UltraDrive ME SSD
EDITORS NOTE 05/15/2009: Benchmark Reviews has re-tested the Super Talent UltraDrive ME with the latest v1370 firmware, which includes TRIM support, and the resulting performance was generally identical to the previous firmware. Please remember that TRIM is a Windows 7 supported feature, and does not improve performance on Windows XP or Vista Operating Systems.
Many consumers have a personal attachment to manufacturers inside the computer hardware industry. For example, if asked which brand of system memory products an enthusiast prefers, the answer could be Crucial, Super Talent, Patriot, OCZ, or Corsair. The irony is that Micron makes the DRAM IC units for all of these manufacturers, and what you're ultimately paying for is the name, label, and warranty. Of course, the companies would all have you believe that their product is better than another, but the truth is that most of these products are licensed and/or sold from one source. Another parallel example is Solid State Drives.
Samsung makes the DRAM modules found in nearly all popular SSD products today, with Elpida and Qimonda adding their name to buffer parts in specific models. Samsung also engineers many of the most well-known SSDs on the market, but they are branded by the end-manufacturer who then flashes company-tuned firmware to the product and backs it with their own warranty. Indilinx has been tapped to add their 'Barefoot' controller into the design, and a new generation of Solid State Drives has delivered top-level speed and performance. The Super Talent UltraDrive ME 128GB MLC SSD FTM28GX25H is one such product, built from a proven architecture that has done with for others of the same controller family.
Performance enthusiasts have been keeping notes on SSD technology for a while now, and until recently the price and performance of Solid State Drives were not within reach for casual consumers. SSD products are quickly moving mainstream, and former marketing points like power consumption is now the least impressive of all benefits a Solid State Drive delivers. The real payoff is in the practically instant response time and high-performance throughput. Capacity and stuttering were once the only problems keeping SSDs from replacing HDDs, but now it's just capacity. Quick to solve that problem, Super Talent now offers their 512GB MasterDrive RX SSD which provides capacity matched to performance.
The Super Talent UltraDrive ME adds 64MB of Elpida DRAM to the buffer has permanently solved stuttering problems, making raw performance the last bottleneck. An Indilinx 'Barefoot' internal controller commands the bank of Samsung K9HCG08U1M DRAM modules, allowing the UltraDrive ME SSD to offer an impressive capacity with top-speed performance. Benchmark Reviews tests the reaction time and bandwidth performance for the FTM28GX25H 120GB model against over two dozen other products in this article.
Since first making a commercial public debut at the 2007 Consumer Electronics Show, Solid State Drives (SSD's) have been a topic of hot discussion among performance enthusiasts. These nonvolatile flash memory-based drives feature virtually no access time delay and promise a more reliable storage medium with greater performance while operating at a fraction of the power level. Moving into 2008, SSDs became a consumer reality for many performance-minded power users. Now that 2009 has revealed promising industry support for Solid State Drive technology, we should hope that mainstream acceptance moves faster than DDR3 SDRAM has.
Back in November 2007, after experiencing the SuperComputing Conference SC07, finding Solid State Drives on sale anywhere was a real challenge. One year later, and online stores are offering dozens of SSD models at reasonable prices. Solid State Drives are rapidly changing the computing landscape, and many enthusiasts are using SSD technology in their primary systems to help boost performance. Benchmark Reviews has tested nearly all of the products available to the retail market in this sector, and several do well while others fall flat. It used to be that performance was the largest hurdle for mass storage NAND Solid State Drives, followed by stability, and later price.
Solid State Drive products are no longer restricted to bleeding edge hardware enthusiasts or wealthy elitists. Heading into 2009, SSD storage devices were available online for nearly $2 per gigabyte of storage capacity while the most popular performance desktop hard drive hovered just above $1/GB. While most consumers are waiting for that day when SSD costs the same as HDD, they seem to be forgetting how Solid State Drives have already surpassed Hard Disk performance in every other regard. Our collection of SSD reviews is a good starting point for comparing the competition.
According to a Q1 2008 report by the semiconductor market research firm iSuppli, the SSD market will grow at an annualized average of 124 percent during the four-year period from 2008 until 2012. iSuppli now projects SSD sales to increase by an additional 35 percent in 2009 over what it projected last year, 51 percent more in 2010, and 89 percent more in 2011, and continue to show dramatic increases in subsequent years.
Disclaimer: SSD Benchmarks
Benchmark Reviews recently published an article which details Solid State Drive (SSD) 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.
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 ATTO Disk Benchmark 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.
About Super Talent Technology Corporation
Super Talent Technology, headquartered in San Jose, California, designs and manufactures a full range of DDR, DDR2, and DDR3 memory modules and Flash based storage devices for computers and consumer electronics. An ISO 9001 certified company, Super Talent utilzes its state-of-the art factory and leading-edge components to produce award winning products with outstanding reliability. Super Talent is an active member of JEDEC, ONFI and USB-IF standards bodies, and holds over 200 patents in Flash and DRAM technology.
Super Talent's Silicon Valley based electrical, mechanical, and software Engineering teams develop leading-edge DRAM and Flash memory solutions for a multitude of applications. Our US-based engineering enables Super Talent to bring advanced new products and technologies to market well ahead of the competition. A leading innovator, Super Talent holds over 200 patents on DRAM and Flash module design and manufacturing processes, making Super Talent one of the world's chief patent holders in memory device categories. Super Talent is an active member of JEDEC, the association that defines future memory standards. The company is a technical leader in producing industry standard memory modules as well as in developing custom memory solutions.
