inherent to SSD's have traditionally fallen off once the throughput begins, even though data reads or writes are executed at a high constant rate whereas the HDD tapers off in performance. This makes the average transaction speed of a SSD comparable to the data burst rate mentioned in HDD tests, albeit usually lower than the HDD's speed. Comparing a Solid State Disk to a standard Hard Disk Drives is always relative; even if you're comparing the fastest rotational spindle speeds. One is going to be many times faster in response (SSD's), while the other is usually going to have higher throughput bandwidth (HDD's). Additionally, there are certain factors which can affect the results of a test which we do our best to avoid. SSD Testing DisclaimerEarly on in our SSD coverage, Benchmark Reviews published an article which detailed Solid State Drive Benchmark Performance Testing. The research and discussion that went into producing that article changed the way we now test SSD products. Our previous perceptions of this technology were lost on one particular difference: the wear leveling algorithm that makes data a moving target. Without conclusive linear bandwidth testing or some other method of total-capacity testing, our previous performance results were rough estimates at best. Our test results were obtained after each SSD had been prepared using DISKPART or Sanitary Erase tools. As a word of caution, applications such as these offer immediate but temporary restoration of original 'pristine' performance levels. In our tests, we discovered that the maximum performance results (charted) would decay as subsequent tests were performed. SSDs attached to TRIM enabled Operating Systems will benefit from continuously refreshed performance, whereas older O/S's will require a garbage collection (GC) tool to avoid 'dirty NAND' performance degradation. It's critically important to understand that no software for the Microsoft Windows platform can accurately measure SSD performance in a comparable fashion. Synthetic benchmark tools such as HD Tach and PCMark are helpful indicators, but should not be considered the ultimate determining factor. That factor should be measured in actual user experience of real-world applications. Benchmark Reviews includes both bandwidth benchmarks and application speed tests to present a conclusive measurement of product performance. Test System
Drive Hardware TestedThe following storage hardware has been used in our benchmark performance testing, and may be included in portions of this article:
Test Tools
ATTO Disk BenchmarkThe ATTO Disk Benchmark program is free, and offers a comprehensive set of test variables to work with. In terms of disk performance, it measures interface transfer rates at various intervals for a user-specified length and then reports read and write speeds for these spot-tests. There are some minor improvements made to the 2.34 version of the program, but the benchmark is still limited to non-linear samples up to 256MB. ATTO Disk Benchmark requires that an active partition be set on the drive being tested. Please consider the results displayed by this benchmark to be basic bandwidth speed performance indicators.
Our basic bandwidth speed tests begin with the 32GB LiteOn Strong-Page MLC SSD connected to the integrated Intel ICH10R Southbridge chip, as the ATTO Disk Benchmark tools performs file transfers ranging from 0.5 KB to 8192 KB. The LA-32M1S model reveals an impressive 145 MBps read speed that plateaus from 128-8192 KB file chunks, while the 72 MBps write bandwidth plateaus from 64-8192 KB. These results are approximately equal to those stated 140/80MBps maximum given by PLDS.
Drive Hardware
In our next section, Benchmark Reviews compares random access IOPS performance among high-end storage devices using HD Tune Pro... HD Tune Pro BenchmarksThe latest edition of HD Tune Pro allows random access read and write testing, a feature not available to other similar software benchmark tools. HD Tune is a low-level test that will not operate on a drive which contains a partition, so Benchmark Reviews uses DISKPART to prepare hardware and remove any partitions before conducting these tests. Random Access tests are divided into 512b, 4KB, 64KB, 1MB and random size test files sizes. The Random Access test measures the performance of random read or write operations. The amount of data which will be read varies from 512 bytes to 1 MB. Performance is reported in operations per second (IOPS), average access time, and average speed. Because it is our intent to compare one product against another, Benchmark Reviews has focused on 4KB and random transfer size IOPS performance.
