What is an ssd drive. SSD Dimensions
IN Lately Solid-state drives are increasingly being installed on computers and laptops. So what is an SSD drive? To put it simply, this is a huge flash drive, only with more quick parameters writing and reading. There is not a single mechanical part in a solid state drive. It consists only of microcircuits. Hard drives have a large amount of memory, but low speed, and solid-state drives, with low capacity, have speeds several times higher than HDDs.
Features of work
Let's take a look at how HDD and SSD work when copying or reading small files. The smaller the file size, the greater the difference in speed between a hard drive and an SSD.
Just imagine that the hard drive is a notepad with some information. And to find and put together this information, you need to leaf through your notebook. And an SSD is a sheet of paper on which the data is at your fingertips. Accordingly, he will find information much faster.
The HDD spends a lot of time moving the read heads, searching for the necessary sectors on magnetic plates. The SSD simply provides the ready-made information you need. This happens when the system starts, when copying or reading several thousand small files (for example, photos). Therefore, the speed of this type of media is several tens of times higher than that of a HDD. Programs and the system itself installed on a solid-state drive will launch much faster than on a regular hard drive.
It is best to buy SSDs from manufacturers that have a proven track record of producing these products. Such companies include Crucial, Kingston, Corsair, Samsung, Tohiba, Transcend, Intel, OCZ, SunDisk. You should not purchase solid-state drives from Chinese brands or little-known companies. These are such as: Apacer, Silicon Power,A-Data.
Since most SSDs have a small amount of memory but very high performance, they are mainly used to install an operating system and programs on them to increase their loading speed.
Flaws
The main disadvantages of solid-state drives include their cost. Even an SSD with a small capacity costs much more than regular SSDs hard drives, and their prices fluctuate in different directions every year.
SSD is flash memory consisting of thousands of cells that tend to wear out. Most wear occurs when information is written to the disk. When reading, cells fail much more slowly. It is conventionally believed that the smaller the capacity of a solid-state drive, the more reliable it is, since it does not have additional chips and consumes less power. But this is all theoretical and has not been confirmed in any way.
Another disadvantage of SSDs is the inability to recover data when deleted. If you accidentally experience a power surge, only a small board in the hard drive will burn out, and the information that remains on the magnetic plates can be restored. The solid state drive fails completely with all the files on it.
pros
Read and write speed is one of the most important parameters of an SSD. For solid-state drives, this speed ranges from 150 to 560 MB.s. An average-priced disk can have read and write speeds within 450 MB.s. The random access time of solid-state drives is not taken into account, since it is equal to 0.1 - 0.2 ms. SSDs have a SATA-3 connector, so the same connector should preferably be installed on the motherboard. Otherwise, the disk will not work at full capacity. The SSD is also much more durable than a regular drive. hard drive. He is not afraid of blows or
falls.
So what should you choose?
Now you have an idea of what SSD drives are. Let's look at when it makes sense to use them.
For an office computer, you can install only one 320 GB hard drive. If you play games or have a professional computer, then the best option is to install two disks. SSD size 60 - 128 GB. for installation programs, and operating systems, and a hard drive of 1 - 2 TB. If you use a laptop as an addition to your main computer, then it will be enough to install a hard drive with a capacity of up to 500 GB. If the laptop is the main computer, then it would be best to use a 750 GB HDD in it - or higher, depending on the purpose for which it is used.
Hard drives vs SSDs
The choice is obvious. Computer enthusiasts who have already tried SSD drives have felt the difference and do not want to go back to using a mechanical drive as a system drive. Cons of SSDs- significantly more high price, small capacity - as technology develops, they gradually disappear.
The advantages of flash memory drives cannot be ignored: short access time, high speed data transfer, superior I/O performance. We also note mechanical reliability, low energy consumption and silent operation.
IN this moment There are so many manufacturers offering SSD drives that it's not so easy to separate the wheat from the chaff. If you go straight to the test graphs page, you can see just how superior SSDs are hard disks. Even if you don’t look for the fastest solid-state drive, but take the performance of the most inexpensive model as a starting point, even such a drive will be many times faster than any hard drive!