UltraDrive ME Features
Super Talent's UltraDrive ME series SSDs are our fifth-generation SSD, and offer leading-edge performance for high-end notebook computers. With read speeds up to 260MB/sec, the UltraDrive ME is geared for applications that require optimum performance. Super Talent's UltraDrive LE series SSDs are state-of-the-art storage drives designed expressly for enterprise servers. With read speeds up to 260MB/sec and capacities up to 128GB, the UltraDrive is geared for applications that require exceptional sustained transfer speeds and extremely high transaction rates (IOPS).
The UltraDrive also offers higher reliability and greater resistance to shock, vibration and temperature than a hard drive (HDD). It employs a standard HDD interface and dimensions, so it's an easy drop-in upgrade for a 2.5-inch hard drive in most notebooks and can be designed-in to systems with no customizations. The UltraDrive is certified for compatibility with the newest Apple 13" MacBook, 15" and 17" MacBook Pro, and Quad-core and 8-core Mac Pros. All drives are rigorously qualified in Super Talent's compatibility labs with strict hardware and software testing standards for consistency and functionality. Incorporating cutting edge error correction (ECC), wear leveling and bad block management technologies, UltraDrive SSDs also reduce maintenance costs, resulting in a lower total cost of ownership (TCO). Performance is highly dependent upon test environment and use case. Consult our benchmarking data in our whitepaper for more detailed performance information or benchmark performance in your environment.
Architecture
Solid State Disk (SSD) Drives are completely interchangeable with industry standard hard disk drives. SSDs conform to the same physical dimensions as hard drives, so they can fit in the standard drive bays and enclosures used by millions of computers. And SSDs use the same Serial ATA (SATA) or IDE interface as hard drives, making them functionally identical. This 100% physical and electrical compatibility and interchangeability with hard drives makes it very easy to design SSDs into systems and storage appliances.
In short, an SSD is a storage device that is based on semiconductors rather than rotating magnetic platters. Most SSDs, including Super Talent's offerings, are based on NAND Flash chips because they are fast, highly reliable, widely available and are non-volatile, meaning they save data even without a power source.
Flash vs. DRAM
SSDs based on DRAM components are lower cost than their NAND Flash based siblings. But DRAM is volatile storage, meaning it will lose all data if the power supply is removed. In a power outage, all the data stored on a DRAM based SSD would be permanently lost. Some DRAM based SSDs get around this limitation by including built-in rechargeable batteries. The obvious disadvantages of this solution are that batteries are heavy, have a limited life, and result in a unit that is far less reliable than an SSD based on non-volatile NAND Flash components.
Flash Cost
Currently, the main disadvantage is that flash-based drives cost more per gigabyte than hard drives. However, flash memory is decreasing in price around 20%-30% per year. Currently, NAND flash is sold around $8/GB and SSD is sold around $17/GB. Thus, as the price of the NAND flash chip decreases, the price of the SSD will decrease.
Flash Reliability
Flash endurance has increased due to a few techniques that have been implemented gradually in the past few years. The write/erase mechanism in Flash causes the Silicon to wear down over time. The procedure to program Flash can be done one word (byte) at a time and the procedure to erase is done on a per-block-basis. The degradation of the semiconductor material causes Flash to have a limit of 100,000-300,000 write/erase cycles. When a block reaches this threshold, the device can become unreliable and failure can occur.
Since it only takes one block to cause the entire Flash device to fail, wear leveling is incorporated to ensure that write/erase mechanisms are evenly distributed over all blocks. The technique does not allow one block to reach this limit sooner than other blocks. For example, if block A is written to 10x times and other blocks are written to x times, the algorithm will stop writing to block A and will write to other blocks. Thus, this will increase the endurance of the Flash device.
Low Power Consumption
A major disadvantage of hard drives is the amount of power they consume. Most of the power in a hard drive is used by the motor that has to spin the disk. Faster performance in a hard drive requires faster rotational speeds of the disk, up to 10,000 rpm's for high performance hard drives. The SSD offers an enormous advantage over hard drives in power efficiency. Thanks to the lack of motors and to the efficiency of flash IC's, SSDs consume a fraction of the power a conventional hard drive demands. When idle, SSDs use about 95% less power than hard drives; and when active, 50 to 85% less power. Lower power consumption means less heat produced inside the chassis that needs to be expelled, which results in cooler components and a lighter need for chassis ventilation. And more important, in mobile computing less power means longer battery life. Furthermore, each SSD can save up to 21.9 Kilowatt-Hours of power per year compared to a hard drive, making SSDs the ultimate choice for eco-friendly computing.
Fast Performance
Hard drives and flash technology have very different performance characteristics. With Access times in the 10-20ms range, hard drives are very slow to locate data, Flash has the advantage of lightning fast access time, well below 1ms. Therefore, SSDs are far superior to hard drives for small random reads and writes.
Hard drives are relatively fast for burst transfers of large sequential blocks of data. But the fastest SSD drives support even faster sustained read and write speeds than the fastest hard drives. High speed SSDs are the best choice for maximum throughput. Another considerable advantage flash has over hard drives is that they do not suffer from delay waking from sleep mode because with no moving parts, they have no need to spin down like a conventional hard drive.