Benchmark Reviews has tested the LiteOn LA-32M1S against a collection of top-performing desktop storage drives for our IOPS benchmarks. The 4 KB random IOPS performance in HD Tune measured 4128 for read IO, and 1222 for write. In comparison, the 4KB read IOPS was behind Corsair's X256 SSD which scored 7444, and the Vertex Turbo's 7272. Both the Vertex Turbo (17358 4KB write IOPS) and Corsair X256 (16244) SSDs well ahead of the LiteOn 32GB Strong-Page MLC SSD in terms of IOPS write performance. Because of relatively low comparible speeds and I/O performance, the Marvell 88SS8014-BHP2 SSD processor is best suited for end-user computer systems.
The tight range of IO is an indicator of operational bottlenecks. For example, the WD VelociRaptor WD3000HLFS SATA Hard Disk Drive indicates a total read-IOPS range of 10-150 whereas the average SSD might offer 200-1,000. As a direct result, in most cases SSDs will offer a much higher IO over their hard disk counterparts. The random read/write operations per second is charted below:
Our test results were obtained after each SSD had been prepared using the DISKPART program with the "clean all" command, and in the case of products using the Indilinx Barefoot controller they were further prepared with the Sanitary Erase application. In our tests we discovered that the maximum performance results (charted) would decay as subsequent tests were performed, even with TRIM available. As a word of caution, alignment and garbage collection applications offer immediate but temporary restoration of original 'pristine' performance levels. Drive Hardware
Benchmark Reviews measures I/O Response Time and IOPS performance using the Iometer tool in our next section... Iometer IOPS PerformanceIometer is an I/O subsystem measurement and characterization tool for single and clustered systems. Iometer does for a computer's I/O subsystem what a dynamometer does for an engine: it measures performance under a controlled load. Iometer was originally developed by the Intel Corporation and formerly known as "Galileo". Intel has discontinued work on Iometer, and has gifted it to the Open Source Development Lab (OSDL). Iometer is both a workload generator (that is, it performs I/O operations in order to stress the system) and a measurement tool (that is, it examines and records the performance of its I/O operations and their impact on the system). It can be configured to emulate the disk or network I/O load of any program or benchmark, or can be used to generate entirely synthetic I/O loads. It can generate and measure loads on single or multiple (networked) systems. Benchmark Reviews has resisted publishing Iometer results because there are hundreds of different configuration variables available, making it impossible to reproduce our tests without having our Iometer configuration file. To measure random I/O response time as well as total I/O's per second, Iometer is set to use 4KB file size chunks over a 100% random sequential distribution. The tests are given a 50% read and 50% write distribution. Our charts show the Read and Write IOPS performance as well as I/O response time (measured in ms). Iometer was configured to test for 120 seconds, and after five tests the average is displayed in our benchmark results. The first tests included random read and write IOPS performance, where a higher I/O is preferred.
In the Random IOPS performance tests the single layer cell (SLC) OCZ Agility EX (3982/3988), Intel X25-E Extreme (3543/3548), and OCZ Vertex EX (3106/3091) outperformed all other products by a wide margin. The OCZ Vertex Turbo SSD rendered 1774 read/1770 write I/O's, while the Corsair recorded 1769/1773, both of which are just slightly ahead of a single Vertex SSD that produced 1702 for read and write IOPS. Finishing out the second-tier IOPS performance is the OCZ Agility SSD with 1625/1618. Kingston's SSDNow V+ SNVP325 offered 826/829 IOPS, and creates a third tier of performance. Every other product thereafter responded with low IOPS operational performance, and are not suggested for high input/output applications.