Pros and cons of SSDs
It is difficult to assess the benefits of SSDs based on tests that are designed to compare different drives with each other, relative to other upgrade methods ( new processor, graphics card).
As a result, average users looking to build a modern, productive PC might be advised to buy a small SSD drive and store most of their files on the hard drive, spending the bulk of their money on upgrading other PC components.
If you interview several ordinary users, what kind of computer they would like to have, the answers will most likely be similar. Processor on architecture Sandy Bridge, at least 4 GB of RAM, good graphics card. The “default” set includes a hard drive, but SSD drives are usually out of the question. It is not right.
It would be appropriate to sacrifice a couple of hundred gigahertz of the processor clock speed by adding a system SSD drive of about 60 GB to the hard drive. This way, you can get almost all the benefits of SSD technology without going broke on purchasing a large-capacity solid-state drive.
A superficial view is not always correct
Our opinions are usually based on real, comparable data. A 2 TB drive with a spindle speed of 7200 rpm looks, without a doubt, more attractive than old model 120 GB and 5400 rpm. If earlier throughput SATA interface was 300 MB/s, now it has reached 600 MB/s. As we can see, evolution is obvious, but for many such numbers mean more than real results.
IN in this case, we have two problems at once. First, too few users know that using a solid-state drive can actually significantly speed up applications. Second problem - small volume And high price SSD.
But it’s worth repeating again: any modern SSD, regardless of model, is an order of magnitude faster than any hard drive. Let's illustrate this fact, comparing a simple SSD with one of the most powerful magnetic platter drives.
Samsung 470 Series vs. Seagate Barracuda XT
HDD: Seagate Barracuda XT, 3 TB
We chose a hi-end hard drive, which combines high performance for a HDD and large capacity. The Seagate drive is quite capable of representing the HDD as a class in this comparison. This is a modern hard drive with a capacity of 3 TB - not the maximum today, but this volume is enough for almost any PC.
Spindle rotation speed – 7200 rpm. Like a storage device latest generation, Seagate Barracuda XT combines high sequential data read and write speeds, decent response time for a hard drive, and relatively high I/O performance. The drive is equipped with the latest SATA 6 Gb/s interface. However, given the real peak performance of 160 MB/s, this is clearly just a publicity stunt: it was enough to limit previous version SATA interface.
Seagate XT belongs to the upper price bracket (about $250). It will appeal to those users who prefer modern hardware, but are still cautiously looking towards SSDs. The drive is covered by Seagate's five-year warranty.
As an alternative, there are Hitachi Deskstar 7K2000 and 7K3000 hard drives (both 3 TB), Western Digital Black Edition 2 TB. You can find out more about modern “heavyweights” from the world of HDD in the material on our website "Four HDDs with a capacity of 3 TB" .
SSD: Samsung 470 Series, 128 GB
Representatives of this Samsung line have previously been repeatedly used by us as references in various tests, but today these drives are no longer the newest and best (see our material Samsung SSD 830 series, dedicated to the new line of Korean solid-state drives).
The 470 series is represented by disks with a capacity of 64, 128 and 256 GB, equipped with the obsolete SATA 3 Gb/s interface. If you compare the Samsung 470 series drive with the latest models from Crucial, Intel and numerous drives based on the second generation SandForce controller, it does not look so modern.
Ultimately, the Samsung 470 series SSD provides data transfer speeds of up to 260 MB/s. Some of the latest SSD models with a SATA 6 Gb/s interface are capable of exceeding 500 MB/s in serial data transfer operations. The difference is significant. Our position in this case is that even previous generation solid state drives are significantly ahead of any hard drives, including the most modern models.
Samsung, Intel and Toshiba design and manufacture SSD components in-house (the only exception is Intel series SSD 510, which uses a Marvell controller). All three vendors have released enough firmware to fix firmware issues, so none of them are perfect. The point is, even if the Samsung 470-series drive isn't exactly what computer enthusiasts dream of, this drive The characteristics are quite consistent with a standard “middle class” SSD, and in this sense, its choice is justified taking into account the objectives of this review. If you are interested in comparing the performance of more recent SSD models, you can familiarize yourself with the results of the corresponding tests on the pages of our website.