FTM28GX25H Specifications
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Capacity: 32-256GB
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64MB Internal Cache
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Form Factor: 2.5" HD (100.20mm x 69.85mm x 9.5mm)
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MLC or SLC Flash
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Fully compliant with SATA revision 2.6
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Compatible with SATA 3Gb/s and SATA 1.5Gb/s interfaces
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Fully compliant with ATA-7 Standard
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PIO, DMA, UDMA (up to 6, dependent on host) supported
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Rugged Metal Case
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Minimum 10 year data retention
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Built in wear leveling algorithm
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Built in error detection and correction
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100% tested HW and SW
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Designed and Manufactured in USA
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Available in 30GB, 60GB, 120GB, 250GB capacities
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Read: up to 200 MB/sec
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Write (120-250GB): up to 160 MB/sec
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Seek: <.1ms
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Onboard Cache: (30-60GB) - 32MB / (120-250GB) - 64MB
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Slim 2.5" Design
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100.2 x 70 x 9.3mm
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Lightweight 77g
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Operating Temp: -10C ~ +70C
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Storage Temp: -55C ~ +140C
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Low Power Consumption
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Shock Resistant 1500G
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Internal RAID 0 Support
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MTBF 1.5 million hours
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2 year warranty
First Look: UltraDrive ME
Sharing identical construction with the OCZ Vertex SSD, Super Talent's UltraDrive ME is slightly different in firmware and chassis. The UltraDrive ME SSD utilizes a new Indilinx drive controller to help deliver the manufacturer-rated 260/195 MBps read and write bandwidth speeds. On the outside, this 120GB SSD (model FTM28GX25H) looks like every other Solid State Drive produced by Super Talent, including the MasterDrive MX we reviewed back in mid-2008. As of May 2009 the Super Talent SSD family includes the UltraDrive, MasterDrive, and DuraDrive SSD series.
When it comes to the appearance of notebook drives, it must be understood that the product you're looking at will be hidden away from plain view once installed. Keeping in mind that this product is solid state, and therefore offers no amount of noticeable physical activity, it takes some special attention to presentation in order to help keep the consumer feeling comfortable with their premium purchase. Unlike the Hard Disk Drive (HDD) storage products, SSD's are practically impervious to impact damage and do not require special vibration dampening or shock-proof enclosures. Super Talent utilizes a flat-black metal enclosure for the UltraDrive series, which fastens with four small counter-sunk screws on the underside.
Standard 2.5" drive bay mounting points are pre-drilled and threaded into the UltraDrive 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 laptop, and after only a few minutes of drive cloning I was quickly loading Windows XP.
Unlike desktop computers which utilize a SATA cable system to connect drive to motherboard, nearly all notebooks allow the 2.5" drive to simply slide directly into a connection bay within the system. In addition to notebooks and desktop computer usage, this UltraDrive ME Solid State Drive can be utilized for mission-critical backups or high-abuse data systems. One unfortunate omission from all Super Talent SSD products is the integrated High-Speed USB 2.0 Mini-B seen on Solid State Drive product models elsewhere.
Now that you're acquainted with the basic exterior features of the Super Talent UltraDrive ME, it's time to peek inside the FTM28GX25H enclosure and inspect the internal components...
Internal Components
Intermittent and delayed response cycles (stuttering) from Solid State Drive products is not entirely wide-spread among all MLC SSDs, but it has become a big-enough issue among most affordable SSD products that many are well-aware of the phenomenon. Consumers first experienced the bitter taste of stuttering SSD performance with several popular brands of products, some of which have been the OCZ Core Series, G.Skill MLC SSD, and Patriot Warp v2. The phenomenon occurs when the drives buffer is filled faster than it can read or write data, and was prevalent among first-generation JMicron JMF602 SSD controllers.
But stuttering is a MLC-specific problem, and RAID-0 controllers or high-performance SSD chips are simply work-arounds. So how well can the Super Talent UltraDrive produce read-from and write-to bandwidth using the new architecture matched to Multi-Layer Cell construction without suffering from response stuttering? The answer lies within a larger buffer, and an Indilinx ARM7 micro-controller.
To the untrained eye, the Super Talent UltraDrive SSD looks like every other Solid State Drive you've probably seen when the internal components have been exposed. There's a collective bank of DRAM, usually with Samsung markings, followed by the SATA controller chip. Super Talents OEM manufacturer, Samsung, decided to use Indilinx to deliver the SATA controller interface since their 'Barefoot' chip was production-ready to be paired with a large cache months ago, while JMicron is still a few months away with their successor to the JMF602B chip.
The internal DRAM is comprised of Samsung K9HCG08U1M-PCB00 IC parts, which bare the branding mark K9HCG08U1M PCB0. These lead-free RoHS-compliant 48-pin ICs are multi-layer, with one IC directly atop another. Each IC has an operating voltage of 2.7-3.6V, with a 25ns speed rating. The K9HCG08U1M parts offer 64GB in 8x organization.
Indilinx claims that their IDX110M00-FC 'Barefoot' chip offer a maximum read speed 230 MBps and supports the capacity up to 512GB with multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash. The Indilinx (IDX110) Barefoot SSD controller chip is touted as delivering bandwidth over 200 MBps and random input-output (IO) of 20,000/s into various servers such as on-line transaction processing (OLTP) and streaming server units.
A single Elpida 64MB SDRAM module is marked with S51321CBH-7BTT-F, but the actual Elpida part number is EDS51321CBH, which is a 133MHz (CL3-3-3) mobile RAM component. This 64MB cache buffer helps improve small write-to performance and removes the 'stuttering' effect from the UltraDrive SSD.
The test sample Benchmark Reviews received for our benchmarks came with version 03-20-09 (FTM28GX25H-AIX) firmware. Future firmware updates can be found on the Super Talent website under the driver download section for SSD products.