The Iometer random IOPS average response time test results were nearly an inverse order of the IOPS performance results. It's no surprise that SLC drives perform I/O processes far better than their MLC versions, but that gap is slowly closing as controller technology improves the differences and enhances cache buffer space. The Read/Write IOPS performance for the 64GB OCZ Agility-EX SLC SSD was 0.19/0.06 ms, with the Intel X25-E Extreme SSD measuring 0.22/0.06 ms, while the OCZ Vertex-EX achieved 0.26/0.06 ms. Both of these premium MLC products share a dramatic lead ahead of the other SSDs tested. The Corsair X256 and OCZ Vertex Turbo SSD both scored 0.50/0.06ms, while the Vertex SSD offered 0.52/0.06ms. The mainstream Agility SSD produced 0.55/0.06ms, and the second-generation Kingston SSDNow V+ SNVP325 responded to read requests in 0.27ms while write requests were a bit slower at 0.93ms. The Western Digital VelociRaptor did very well compared against SSD products, producing 6.59/0.82ms. These times were collectively the best available, as each product measured hereafter performed much slower. Drive Hardware
In our next section, we test linear read and write bandwidth performance and compare its speed against several other top storage products using EVEREST Disk Benchmark. Benchmark Reviews feels that linear tests are excellent for rating SSDs, however HDDs are put at a disadvantage with these tests whenever capacity is high. EVEREST Disk BenchmarkMany enthusiasts are familiar with the EVEREST benchmark suite by Lavalys, but very few are aware of the Disk Benchmark tool available inside the program. The EVEREST Disk Benchmark performs linear read and write bandwidth tests on each drive, and can be configured to use file chunk sizes up to 1MB (which speeds up testing and minimizes jitter in the waveform). Because of the full sector-by-sector nature of linear testing, Benchmark Reviews endorses this method for testing SSD products, as detailed in our Solid State Drive Benchmark Performance Testing article. However, Hard Disk Drive products suffer a lower average bandwidth as the capacity draws linear read/write speed down into the inner-portion of the disk platter. EVEREST Disk Benchmark does not require a partition to be present for testing, so all of our benchmarks are completed prior to drive formatting. The high-performance storage products tested with EVEREST Disk Benchmark are connected to the Intel ICH10R SATA controller resident on the Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD4P motherboard. Using the 1MB block size, read performance of the 32GB LiteOn Strong-Page MLC SSD LA-32M1S measured an average 158.1 MBps with a maximum peak performance of 160.0 MBps. Linear write-to tests were next...
Linear disk benchmarks are superior tools in my opinion, because they scan from the first physical sector to the last. A side affect of many linear write-performance test tools is that the data is erased as it writes to every sector on the drive. Normally this isn't an issue, but it has been shown that partition table alignment will occasionally play a role in overall SSD performance (HDDs don't suffer this problem). The 128MB buffer and fast NAND flash memory on the LiteOn/Plextor Solid State Drive helped improve results in our linear write testing, as shown in the waveform chart below. The 32GB LiteOn Strong-Page MLC SSD recorded an average linear write-to speed of only 19MBps, with a maximum performance of 71.9 MBps. As you'll notice by the results, the LA-32M1S accepts write-to data around 70MBps until about 6% into the test. After approximately 1600MB was written to the LiteOn Strong-Page MLC SSD, performance falls flat and averages 19MBps. This clearly demonstrates a problem with large-file linear writes, although it's doubtful anyone will ever notice the effect in real-world computing.
The chart below shows the average linear read and write bandwidth for a cross-section of other SATA drives attached to the Intel ICH10 Southbridge:
Linear bandwidth certainly benefits the Solid State Drive, since there's very little fluctuation in transfer speed. Hard Disk Drive products decline in performance as the spindle reaches the inner-most sectors on the magnetic platter. I personally consider linear tests to be the single most important comparison of storage drive products, although hard disk drive products decrease performance as they reach the edge of the spindle, SSD products operate at a relatively smooth speed from start to finish. Drive Hardware
In the next section, Benchmark Reviews tests sequential performance using the CrystalDiskMark software tool... CrystalDiskMark TestsCrystalDiskMark is a very basic read and write benchmark tool by Crystal Dew World that offers performance speed results using sequential, 512KB random, and 4KB random samples. For our tests, sequential read and write performance was measured using a 1000MB file size, with 50, 100, and 500MB being the other available options. CrystalDiskMark requires that an active partition be set on the drive being tested, and all drives are formatted with NTFS. Benchmark Reviews uses CrystalDiskMark to confirm manufacturer suggested bandwidth speeds. In addition to our other tests, the sequential read and write benchmarks allow us to determine if the maximum stated speed of any storage product is within reasonable specification. In the chart below illustrated below, our sequential read and write performance speeds are organized from highest to lowest based on total bandwidth. Enjoying a noticeable lead atop of our sequential performance chart, both the Intel X25-E Extreme (261/206 MBps) and the OCZ Vertex-EX Single-Layer Cell SSD (256/182 MBps) and OCZ Agility-EX (258/172 MBps) offer the highest read and write bandwidth performance. Followed closely behind was the Kingston SSDNow V+ SNVP325 that produced 237/182 MBps, and the Corsair X256 which scored 255/156. Not far behind the top leaders was the OCZ Vertex Turbo, which offered 248/145, which is slightly faster than the standard Vertex SSD performance of 230/138. The OCZ Agility followed closely behind the other Indilinx Barefoot SSDs and shared the same sequential write speed penalty. Although the remaining drives are all within a respectable range of speed, the high-performance VelociRaptor hard drive still keeps pace with a few SSDs. The WD VelociRaptor offers sequential read and write performance comparable to the Mtron MOBI 3500.
