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Also - whats a good guide to choosing an SSD? Is price/GB the only facor or is there a good guide / review / benchmark system?
Maybe on Anandtech?
Thoughts for people who have spent time researching, buying and using SSDs
http://diskcompare.com/
http://www.sandforce.com/index.php?id=163&parentId=2
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/storag ... ssd-test/1
http://www.guru3d.com/article/ocz-verte ... d-preview/SandForce – Under The Hood
SSDs that we’ve seen in the past have all been very similar in design, with a central drive controller, DRAM cache and then the array of NAND storage. In these designs, and as JMicron’s ill-fated JMF602 drive controller proved, the cache of an SSD is essential during heavy loads, especially when it comes to random write commands where an absence of cache results in stuttering, as the controller is overwhelmed with commands.
The SandForce drive controller approaches things very differently though, by removing the need for a DRAM cache (although there is a buffer inside the controller itself). This is done thanks to the controller’s DuraWrite technology, working like lossless, on-the-fly data compression to significantly reduce the amount of data actually written by the drive. SandForce is predictably reluctant to discuss how this is done, with even its drive partners unable to give us many details.
Whether it's an SF-1500 or SF-1200 drive, the controller chip is identical.
The reason this compression technology is so important is the drive’s write amplification factor; where an SSD writes more data than it’s been given in order to correctly and tidily store the data on the drive. In the worst case,write amplification can be up to a factor of ten, so writing that 3MB MP3 file would require the SSD to write 30MB of data, with the SSD controller moving data around to optimise performance and the level of wear of each NAND storage cell.
In comparison, SandForce claims its algorithms deliver a write amplification factor of 0.5x – writing just 1.5MB of that 3MB file to the SSD, and with no loss of data. However, the controller will report that 3MB has been written so that the OS doesn’t get confused.
Not only does having to write less data allow SandForce controllers to perform incredibly quickly, but it also has the added bonus of massively reducing the wear on an SSD’s NAND storage. Up until now, SSD partners have been forced to use high quality NAND that can survive between 3,000 and 5,000 write/erase cycles in order to ensure their drives will last a reasonable amount of time.
By slashing the write amplification, SandForce SSDs don’t need to use the same high-quality and high-price NAND as their predecessors. While the drives on test today all use high-end NAND to keep the specs and MTBF (Mean Time Before Failure) high, we could see relatively cheap yet perfectly decent SandForce SSDs in the near future.
There are downsides to SandForce’s system though, most prominently the fact that when dealing with already heavily compressed or entirely random data, the drive’s performance drops due to its compression technology being unable to kick in. This introduces some variation in performance – if a game fully unpacks its textures and other data you’ll find a SandForce SSD to be very quick at loading levels, but if it only partially unpacks its files a SandForce SSD may not be noticeably faster than a decent Indilinx-powered drive.
Life as a reviewer does not suck. We get to play around with the hottest tech on the globe for a while before sending it back to the manufacturer, sometimes even when it's not released. The hottest tech well, that's what it is all about. Technological advancements and innovation bringing more features and performance to the end-user.
OCZ has been on a winning streak with their SSD drives ever since that started selling Indilinx controller based products. Armed with that controller and a nice phat cache these SSDs show brilliant performance. Therefore it came as a total shock to all of the sudden see OCZ announce a new series SSDs with SandForce controllers. Now I have been in this industry for roughly twelve years and I dunno about you guys, but I had certainly never heard of SandForce.
A quick browse or two learned that the SandForce controller is an all new hot product which will bring extensive performance equal or even higher to the Indilinx products yet without the need for additional cache memory. And that sounds weird really ... no additional cache memory is being used to solve the random IO perf of small files.
Apparently it's not needed with the SandForce controllers and that's where the true power of this product is to be found. Fantastic performing SSD drives without the need for a data-cache, saving on money.
In March OCZ will release the first product based on that SandForce controller and Guru3D has an exclusive preview ready for you guys. We'll take a look inside and out, and then check out if performance indeed is as good as claimed.
This should be an interesting read alright. You guys ready to meet SandForce? Let's go peek at that all new Vertex 2 Pro SSD.