In the next section, Benchmark Reviews begins performance testing the UltraDrive ME Solid State Drive, and we determine just how well the new Indilinx Barefoot-based SSD compares to the previous best-performing competition.
Disclaimer: SSD Testing
EDITORS NOTE 05/15/2009: Benchmark Reviews has re-tested the Super Talent UltraDrive ME with the latest v1370 firmware, which includes TRIM support, and the resulting performance was generally identical to the previous firmware. Please remember that TRIM is a Windows 7 supported feature, and does not improve performance on Windows XP or Vista Operating Systems.
Benchmark Reviews recently published an article which details Solid State Drive (SSD) 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.
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 ATTO Disk Benchmark 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.
SSD Testing Methodology
Solid 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 effect the results of a test which we do our best to avoid.
Test System
Drive Hardware
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Crucial / Lexar 32GB 2.5" SATA-2 SSD CT32GBFAB0
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Hitachi Travelstar 5K160 2.5" 40GB SATA 5,400 RPM HDD HTS541640J9SA00 (8MB Cache Buffer)
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Hitachi Travelstar 7K100 2.5" 60GB SATA 7,200 RPM HDD HTS721060G9SA00 (8MB Cache Buffer)
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Kingston 80GB SATA SSD SSDSA2MH080G1GC
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Samsung 64GB 2.5" SATA-2 SSD MCCOE64G5MPP-0VA
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Seagate 7200.11 500GB 3.5" ST3500320AS 7,200 RPM SATA-II Hard Disk Drive (32MB Cache Buffer)
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Western Digital Raptor 74GB 3.5" WD740ADFD 10,000 RPM SATA Hard Disk Drive (16MB Cache Buffer)
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Western Digital VelociRaptor 150GB WD1500HLFS 10,000 RPM SATA Hard Disk Drive (16MB Cache Buffer)
Test Tools
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System Speed Test v4.78 by Vladimir Afanasiev: Accurately measures random access response time
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ATTO Disk Benchmark v2.34: Spot-tests static file size chunks for basic IOPS benchmarking
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HD Tune Pro v3.5 by EFD Software: Measured random access IOPS and speed
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EVEREST Ultimate Edition v5.00.1650 by Lavalys: Disk Benchmark component tests linear read and write bandwidth speeds
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CrystalDiskMark v2.2 by Crystal Dew World: Sequential speed benchmark spot-tests various file size chunks
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HD Tach RW v3.0.4.0 by Simpli Software: Measures approximate buffered read and write bandwidth speeds
System Speed Test
EDITORS NOTE 05/15/2009: Benchmark Reviews has re-tested the Super Talent UltraDrive ME with the latest v1370 firmware, which includes TRIM support, and the resulting performance was generally identical to the previous firmware. Please remember that TRIM is a Windows 7 supported feature, and does not improve performance on Windows XP or Vista Operating Systems.
I doubt that when DOS was put to rest, Vladimir Afanasiev ever thought he would see his System Speed Test software used again in professional reviews. This program offers comprehensive system information, but it also has a powerful benchmarking tool for memory, processor, and disks. In terms of disk performance, it measures interface and physical transfer rates, seek and access times at the hardware level, and it does so without delay or interference from Operating System software or running processes. This is why Benchmark Reviews will continue to use this test: it polls its results directly from the hardware without the need for Windows!
System Speed Test does not require a partition to be present for testing, so all of our Random Access Time benchmarks are completed prior to drive formatting. To detect the Random Access Time, each device runs the full test routine a total of five times. The highest and lowest scores were ignored, and the remainder was averaged. This would be prove pointless however, because the access time benchmark for every single SSD recorded identical test results between runs.
Using the System Speed Test software, the top Random Access Time benchmarks places the OCZ Vertex EX, Mtron Pro 7500, and ACARD ANS-9010 at the very top of our results. With a lightning-fast 0.08 ms access time, every other SSD is forced to live in the shadow that these products have just created. The other sub-0.1ms top performers include: MemoRight GT, Mtron Pro 7000, Mtron MOBI 3500, Intel 80GB X25-M, OCZ Vertex, Super Talent UltraDrive ME and Mtron MOBI 3000.
The mid-level Random Access Times fall between 0.14ms and 0.23ms, and include: OCZ SATA-II OCZSSD2-1S64G, Samsung MCCOE64G5MPP, Silicon Power SP032GBSSD750S25, OCZ Apex OCZSSD2-1APX120G, G.Skill FM-25S2S-64GB, Patriot Warp PE128GS25SSDR and the original OCZ OCZSSD64GB.
At the slower end of our SSD Response Time chart is the original SATA Silicon Power SP064GBSSD25SV10, OCZ Core Series, Crucial's CT32GBFAB0, and the Super Talent MasterDrive MX finishing out the list. In reality you couldn't begin to perceive these subtle differences, and MLC or SLC construction has a lot to do with Random Access Time. It is understandable then, that the newer SSD products do not maintain the lightning fast response time that much more expensive SLC products do. Still, the slowest SSD product (0.51ms) is 14x more responsive than the fastest desktop hard drive.
It's also worth keeping in mind that Hard Disk Drive alternatives are much slower to react. Even the very best of the desktop hard drive products, Western Digital's VelociRaptor 150GB WD1500HLFS, could produce 7.15ms at its best. The Western Digital Raptor took 8.53ms to respond, followed by 12.99ms for the Seagate 7200.11, and 15.39ms for the 7200 RPM Hitachi Travelstar 7K100 notebook drive. The worst performer was the standard 5400 RPM notebook drive (Hitachi Travelstar 5K160 HTS541640J9SA00), which recorded a painfully slow 17.41ms Random Access Time.