Drive Hardware
HD Tach RW ResultsAlthough HD Tach (and also HD Tune or Crystal Disk Benchmark) are all excellent tools for measuring Hard Disk Drive products, they fail to offer the same precision with Solid State Drive products. These programs offer only an approximate estimate of bandwidth speed through their quick-result sample-testing mechanisms, as I have proven in the Solid State Drive (SSD) Benchmark Performance Testing article published not long ago. Nevertheless, HD Tach is still useful for offering an alternative perspective at performance, even if it isn't precisely correct when used with SSD architecture. HD Tach is a software program for Microsoft Windows that tests the sequential read, random access and interface burst speeds of the attached storage device. For the record. every single product tested was brand new and never used. HD Tach allows write-bandwidth tests only if no partition is present. Additionally, each and every product was tested five times with the highest and lowest results removed before having the average result displayed here. The graphical user interface (GUI) of the Windows-based benchmark tool HD Tach is very convenient. and allows the test product to be compared against others collected on your system or those registered into the Simpli Software database. HD Tach will not test write performance if a partition is present, so all of our benchmarks are completed prior to drive formatting. In the tests below, Benchmark Reviews utilizes the HD TachRW tool to compare the fastest collection of desktop hard drives and competing SSD's we can get our hands on. Using the Intel ICH10R SATA controller on the Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD4P, HD Tach was used to benchmark the test SSD five times with the best results displayed below. It's important to note that HD Tach's Burst Speed result should be ignored for Solid State Drives due to the cache methods inherent to each memory controller architecture. There are times where this number will be extremely high, which is a result of the optimized cache used for SSD's. The important numbers used for comparison are the sustained read and write bandwidth speeds, which indicate an approximate performance level of the product. Our featured test item, the 32GB LiteOn Strong-Page MLC SSD, performed at an average 113 MBps best sustained average read speed and a best average sustained write bandwidth of only 66 MBps in HD-Tach. Read speeds peak at 141 MBps, while writes peak at 70 MBps.
The chart below illustrates the collected averages for benchmark results using HD Tach RW on the Intel ICH10 SATA controller, with the read and write bandwidth results added together to determine rank placement. The first group is a collection of high-performance storage products. With an improved write performance, the SLC Vertex EX finds itself positioned in first place with the Corsair X256, Intel X25-E Extreme, and OCZ Agility EX SSDs all tied second, ahead of the MLC Vertex Turbo and several other Indilinx Barefoot-based SSDs. (Crucial M225, OCZ Vertex, Patriot Torqx, Super Talent UltraDrive, and Agility). A set of Western Digital VelociRaptor hard drives paired into a RAID-0 stripe array come close, but just aren't enough to stave off SSD performance. The ACARD ANS-9010 RAM-Disk, OCZ Summit SSD, OCZ Agility SSD, OCZ Apex SSD, Intel X25-M, and Kingston SSDNow V+ SSD all trail behind in overall performance and finish out the top five positions. Nearly every other storage product trails distantly behind these leaders, which all recorded a combined HD Tach bandwidth to over 300 MBps for each. A single (non RAID-0) VelociRaptor and Seagate 7200.11 hard drive begin the next segment of upper midrange performers, offering nearly 200 MBps of combined bandwidth. Trailed by a closely-packed group consisting of the Patriot Warp v2 SSD, Silicon Power SP032GBSSD750S25, and G.Skill FM-25S2S-64GB, are SSDs generating between 168-172 MBps of combined average bandwidth.