Comparison of characteristics
Performance
As you can see in the video at the end of this article, an SSD can significantly speed up modern computer- whether we are talking about the speed of launching applications, loading levels in games or importing a large amount of data. Why is this happening?
First of all, the success of SSDs is associated with significantly higher data transfer rates. 2.5" hard drives reach 60-100 MB/s, 3.5" - 100-150 MB/s. Moreover, these indicators reflect the performance of HDDs in the most favorable conditions for them. The characteristics that vendors like to cite in specifications for this or that HDD model relate to sequential data read/write operations - here the lag of hard drives is least apparent. When the hard disk head moves to another disk partition/sector, the speed of operations decreases rapidly.
Disk usage modes in which I/O performance comes to the fore are not favorable for HDDs. An example is loading Windows, which involves reading a huge number of small blocks of data. Here, when comparing a hard drive with an SSD, the picture is even sadder.
The data transfer speed in such modes drops to several MB/s. This applies to even the newest and most productive HDD models. Thus, hard drives do a good job of sequentially copying large files, but their use as a system drive is not optimal.
SSD uses flash memory to store data. Such drives consist of many memory cells that are used in parallel to each other and interact with the controller through several data channels. Such an architecture is capable of providing sequential read speeds from a couple of hundred MB/s to record values of more than 550 MB/s. However, as we have already noted, hard drives also perform well in serial data transfer.
The critical mode for SSD is data writing operations, since only blocks of data can be written certain size. If you need to write only a few bits to the disk, a whole series of operations will be required - reading, erasing and finally rewriting one or two blocks.
Thus, it is not uncommon for hundreds of MB/s to turn into just a few dozen in practice. But for now we are talking about blocks of about 4 kbytes in size, which are used by modern file systems, SSDs still remain 10-20 times faster than HDDs, providing performance of tens of MB/s, while in the case of hard drives it drops to KB/s due to delays in head positioning. IN real work such a difference is not just noticeable, but striking.
Energy consumption and heating
SSDs consume, at most, a few watts. Hard drives can use 10 watts per hour or more if they are actively copying files. Modern SSDs do not heat up at all. Hard drives, on the other hand, often require cooling. Normal air circulation inside your computer case will most likely be enough, but the issue of proper cooling of the disk system is still worth considering when assembling a PC yourself.
Design features and reliability
SSDs have no moving parts, which makes them very reliable. Theoretically, it's possible that you expose the solid-state drive to extremely high vibration or shock, so that the solder joints of the chips fail. In practice, this situation is unlikely.
Exactly the same tiny chance of breaking the soldering exists in relation to hard drives, however, the real danger lies in the presence of moving elements - magnetic plates that rotate at high speeds and read/write heads. The operating principle of a modern HDD is reminiscent of an old-fashioned gramophone.
Mechanical parts have a certain resource and, in general, the reliability of the hard drive is lower. Any strong shock can turn a working hard drive into a piece of useless hardware. Modern HDDs have a certain “margin of safety” in relation to shock loads (which is especially true for 2.5” drives for laptops), but from the point of view of mechanical reliability they are still significantly inferior to SSDs.
Whether an SSD drive will survive a hard drive is impossible to say with certainty. It is known that HDDs are more prone to breakdowns, since their design combines electronics and mechanical elements. On the other hand, SSDs are more sensitive to firmware and we know of cases where, due to a firmware failure, a solid-state drive became unusable. The potential reliability issues for SSDs and HDDs are different, but exist in both cases. Read the comparison question in detail SSD reliability and magnetic platter drives you can read in the article "Which is more reliable: SSD or HDD?" .