Drive Hardware
ATTO Disk Benchmark
EDITORS NOTE: ATTO Disk Benchmark is not designed to be used as bandwidth speed tool, as the final results are determined by user-set variables. Benchmark Reviews uses ATTO Disk Benchmark as a tool for illustrating basic load performance at various chunk load sizes. Please read the Solid State Drive Benchmark Performance Testing article to understand how the benchmarks used in this article should be interpreted.
EDITORS NOTE 05/15/2009: Benchmark Reviews has re-tested the Super Talent UltraDrive ME with the latest v1370 firmware, which includes TRIM support, and the resulting performance was generally identical to the previous firmware. Please remember that TRIM is a Windows 7 supported feature, and does not improve performance on Windows XP or Vista Operating Systems.
The 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.
While the bandwidth results are not realistic for determining the maximum drive speeds, ATTO Disk Benchmark is still a good tool for illustrating bandwidth using various file size chunks. Please consider the results displayed by this benchmark to be basic bandwidth performance indicators.
Beginning with the integrated Intel ICH10R Southbridge chip connected to the Super Talent UltraDrive ME SSD, the ATTO Disk Benchmark tools performs file transfers ranging from 0.5 KB to 8192 KB. This 128GB MLC SSD FTM28GX25H part shows a 258 MBps read plateau from 128-8192 KB file chunks, while the 175 MBps write performance plateaus from 128-8192 KB. This is extremely impressive basic IOPS performance, and exactly what consumers should expect from the Indilinx Barefoot controller on a MLC SSD.
Super Talent has integrated a 64MB cache buffer into the UltraDrive ME SSD, which helps it build speed quickly as it processes small-to-large file chunks. Super Talent suggests a maximum read performance of 260 MBps, and write performance topping out at 195 MBps for the 128GB UltraDrive ME FTM28GX25H model, and from what we're seeing from ATTO these are very realistic expectations.
Drive Hardware
In our next section, we test linear read and write bandwidth performance of the Super Talent UltraDrive SSD and compare its speed against several other top storage products. Benchmark Reviews feels that linear tests are the best method for testing SSD products, as detailed in our Solid State Drive Benchmark Performance Testing article.
HD Tune Pro Benchmarks
EDITORS NOTE 05/15/2009: Benchmark Reviews has re-tested the Super Talent UltraDrive ME with the latest v1370 firmware, which includes TRIM support, and the resulting performance was generally identical to the previous firmware. Please remember that TRIM is a Windows 7 supported feature, and does not improve performance on Windows XP or Vista Operating Systems.
In the past, Benchmark Reviews has avoided HD Tune benchmarks because the software was so similar to others already being used in our articles. However, EFD Software has released several versions of the program, which add functionality and features with each revision. The latest edition of HD Tune Pro allows random access read and write testing, a feature not available to other software 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 for 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 random transfer size IOPS performance.
Benchmark Reviews has tested the Super Talent UltraDrive ME 128GB MLC SSD FTM28GX25H against a collection of top-performance Solid State Drives for our random IOPS benchmarks. By nature, Single-Layer Cell (SLC) SSDs perform far better at delivering high operational transactions per second when compared to Multi-Layer Cell (MLC) products.
The Super Talent UltraDrive ME, while being virtually identical to the OCZ Vertex SSD, share very similar architecture but very different IOPS performance. While Indilinx offers firmware updates on a frequent basis, OCZ appears to be ahead of Super Talent in terms of development. One example is with TRIM technology, which resets sectors on the SSD as they are erased, thus restoring write-to performance to its pristine peak.
The Vertex EX enjoys the benefit of SLC construction, which delivers traditionally better IOPS performance. The OCZ Vertex has the advantage of TRIM enhancements to the firmware, while Super Talent's UltraDrive ME shows some signs of reduced write-to IOPS performance.
All three of the above-mentioned SSDs appear to be well ahead of the OCZ Apex and G.Skill Titan SSDs, which utilize the dual JMicron controller in an internal RAID-0 array. The JMicron controller reveals its inherent weakness, producing miserably low single-digit IOPS performance. Even the much older SLC products, OCZ's OCZSSD2 and the Mtron MOBI 3000 or 3500, all perform better during write-to tests.
Drive Hardware
EVEREST Disk Benchmark
EDITORS NOTE 05/15/2009: Benchmark Reviews has re-tested the Super Talent UltraDrive ME with the latest v1370 firmware, which includes TRIM support, and the resulting performance was generally identical to the previous firmware. Please remember that TRIM is a Windows 7 supported feature, and does not improve performance on Windows XP or Vista Operating Systems.
Many 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 (version 2.06.37) 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. 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 SSD 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, our read performance measured an average 246.0 MBps and forms a near-perfect line as it scans across all sectors. At some point in the waveform, maximum read performance peaked at 246.2 MBps, indicating how well the Indilinx 'Barefoot' controller has improved over the previous designs by other manufacturers (like JMicron). Oddly enough, these results were nearly identical to the MLC Vertex SSD. 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 effect 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 tables will occasionally play a role in overall performance. The large 64MB buffer on the Super Talent UltraDrive ME helped our linear testing, as shown in the waveform chart below.
Although the chart makes the linear write performance appear unsteady, the results seen here are actually very good compared to other SSD products we've tested in the past. The Super Talent UltraDrive ME recorded an average linear write-to speed of 209.1 MBps , which falls slightly below the maximum speed of 217 MBps.