The lower-midrange SSD products begin with the Western Digital Raptor, scoring a combined total bandwidth of 154 MBps delivering half the performance of the leaders. Yesterday's high-performance SSD is today's low-performance drive, and the Mtron MOBI 3500, OCZ OCZSSD2-1S32G SSD, Super Talent MasterDrive MX SSD and Mtron MOBI 3000 all comprise products with less combined performance than Hard Disk Drive alternatives (except in regard to response time). Drive Hardware
Please continue on to the Final Thoughts sections, where the state of SSD testing and Data Storage market sector are put under analysis... SSD vs Hard Disk DriveThe last days of old technology are always better than the first days of new technology. Never has this saying been more true than with the topic of storage technology, specifically in regard to the introduction of Solid State Drive technology a few years ago. The only things standing in the way of widespread Solid State Drive (SSD) adoption are high storage capacity and affordable price of Hard Disk Drive (HDD) devices. Because NAND flash-based SSD technology costs more per gigabyte of capacity than traditional magnetic hard drives, the benefits of immediate response time, transfer speeds, and operational input/output performance often get overlooked. Like most consumer products, it wasn't a question of how much improvement was evident in the new technology, it was price. I'll discuss product costs more in just a moment, but for now consider how each new series of SSD product employs greater performance than the one before it, convincing would-be consumers into waiting for the right time to buy. There's also a gray area surrounding SSD performance benchmarks that has me concerned. You might not know this, but SSDs can be very temperamental towards the condition of their flash NAND. My experience testing dozens of Solid State Drives is that a freshly cleaned device (using an alignment tool) will always outperform the same device once it's been formatted and used. A perfect example is Indilinx Barefoot-based SSDs, which suffers severely degraded performance when writing to 'dirty' flash NAND. The reason that all of this will matters is simple: the performance results reported to consumers in product reviews (such as this one) often report the very best performance scores, and the process used to obtain these results is not applicable to real-world usage. This is where garbage collection techniques such as TRIM become important, so that end-users will experience the same performance levels as we do in our tests.
Garbage Collection (GC) is the current solution for keeping flash NAND in 'clean' condition, while maintaining optimal performance. Windows 7 offers native TRIM support, and most retail SSDs also include this special GC function or at least offer a firmware update that brings the drive up-to-date. For anyone using an Operating System or SSD that does not offer Garbage Collection functionality, you'll be using 'dirty' flash NAND modules and suffering sub-optimal performance for each write-to request. A few SSD manufacturers offers free tools to help restore peak-level performance by scheduling GC to 'clean' used NAND sectors, but these tools add excessive wear to the NAND the same way disk defragmenting tools would. SLC flash modules may resist wear much better than MLC counterparts, but come at the expense of increased production cost. The best solution is a more durable NAND module that offers long-lasting SLC benefits at the cost of MLC construction. Adoption is further stalled because keen consumers aware of this dilemma further continue their delay into the SSD market. Getting back to price, the changes in cost per gigabyte have come as often as changes to the technology itself. At their inception, high-performance models such the 32GB MemoRight GT cost $33 per gigabyte while the entry-level 32GB Mtron MOBI 3000 sold for $14 per gigabyte. While an enjoyable decline in NAND component costs forced consumer SSD prices down low in 2009, the price of SSD products has been on the rise during 2010. Nevertheless, Solid State Drives continue to fill store shelves despite price or capacity, and there are a few SSD products now costing only $2.03 per gigabyte. Although the performance may justify the price, which is getting dangerously close to the $1.00 per gigabyte WD VelociRaptor hard drive, costs may still close some buyers out of the market. Price notwithstanding, the future is in SSD technology and the day when HDDs are obsolete is nearing; but there are still a few bumps in the road to navigate. LiteOn LA-32M1S SSD ConclusionBenchmark Reviews begins our conclusion with a short summary for each of the areas that we rate. The first section is performance, which considers how effective the 32GB LiteOn Strong-Page SSD performs in operations against direct competitor products. For reference, PLDS specifies that the model LA-32M1S Solid State Drive should offer a maximum 140 MBps read and 80 MBps write performance. In many of our benchmark tests, the LA-32M1S SSD performed at or above this rated peak speed. The 32GB LiteOn Strong-Page SSD offered up to 145/72MBps read and writes speeds in ATTO Disk Benchmark, trailed by 143/71MBps in Crystal DiskMark; Everest reported a 160/72MBps linear peak bandwidth speed. Input/Output performance was modest in Iometer and HD-Tune, indicating that the LA-32M1S 'Strong-Page' SSD would perform best for performance-orientated consumers... but does not offer the high operational functionality needed for Enterprise server application.