Test bench configuration
| Performance Test Bench | |
| CPU | Intel Core i7-2500K (Sandy Bridge): LGA 1155, 32 nm process technology, D2 stepping, 4 cores/4 threads, 3.3 GHz, 6 MB shared L3 cache, HD Graphics 3000, TDP 95 W, in Turbo mode Boost max. frequency 3.7 GHz |
| Motherboard (LGA 1155) | Gigabyte Z68X-UD3H-B3, rev. 0.2, Intel chipset Z68 Express, BIOS version F3 |
| RAM | 2 x 2 GB DDR3-1333, Corsair TR3X6G1600C8D |
| System SSD | Intel X25-M G1, 80 GB, firmware 0701, SATA 3 Gb/s |
| SATA controller | Intel PCH Z68 SATA 6 Gb/s |
| power unit | |
| Benchmarks | |
| Performance Measurements | h2benchw 3.16 PCMark 7 1.0.4 |
| Iometer 2006.07.27 File server Benchmark Web server Benchmark Database Benchmark Workstation Benchmark Streaming Reads Streaming Writes 4K Random Reads 4K Random Writes |
|
| System software and drivers | |
| operating system | Windows 7 x64 Ultimate SP1 |
| Intel Inf Driver | 9.2.0.1030 |
| Driver Intel Rapid Storage | 10.5.0.1026 |
| Test bench for measuring the energy consumption of an SSD drive | |
| CPU | Intel Core 2 Extreme X7800 (Merom), 65 nm, E1 stepping, 2 cores/2 threads, 2.6 GHz, 4 MB L2 cache, 44 W TDP |
| Motherboard (Socket 478) | MSI Fuzzy GM965, revision 1.0, Intel GM965 chipset, BIOS version A9803IMS.220 |
| RAM | 2 x 1 GB DDR2-666, Crucial BallistiX CM128M6416U27AD2F-3VX |
| System HDD | Western Digital WD3200BEVT, 320 GB, SATA 3 Gbit/s, 5400 rpm |
| SATA controller | Intel ICH8-ME |
| power unit | Seasonic X-760 760 W, SS-760KM Active PFC F3 |
| Benchmarks | |
| Playing video | VLC 1.1.1 Big_Buck_Bunny_1080p |
| I/O Performance | Iometer 2006.07.27 Database Benchmark Streaming Writes |
| System software and drivers | |
| operating system | Windows 7 x64 Ultimate SP1 |
| Intel Inf Driver | 9.2.0.1021 |
| Intel Rapid Storage Driver | 15.12.75.4.64 |
| Test bench to evaluate performance in real applications | |
| CPU | Intel Core i3-530 (Clarkdale) 32 nm, C2 stepping, 2 cores / 4 threads, 2.93 GHz, L2 cache 256 KB, L3 cache 4 MB, HD Graphics, TDP 73 W |
| Motherboard (LGA 1155) | MSI H57M-ED65, revision 1.0, Intel H57 chipset, BIOS version 1.5 |
| RAM | 2 x 4 GB DDR3-1333, Kingston KHX1600C9D3K2/8GX |
| Controller | Intel PCH H57 SATA 3 Gb/s |
| power unit | Seasonic X-760 760 W, SS-760KM Active PFC F3 |
| Test software | |
| Performance Measurements | SYSmark 2012 |
| Operating system and drivers | |
| operating system | Windows 7 x64 Ultimate SP1 (updated on 2011-08-10) |
| Intel Inf Driver | 9.2.0.1030 |
| Intel Rapid Storage Driver | 10.6.0.1002 |
The results of these tests are indicative of most SSD and hard drive models. The tested components were selected to obtain the best comparison for both configuration options. The drives are tested on very similar systems. The purpose of this review is to evaluate the benefits of using SSDs as system disk. We are not trying to prove that SSDs have advantages in all aspects (in fact, we do not recommend using them for data storage).
Test results
Sequential Read/Write
CrystalDiskMark and Iometer clearly show significantly higher data transfer speeds compared to a high-end hard drive. If you regularly read reviews, this fact is unlikely to be news to you.
Random Read/Write
The following results are very indicative from the point of view of booting the Windows operating system. When it comes to the real difference in everyday use, the SSD's separation from the hard drive may not be that significant, but in the synthetic test the difference is striking.
