To Raid or not to Raid? (1 Viewer)

[moab]

H Moab, I have a new samsung 500gb drive for the operating system so that shouldn't be a problem. The 2 1.5tb drives are to be used for time shifting and recording only. have you noticed any improvement in write times? eg: timeshifting?

I don't know anything about SSD drives but I just had a look at some prices and they stary at $145 here with the first one in stock is a " Team 32GB 2.5" SSD, Combo SATAII, MLC (TG0032GS25AC1M) ". Does this mean it just plugs in as a Sata drive? Very worth looking at if it does as it should save load times.

I have a Patriot 32GB. As ever check the reviews to find the better brands and models.
Mine just connected like a regular SATA HDD.
Fun to mount the little thing in the PC chasis.
I think they might make different SSD adapters/connectors for notebooks - so make sure it has the regular SATA connector.
I set my other drives to spin down so my power consumption and heat is way down.

I attach benchmarks (C is the SSD, R is RAID, E is the single 1.5TB).

 

[Scythe42]

Does this mean it just plugs in as a Sata drive? Very worth looking at if it does as it should save load times.

Solid State Drives come with a SATA interface and can be plugged in like any other HD as they are simply SATA drives. What happens inside the drive is of no consequence for the interface that connects it to your computer.

I use one for booting the OS in my HTPC and one in my MacBook. With benchmark tools I measure a better performance but in day to day operations I can't really see the difference. In fact the lower priced one (in my HTPC) is performing worse than my 500GB Samsung drive I used before. I continue to use the slow SSD drive for the OS to avoid mechanical failure and to reduce the noise level. My HTPC is fanless.

The newer Intel one on the other hand I put into my MacBook feels a bit snappier. But don't expect wonders unless you have an older HD currently in use. Compared to recent normal SATA drives there isn't that much performance gain once the OS is running. But it's still snappier, mostly noticeable when starting applications.

Main reason for SSD is from my experience so far: no mechanical failure possible, silent, generates less heat and therefore should consume less power.

Just one recommendation: always check the manufacturer site if the model is still produced before going for some bargain. The market is still flooded with old drives with subpar firmwares. I fell into that trap with my first SSD (now used in the HTPC) that's really slow and started to show bad memory cells very quickly. I'll exchange this one to a newer Intel once they are more affordable.

 

[wazm]

wazm you sound very worried about disk performance for timeshift and recordings. what numbers are we looking at ? how many recordings + timeshifts at the same time ? I think thats the first thing to have in mind, and then once set the target, look how to get to it.

I say this cause time ago, i was recording 5 or 6 DVB-T SD at the same time, I was using a very old amd with an IDE 320gb drive.

At present I have the Server in the lounge room. It has 4 dtv TV cards and a Twinhan Sat card with C1 module for pay TV. I have a client machine in my bedroom and another in the rumpus room. I also have a client on my PC and my 2 kids also have a client on their machines. I also have a client on a notebook so I can connect wireless from the BBQ and watch sport. So that is 7 max but I am guessing there would be a max of 4 operating at once. We only have 1 decent HD channel here but it is the 24 hr sports channel

I guess the problem is that at times the picture freezes for a few seconds and there seems to be a lot of drive activity which I was hoping to eliminate if possible.

I attach benchmarks (C is the SSD, R is RAID, E is the single 1.5TB).

Wow! Big difference for sure in the random read. I guess for booting it wouldn't make too much difference looking at the linear read which I expect the operating system to mostly be. (could be wrong here, just a guess)

Does this mean it just plugs in as a Sata drive? Very worth looking at if it does as it should save load times.

Solid State Drives come with a SATA interface and can be plugged in like any other HD as they are simply SATA drives. What happens inside the drive is of no consequence for the interface that connects it to your computer.

I found a reasonably priced Corsair brand SSD. I expect they should be OK speed wise. They use a samsung interface.

 

[moab]

Boot is quicker, but not 10 or 100 times, maybe halfed the boot time at best.
Silence is a big plus.

BTW I liked the cliche of the ozzy watching sport by his barbee, wearing his vest, presumably holding a tinny (Hogan show style if you are old enough to remember that - grin).
I shoulda moved to oz, but I ended up here in the crazy USA.

 

[wazm]

Boot is quicker, but not 10 or 100 times, maybe halfed the boot time at best.
Silence is a big plus.

BTW I liked the cliche of the ozzy watching sport by his barbee, wearing his vest, presumably holding a tinny (Hogan show style if you are old enough to remember that - grin).
I shoulda moved to oz, but I ended up here in the crazy USA.

Yep you got the BBQ picture

Unfortunately, I am old enough to remember Paul Hogan at his best!

 

[Scythe42]

Wow! Big difference for sure in the random read. I guess for booting it wouldn't make too much difference looking at the linear read which I expect the operating system to mostly be. (could be wrong here, just a guess)

You're right here. Linear read is the most important factor for the "feeled" performance as applications and data files are more close together. You rarely have everything randomly distributed across a drive.

When it comes to seek times (and as a consequence to random access) SDDs are way superior because there is no mechanic involved. But this is not what's happening on normal usage unless you deal with a ton of smaller files on a regular basis on which normal HDs are always slow by design.

So the faster seek time is what makes most of the performance gain you feel in the end. You will most of the times notice a quicker boot time. But BIOS is still the limiting factor here. But as EFI will become more common and is supported since Vista SP2 this will be thing of the past in a few year anyway. Now give me LightPeak as a universal connector and I'm happy. But that will probably take a few years more if ever adopted across the board.

Also a QD1 (see IOPS - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia for more on IOPS) benchmark is basically completely useless as it is no real measurement at all. If you go higher on concurrent IOs you see a huge difference between various SDDs and even huge differences on the SSD itself. This is where the command queueing and other stuff of the firmware comes in. The new Intel drives really shine here. These are the first SSDs that live up the hype in my opinion when it comes to performance.

Anyway: SSD drives are definitely the future. I think they really taking off when 1GB = 1US.