Solid State Drives are low-visibility products: you see them just long enough to install and then they're forgotten. Despite this, LiteOn has taken the added step of upgrading the SSD enclosure from the standard black painted chassis used on nearly all other SSD products, and uses a textured titanium-metal finish. Because Solid State Drives, like their Hard Disk Drive counterparts, are meant to place function before fashion, anything above and beyond a simple metal shell is more than what's expected of the appearance. To this end I still wish manufacturers would return to using sealed plastic enclosures (such as the MOBI 3000) to prevent moisture or electrical shock damage, though the trend doesn't seem likely. Construction is probably the strongest feature credited to the entire SSD product segment, and Plextor/LiteOn Solid State Drive products are certainly no exception. Solid State Drives are by nature immune to most abuses, but add to this a hard metal shell and you have to wonder what it would take to make this drive fail. If a LiteOn SSD product fails during the 3-year warranty period, end-users should contact the original system manufacturer for support. Benchmark Reviews has tested the 32GB LiteOn Strong-Page MLC SSD LA-32M1S model, and the performance results were actually on-par with modern high-performance hard drive storage solutions. Based on our benchmark tests of this OEM storage product, the 32GB LiteOn Strong-Page SSD responded with a noteworthy 0.20 ms response time which assures a nearly-instant reactions when called upon, and the LA-32M1S model showed absolutely no sign of data-write stuttering during our tests. Based on the budget-friendly Marvell 88SS8014-BHP2 SSD Controller, the LiteOn Strong-Page MLC SSD delivers native TRIM garbage collection support with good transfer speeds. Although hardware-based data encryption and a mini-USB port would have been a nice touch, the LiteOn/Plextor SSD series is really intended as a step-up option for hard drive users. At the time of this writing, PLDS was in negotiation with tier-one OEMs to include their 32GB LiteOn Strong-Page LA-32M1S model and other Marvell-based SSDs as an optional upgrade in custom-ordered computer systems. After launching as an OEM product, PLDS will later offer the LA-32M1S to retail customers under the Plextor brand name. There is no specified MSRP for the LiteOn LA-32M1S SSD, which makes judging value impossible without more information. In summary, there could be a lot of potential for the 32GB LiteOn Strong-Page MLC SSD as an upgrade item for OEM computer builds... so long as the option's price is affordable. Without more information on how much the LA-32M1S model might cost, we're left to compare this storage device based on performance alone. While native TRIM Garbage Collection functionality is a plus, it would have been nice to see better read and write speeds. Even at the rated maximums of 140/80MBps, which are a fair grade above HDD counterparts, there are far faster solutions available on the retail market. Compared in real-world tasks, there is little to no perceivable difference between the LiteOn LA-32M1S and other 'faster' SSD storage solutions. If you're looking for an upgrade option, then our Featured Reviews: Storage section is full of suggestions. However, if PLDS follows-through with their intention to sell the LiteOn LA-32M1S at an entry-level price, the Plextor SSD could soon follow. Pros:
+ 160/72MBps read and write speeds with EVEREST beat HDDs Cons:
- Limited to 32GB capacity Questions? Comments? Benchmark Reviews really wants your feedback. We invite you to leave your remarks in our Discussion Forum.
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