According to CrystalDiskMark, the hard drive works with 4 KB blocks in random read mode at a speed of 1.6 MB/s, write speed - 0.7 MB/s. Similar indicators for SSDs are an order of magnitude higher: 19.7 MB/s for write operations, 70.6 MB/s for read operations.
With increasing queue depth, SSD performance increases even more, which is explained more full use its multi-channel architecture: 129.4 MB/s for write operations and 70.5 for read operations. For HDDs, we also see a threefold increase in random write speed (up to 2.1 MB/s) thanks to NCQ support. However, the lag behind the SSD increases even further.
In the case of larger blocks (512 KB in this test), the hard drive can provide much more better speed than we just saw. However, SSD retains its leadership here too. A modern solid-state drive with a 6 Gb/s interface would provide a more serious lead over the HDD.
The balance of power is obvious: in the test for random search when using 4 KB blocks, the HDD provided a result of about 700 KB/s, SSD - 18.4 MB/s.
At a large queue depth (64 commands), the SSD outperforms the hard drive in the random search test by 40-50 times.
In the Iometer read performance test, the Samsung 470 128GB achieves 28,000 IOPS performance. The hard drive shows a result of 102 operations per second.
When writing, an SSD operates on blocks of data: writing even just a few bytes requires a full cycle of rewriting the entire block. Therefore, in write operations, the SSD separation is not so glaring, but we are still talking about a difference of an order of magnitude. Iometer shows a result of 1343.5 I/O operations for SSD and 132.5 for HDD.
I/O performance and access time
The Database boot script paints a clear picture: SSD is 12 times faster than HDD.
In the Web Server scenario, the SSD's superiority is even more significant, since read operations account for the bulk of the workload in this test.
In the performance test workstation the balance of power does not change.
Access time
Unlike a hard drive, access time on an SSD is hardly measurable.
PCMark 7
Futuremark PCMark 7 simulates a typical PC experience. With rare exceptions, an SSD is 2-4 times faster than a hard drive. Note that in these tests the overall performance system, taking into account the influence of the CPU and video card. Thus, here we see a picture close to that which occurs during everyday use of a PC.
Exceptions include video processing in Windows Movie Maker, as well as the script Windows boot Media Center. In these tests, the SSD and HDD provide similar results.
Energy consumption
The smallest difference between an SSD and a hard drive in terms of energy consumption is observed in the streaming write stress test. But even in this test, one hard drive consumes about the same amount of power as three SSDs.
Energy efficiency: performance per watt
In database applications, the Samsung 470 outperforms the hard drive. Seagate drive 476 times (based on the number of I/O operations per watt).
In the streaming recording efficiency test, the solid-state drive outperformed the hard drive by 7 times.
Here it is necessary to briefly highlight the issue of measuring “capacity per watt”, since in this indicator SSDs are inferior to hard drives. To provide the amount of disk space corresponding to the Seagate Barracuda XT 3 TB, you will need to assemble an array of one and a half dozen SSDs. IN in this context Discussing “capacity per watt” can only be done in theory. If you need a lot of storage space, HDDs currently have no alternative.
SYSmark 2012
The benchmark developed by BARCo is not often used in tests. The fact is that some companies, including AMD and nVidia, do not trust this test package, which is explained by the specific composition of the package: it focuses on boot scenarios that have little to do with everyday use PC. A significant percentage in overall rating productivity is allocated to OCR or archiving operations. It is worth noting that AMD indicates the presence of certain optimizations for Intel architecture in SYSMark.
Please note that in tests from the SYSMark package, the SSD is very slightly ahead of the hard drive. We can say that the results are the same. The reason is that in this case it is not possible to isolate the impact of other computer subsystems on the final result.
Windows boot speed
A computer with a system SSD drive also turns off faster - in five seconds instead of eight in the case of an HDD.
Launching applications
We use a script that opens four applications at the same time. As is the case with loading the OS, the speed advantage for launching applications on a system with an SSD drive is quite significant. You can see how this looks in practice in the video.
