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Intel's New 6Gps 510 series SATA SSD, Tested and It's Fast

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Re: Intel's New 6Gps 510 series SATA SSD, Tested and It's Fast

#11
post #2

Developers do a lot of 4KB operations. Source files tend to be small as do database updates. The current market leader in this is the OCZ Vertex 3, a considerably faster drive than the Intel 510. Indeed intel's X25-M is better at 4KB operations than the new drive. The 510 is a disappointment, get an OCZ Vertex instead, its cheaper and faster for the sorts of operations that matter. See anandtech for more details: htt…

On the flip side, they apparently optimized for large sequential accesses, so this can be good drive if you do a lot of image/video editing.

Re: Intel's New 6Gps 510 series SATA SSD, Tested and It's Fast

#12
post #2

Developers do a lot of 4KB operations. Source files tend to be small as do database updates. The current market leader in this is the OCZ Vertex 3, a considerably faster drive than the Intel 510. Indeed intel's X25-M is better at 4KB operations than the new drive. The 510 is a disappointment, get an OCZ Vertex instead, its cheaper and faster for the sorts of operations that matter. See anandtech for more details: htt…

I keep looking, but can't find the Vertex 3 available anywhere. Any news on a release date?

From what I've read, most sources are expecting late March availability.

Re: Intel's New 6Gps 510 series SATA SSD, Tested and It's Fast

#13
"Intel’s SSD 510 costs more and it can serve up better sequential numbers than Vertex 3. However, it’s actually slower than its predecessor in situations where you’re working with lots of small files. The applications where this 250 GB drive makes sense are fairly clear cut. But again, it looks like you’d get a better all-around experience from OCZ’s Vertex 3 when it becomes available." [1]

"My biggest complaints about the 510 actually aren't about Intel's use of a 3rd party controller, instead they are about the drive's lackluster random read performance. In a horrible bout of irony Intel fixed its sequential performance and moved backwards in the random department. Random read performance, as it turns out, has a pretty major impact in the real world.

Random write performance is also pretty low by today's standards, however the impact on most of our real world performance tests is minimal. It looks like we may have hit the upper limit of what we need from 4KB random write performance (at least given current workloads)." [2]

[1] http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-510-solid-state-6gbp... [2] http://www.anandtech.com/show/4202/the-intel-ssd-510-review

From what I can tell, it's worth waiting for the OCZ Vertex 3, which will be faster, and quite possibly cheaper too.

Re: Intel's New 6Gps 510 series SATA SSD, Tested and It's Fast

#14
post #4
post #2

Developers do a lot of 4KB operations. Source files tend to be small as do database updates. The current market leader in this is the OCZ Vertex 3, a considerably faster drive than the Intel 510. Indeed intel's X25-M is better at 4KB operations than the new drive. The 510 is a disappointment, get an OCZ Vertex instead, its cheaper and faster for the sorts of operations that matter. See anandtech for more details: htt…

My only concern with OCZ SSDs are initial quality. Just look Newegg's reviews, there a whole bunch of people who received DOA units or they fail after a month.

I've had two OCZ ssds (granted, they were early models) that worked for a combined total of 2 weeks. My intel ones, though, have been solid. I keep looking at OCZ, thinking that they're a pretty good price for the performance, but not wanting to go down that rathole again.

Re: Intel's New 6Gps 510 series SATA SSD, Tested and It's Fast

#16
post #2

Developers do a lot of 4KB operations. Source files tend to be small as do database updates. The current market leader in this is the OCZ Vertex 3, a considerably faster drive than the Intel 510. Indeed intel's X25-M is better at 4KB operations than the new drive. The 510 is a disappointment, get an OCZ Vertex instead, its cheaper and faster for the sorts of operations that matter. See anandtech for more details: htt…

Avoid OCZ. I had a Vertex 2 SSD fail after about two weeks. What's really a big gotcha is that it fails 100% immediately; there are no warning signs as there often are with a hard disk.

I looked into it: I believe that there's actually an assertion that got hit in the OCZ firmware, and then it goes into a lock-down mode. However, there's no way for an end-user to exit this mode and recover any data (it simply won't respond to SATA commands), nor are OCZ willing to unlock it for you.

Re: Intel's New 6Gps 510 series SATA SSD, Tested and It's Fast

#17
post #2

Developers do a lot of 4KB operations. Source files tend to be small as do database updates. The current market leader in this is the OCZ Vertex 3, a considerably faster drive than the Intel 510. Indeed intel's X25-M is better at 4KB operations than the new drive. The 510 is a disappointment, get an OCZ Vertex instead, its cheaper and faster for the sorts of operations that matter. See anandtech for more details: htt…

Avoid OCZ. I had a Vertex 2 SSD fail after about two weeks. What's really a big gotcha is that it fails 100% immediately; there are no warning signs as there often are with a hard disk. I looked into it: I believe that there's actually an assertion that got hit in the OCZ firmware, and then it goes into a lock-down mode. However, there's no way for an end-user to exit this mode and recover any data (it simply won't r…

I had a Vertex 2 SSD fail after about two weeks.

Anecdote != data. We have 8 of them in database-server for over 6 months without problems. Yes, we abuse them for a server workload.

Re: Intel's New 6Gps 510 series SATA SSD, Tested and It's Fast

#18
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Avoid OCZ. I had a Vertex 2 SSD fail after about two weeks. What's really a big gotcha is that it fails 100% immediately; there are no warning signs as there often are with a hard disk. I looked into it: I believe that there's actually an assertion that got hit in the OCZ firmware, and then it goes into a lock-down mode. However, there's no way for an end-user to exit this mode and recover any data (it simply won't r…

I had a Vertex 2 SSD fail after about two weeks. Anecdote != data. We have 8 of them in database-server for over 6 months without problems. Yes, we abuse them for a server workload.

Sure, just sharing my personal experience. The pathological failure behaviour due to a software bug is not something I'd previously considered when choosing a drive.

I hope you've got good backups.

Re: Intel's New 6Gps 510 series SATA SSD, Tested and It's Fast

#20

"Intel’s SSD 510 costs more and it can serve up better sequential numbers than Vertex 3. However, it’s actually slower than its predecessor in situations where you’re working with lots of small files. The applications where this 250 GB drive makes sense are fairly clear cut. But again, it looks like you’d get a better all-around experience from OCZ’s Vertex 3 when it becomes available." [1] "My biggest complaints abo…

The reliability problems with the Vertex 2 make me wary of anything from OCZ. There are many, many reports of OCZ drives failing within a few days of use, some within minutes of booting up. Plus there are well-documented problems with power-saving modes.

Frankly, SSD failure rates from most manufacturers are so high it should be a scandal. Intel is the only company I'm remotely comfortable buying an SSD from right now.

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