The chart below shows the average linear read and write bandwidth for a cross-section of 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
CrystalDiskMark Tests
EDITORS NOTE 05/15/2009: Benchmark Reviews has re-tested the Super Talent UltraDrive ME with the latest v1370 firmware, which includes TRIM support, and the resulting performance was generally identical to the previous firmware. Please remember that TRIM is a Windows 7 supported feature, and does not improve performance on Windows XP or Vista Operating Systems.
CrystalDiskMark 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.
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, the OCZ Vertex EX Single-Layer Cell SSD offers the highest bandwidth. Followed closely behind is the OCZ Apex, and it's twin cousin the G.Skill Titan. Next comes the Super Talent UltraDrive ME, which has slightly better performance than the OCZ Vertex MLC SSD. Although the remaining drives are much older models, the SLC construction keeps the OCZSSD2, Mtron MOBI 3500, and MOBI 3000 all within respectable range.
Drive Hardware
HD Tach RW Results
EDITORS NOTE 05/15/2009: Benchmark Reviews has re-tested the Super Talent UltraDrive ME with the latest v1370 firmware, which includes TRIM support, and the resulting performance was generally identical to the previous firmware. Please remember that TRIM is a Windows 7 supported feature, and does not improve performance on Windows XP or Vista Operating Systems.
Although 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 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 Super Talent UltraDrive ME 128GB MLC SSD FTM28GX25H, performed at an average 230.9 MBps best sustained read speed and a best average of 181.5 MBps sustained write bandwidth. I use the term 'best' because HD Tach changed it's results on the very next test, and several more thereafter...
Looking at the peak maximum's charted in these illustrations, the UltraDrive ME had a very consistent read speed nearing 232 MBps while the write-to performance occasionally reached 220 MBps. Unfortunately though, HD Tach doesn't offer very consistent test results for the write-to performance on SSD products.
Compared against the stated specification of 260/195, our read results appear slightly below the maximum speed Super Talent defines, but the write performance is actually much closer to the advertised maximum speed. Keep in mind that HD Tach is only capable of offering approximate estimates for SSD products, as evidenced by the very different write-to performance results received for tests taken only minutes apart. The range of 186 to 220 MBps is a much wider than I would like for a test tool, but I've already warned that HD Tach is meant for Hard Drive products, hence the name.
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 and well ahead of the UltraDrive and MLC Vertex in single or RAID-0, and a set of Western Digital VelociRaptor hard drives paired into a RAID-0 stripe array.
The ACARD ANS-9010 RAM-Disk, OCZ Apex SSD, and Intel X25-M SSD both 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
In our next section, the entire collection of SSD products Benchmark Reviews has tested will be timed for a Windows XP startup benchmark. Please continue to see how SSD's effect startup performance.
Windows XP Startup
EDITORS NOTE 05/15/2009: Benchmark Reviews has re-tested the Super Talent UltraDrive ME with the latest v1370 firmware, which includes TRIM support, and the resulting performance was generally identical to the previous firmware. Please remember that TRIM is a Windows 7 supported feature, and does not improve performance on Windows XP or Vista Operating Systems.
After several SSD product reviews in which I recorded Windows XP startup time data, I have repeatedly omitted my results from the article for lack of enough comparison data. In all honesty, I cannot make this an interesting subject. Most of you reading this article have already watched the video of a Windows computer starting up in mere seconds when it used a Solid State Drive, so it wouldn't be very exciting to show it again. Instead, I have recorded the length of time it took for my Dell Inspiron 6400 notebook computer to startup with each drive. Here are the specifications on the notebook:
-
Dell Inspiron 6400 Notebook
-
Intel Core Duo T2300 @ 1.66 GHz
-
2GB DDR2 667 MHz System Memory
-
Windows XP Professional SP3 (identical image cloned to each drive)
This "test" is going to be useful to laptop computer users only, primarily because I did not test the desktop hard drives. The only hard drive included was the high-performance 7200 RPM Hitachi Travelstar 7K100, which recorded a 28-second load time from the moment I pressed the power button to the moment the Windows Login screen was displayed.
The primary purpose of this test was to demonstrate that a Solid State Drive could in fact cut the Windows load time in half, but there are other factors to consider. It's important to note that this particular Dell notebook consumes almost 11 seconds on the BIOS pre-loading and POST (Power-On Self Test) routine prior to actually beginning to load Microsoft Windows XP, so it's not realistic to think that my results would match another system identically.
Drive Hardware
In the next section, I begin to summarize my final thoughts on the OCZ Vertex series SSD as well as Solid State Drives in general. Please continue on to see what I think of SSD technology in todays consumer market.
Heat Output Results
Solid State Drives are not quite a household technology (yet), and because of this the marketing propaganda has become as high-pressure as any political campaign. Benchmark Reviews has tested SSD products from many manufacturers (to name a few: Crucial, G.Skill, Intel, MemoRight, Mtron, OCZ, Patriot, Samsung, Super Talent, and Silicon Power) and each has taken full advantage of the vast new technology improvements offered by their products. Some manufacturers have made claims that other websites have taken to the mat, and wrestled with a topic (such as power consumption), only to later be criticized for improperly testing the hardware. Well, we don't intend on repeating the mistakes of our mega-site affiliates, which is why we plan to approach new methodology in small bites.
There have been television shows made famous on the principal of dispelling rumors and myth. This section is not exactly meant to imitate that concept, although we do separate fact from fiction. The first myth we challenge is the claim that Solid State Drives produce no heat. Nearly every manufacturer selling Solid State products has at some point claimed their SSD products do not produce heat, which is believable on many levels because there are no moving parts. Well, chances are very good that you have already peeked at the illustration below, so I won't delay in explaining what we've found.
Using some spare Styrofoam panels, I constructed a small unit to shield two 2.5" notebook drives from the nearby power supply. Although not pictured, there was also an open-top wall section that surrounded this unit, further insulating it from thermal effects of any nearby environment. Since there was no data connection made, these tests are what I would consider to be 'idle'. The power leads were connected and power was delivered for twenty minutes before temperatures were taken with a non-contact IR thermometer at approximately six inches from surface. The rooms ambient temperature as measured directly at the test site was exactly 19.0°C at the time I recorded the results for the units pictured.
In the image above there are only two devices pictured of a four-cell test platform. On the left side is the Hitachi Travelstar 7K100 60GB HTS721060G9SA00 7,200 RPM SATA 2.5" Hard Disk Drive, and on the right is one our Solid State Drive test subjects. The Hitachi 7K100 is one of the few 7200 RPM notebook hard drives available to OEM builders, and since these faster spinning disks use more power they also create more heat as a by-product. Although not pictured because of camera direction, my test rig setup compares up to four products at once. The results of other SSD test products are shown in the charts below.
Temperature Readings at 19.0°C
| Device Name |
Ambient |
Drive Temp |
| OCZ Apex Series SSD |
19.0°C |
31°C |
| Mtron Pro 7500 SSD |
19.0°C |
31°C |
| Mtron Pro 7000 SSD |
19.0°C |
29°C |
| Mtron Pro 3500 SSD |
19.0°C |
29°C |
| OCZ Core Series SSD |
19.0°C |
28°C |
| OCZ Vertex Series SSD |
19.0°C |
27°C |
| Hitachi Travelstar 7K100 HDD |
19.0°C |
27°C |
| Samsung MCCOE64G5MPP-0VA SSD |
19.0°C |
27°C |
| Silicon Power SP064GBSSD25SV10 SSD |
19.0°C |
27°C |
| Super Talent FTM60GK25H SSD |
19.0°C |
27°C |
| Mtron MOBI 3000 SSD |
19.0°C |
27°C |
| OCZ Vertex EX SLC SSD |
19.0°C |
26°C |
| Super Talent UltraDrive SSD |
19.0°C |
26°C |
| Silicon Power SP032GBSSD750S25 SSD |
19.0°C |
26°C |
| G.Skill FM-25S2S-64GB SSD |
19.0°C |
26°C |
| Crucial CT32GBFAB0 SSD |
19.0°C |
25°C |
| Patriot Warp SSD |
19.0°C |
25°C |
| Hitachi Travelstar 5K160 HDD |
19.0°C |
23°C |
| OCZ OCZSSD2 SSD |
19.0°C |
21°C |
The message here is simple: Although the heat produced by SSD's under load is usually the same as what the Hard Disk Drive generates at idle, Solid State Drives still produce heat. Don't let marketing hype fool you into believing that Solid State Drives are cold-operating devices just because there are no moving parts. Cooler, yes. Cold, no.
Drive Hardware
SSD Final Thoughts
New technology always has one major hurdle to face: the consumer. I have long maintained my opinion that DDR3 system memory is every bit an excellent replacement to the aging DDR2 standard, but the argument of high price and limited adoption by manufacturers has hushed my position. Of course, everything changes in time, and an economic recession actually helped DDR3 make its way mainstream. Faced with a similar situation, Solid State Drive technology has suffered the same difficult transition towards widespread use. Like most electronics, it wasn't a question of how much of a technology improvement was evident, it was price.
Then at some point, a certain well-respected hardware website published an article that claimed SSDs didn't consume less power after all. Although this report was later recanted on account of testing errors, the foundation was shaken for consumers and led me to wonder what kind of impact my news of higher heat output will cause the adoption process? After all, I like these products, and completely endorse the technology. But the bad publicity, even when it's disproven, still has a lasting affect thanks to the angst a premium price tag creates. This also has me wondering how my SSD Benchmark Testing revelation will affect the market. Of course, time was once again the changing factor, and the latest SSD products make these perspectives obsolete.
So back in May of 2008 when I reviewed the OCZ SATA-II 32GB SSD it seemed like $17 per gigabyte was a relatively good price for SSDs at the time. Consider for a moment that before then, SSD's such the elite-level 32 GB MemoRight GT cost on the level of $33 per gigabyte. Even products like the entry-level 32 GB Mtron MOBI 3000 were still selling for $14 per gigabyte, making the price of admission seem quite high for even the lower-level SKU's. So when OCZ announced a 64GB SSD that would sell for under $259 in July of 2008, I really wasn't sure if the news was believable. It didn't take long to realize these claims were all true, because shortly thereafter NewEgg began listing these SSDs exactly as predicted. This event in itself should have probably started the long-awaited dawn of widespread consumer acceptance for SSD products... but there was a problem.
As it turned out, the first generation (v1) OCZ Core Series SSD I touted in my review was prone to long-term data corruption and occasional delay stuttering. Making matters worse was that the mail-in rebate nullified consumer ability to return the defective product for a refund. Nothing hurts progress more than an angry customer, and this incident created plenty. Later on, OCZ would issue a second version (v2) of the CORE series, and even though most problems were ironed out with firmware updates, a lingering fear of product reliability associated with Solid State Drives remained.
Once again, everything tends to change over time, and Solid State Drive sale prices are much different now. When it comes to computer hardware, generally speaking the newer, faster, and better performing products traditionally cost more than their older predecessors... but this is not the case with SSD's. I recognize that SSD bandwidth speeds range from abysmal to phenomenal and everywhere in-between, but the prices don't seem to correspond to performance. SSD's are filling store shelves, and several Solid State Drive models now sell for as low as $2.07 per gigabyte, which is getting dangerously close to Western Digital's VelociRaptor at $0.76 per gigabyte of storage.
So why are some Solid State Drives so affordable while others sell at 2-7x the cost? That's a very good question that only a particular group of manufacturers can answer. My best estimation is that the OEM's (Original Equipment Manufacturers) like OCZ, Patriot, Super Talent, and G.Skill (to name a few) receive discounts when using a common design under license. The opposite is true for ODM's (Original Design Manufacturers) such as MemoRight, Mtron, and Silicon Power, which must shoulder the burden of R&D and production. DRAM Prices have dropped beyond anyone's expectations, which has certainly helped, and consumers should soon reap the advantages.
UltraDrive SSD Conclusion
EDITORS NOTE 05/15/2009: Benchmark Reviews has re-tested the Super Talent UltraDrive ME with the latest v1370 firmware, which includes TRIM support, and the resulting performance was generally identical to the previous firmware. Please remember that TRIM is a Windows 7 supported feature, and does not improve performance on Windows XP or Vista Operating Systems.
Benchmark Reviews begins each conclusion with a short summary for each of the areas we rate. The first is presentation, which takes product packaging into consideration to the extent that it provides adequate packing material and consumer information for an informed purchase. Since the American economy in the midst of an economic recession, many manufacturers are having to pull out some very creative ideas to help market their products. Add onto this the fact that SSD technology already carries a premium price tag over the alternative, and you can understand why product presentation becomes so important. Super Talent uses a rather dated package design, which appears nearly identical to older models. Despite a lack of flair, the UltraDrive ME retail box still displays critical product information and specifications for the untrained consumer.
Solid State Drives are a lot like spark plugs: you see them just long enough to install, and then they're forgotten. Quite the inverse of their packaging, the Super Talent UltraDrive ME receives a nice chrome and black finish to the enclosure, and uses an adhesive label to list specifics. There isn't very much to expect from the appearance of Solid State Drives, because like their Hard Disk Drive counterpart they are meant to place function before fashion. Although Super Talent goes above and beyond, I still wish manufacturers would begin using sealed plastic enclosures to prevent moisture or electrical shock damage.
Construction is probably the strongest feature credited to the entire SSD product line, and Super Talent products have never been an 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 any UltraDrive SSD product does happen to fail during the 2-year warranty period, end-users can contact the support department by e-mailing
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
or by filling out an RMA form from their website. Unfortunately, there isn't a toll-free 800 number available for customer support.
Based on the collection of benchmark performance tests we've conducted, the Super Talent UltraDrive ME offers linear bandwidth so far ahead of previous competition that the new Indilinx controller might require calling this a new generation product in order to justify how so many other 'new' products have just been left behind. While the UltraDrive ME usually trailed slightly behind the nearly-identical OCZ Vertex SSD, there were also a few times where the UltraDrive pulled ahead. The MLC Samsung flash modules paired to a 64MB cache buffer on this 120GB model FTM28GX25H SSD help yield a 0.10 ms response time. ATTO Disk Benchmark tool reported an impressive 259 MBps maximum read bandwidth in our tests, and 175 MBps maximum write. HD Tach recorded additional high-performance results, with approximate bandwidth speeds reaching 231 MBps read and 182 MBps write. EVEREST's linear full-sector bandwidth performance was a steady 246 MBps read-from, and an impressive 209 MBps write-to speed.
As of July 2009, the Super Talent UltraDrive ME series of SSDs is available at NewEgg and other popular online retailers. A lower-capacity 32GB UltraDrive ME (model FTM32GX25H) is sold for $119, while the 64GB FTM64GX25H sells for $196 ($25 less than the 60GB OCZ Vertex). The larger 128GB version we tested in this article is offered for $399. A jumbo-sized 256GB Vertex SSD is also available for $620, which is a surprising $160 less than the OCZ Vertex SSD of the same capacity. By all comparisons, the performance is very similar while the pricing is not.
In conclusion, the Super Talent UltraDrive ME Solid State Drive offers tremendous performance in read and write bandwidth speeds and an exceptional 0.10 ms response time at a attainable price. The Indilinx 'Barefoot' controller is second to none, and the UltraDrive series easily outperforms a RAID-0 set of Western Digital VelociRaptor hard drives. The only drawback is price, which keeps the ratio just under $3 per gigabyte or storage space. I can recommend the Super Talent UltraDrive ME 128GB MLC SSD FTM28GX25H to cutting-edge super-users and performance enthusiasts who want unmatched response and speed from their computer system.
Pros:
+ Impressive 246 MBps read and 209 write bandwidth with EVEREST
+ 64MB Cache buffer permanently solves 'stuttering' problem
+ Very low 0.10 ms random access time
+ Lightweight compact storage solution
+ Resistant to extreme shock impact
+ Up to 256GB of SSD capacity
+ 2-Year Super Talent product warranty
+ Low power consumption may extend battery life
Cons:
- Metal case is heavier and less durable than plastic
- Lacks integrated USB 2.0 Mini-B data connection
- Expensive premium-level product
Ratings:
-
Presentation: 8.25
-
Appearance: 9.00
-
Construction: 9.75
-
Functionality: 9.75
-
Value: 8.25
Final Score: 9.0 out of 10.
Excellence Achievement: Benchmark Reviews Golden Tachometer Award.
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