Running applications on SSD and hard drive
So, we used a script that opens several applications at the same time and captures the difference in the form of a short video. The script runs immediately after Windows boots, after which it waits 30 seconds for all processes to complete. The script launches Internet Explorer 9 (offline version of the THG site), Microsoft Outlook(the same set of custom folders as in SYSmark 2012), a heavy PowerPoint presentation and an image big size in Adobe Photoshop.
We missed this test four times in a row. File caching slightly reduces the loading time for the fourth “run”, but this can only be noticed in relation to the HDD. Let's watch the video:
Run multiple applications on HDD and SSD
Our test simulates a work scenario when you turn on your computer and open several applications at once - for example, an office program, a web browser, a messenger, an image editor. As long as the system has a sufficient amount of RAM (that is, at least 4 GB at the moment), CPU performance is in second place after the disk subsystem. In other words, plus or minus 500 MHz frequencies processor - not so significant, but replacing a hard drive with an SSD, on the contrary, significantly affects the result.
Here the question arises - is the choice of a specific SSD model important? In our opinion, this issue is not so fundamental. Even if you opt for the latest drive with a SandForce SF-2200 controller, which exceeds 500 MB/s during sequential reading, then the difference compared to not the most new model The SSD we used in this test won't be too noticeable. If this is your first time trying to use it as a system SSD drive, then you definitely won't want to go back to hard drives.
Any modern SSD improves system responsiveness
For those computer enthusiasts who have not yet tried using an SSD, we can safely recommend this upgrade option. Undoubtedly, the game is worth the candle. While not every benchmark reflects the benefits of using an SSD as system storage (in particular, we don't see a significant gap in SYSMark), the real difference in performance is noticeable.
We compared one of the most capacious, fastest and most expensive hard drives on the market - the Seagate Barracuda XT - with a modest, not the newest one solid state drive Samsung 470. Of course, you can opt for a more “advanced” model, but even if you choose a relatively budget model, you can get all the benefits of an SSD.
At the same time, we are not at all trying to retire hard drives. When it comes to storing files, there is no alternative to this type of drive. An SSD should be used to install an operating system and place executable program files and application caches on it.
For most cases, the ideal configuration of a modern PC includes a system SSD drive and a large hard drive on which movies, music, images, and documents are stored. Systems without SSD are classified as budget options configurations, and computers with only a solid-state drive are almost never found in nature.
Hello friends! As they used to say in Rus': “Every merchant praises his goods” and no matter how many different articles you read about SSDs, you are unlikely to come across the same opinion. Some people read something and decided to buy a Samsung solid-state drive, some from Toshiba, while others decided to buy an OCZ Vertex or SSD at any cost. Kingston.
About a year and a half ago, my friends and I firmly decided to buy an SSD, but everyone has them, but we don’t. My friends asked me to test various SSDs and choose the best one.
Solid-state drives are not sold very well, so sellers of computer goods do not carry a lot of them, so as not to lie as dead weight in the warehouse. We also do the same, which is why I had the best-selling SSDs at my disposal at that time. The most inexpensive of the entire company turned out to be the Silicon Power V70 SSD, the test of which I left for later.
I wasn’t particularly sophisticated in my tests, I installed it on each SSD operating system system, then compared the SSD and regular HDD in the test programs CrystalDiskMark and AS SSD Benchmark. I didn’t have to prove to anyone that an SSD is better than a regular HDD. Windows installed on an SSD booted in 4 seconds, test programs CrystalDiskMark and AS SSD Benchmark showed the complete superiority of SSDs over conventional HDDs by 3-4 and even 5 times.
I carried out all the tests on the sales floor and the information was available to customers, in short, everything test SSDs They took it apart, besides, that day was good for sales and there wasn’t even a single SSD left on the display case, well, I think I was left without a solid-state drive! And then I remembered about SSD Silicon Power - V70. In principle, I knew this good manufacturer from Taiwan, but I still wanted something else, for example Crucial or Plextor!
I also decided to test it at the end of the working day and after the tests I was a little surprised, the V70 turned out to be a great solid-state drive, in no way inferior to other SSDs I tested and sold that day. And the SiSoftware Sandra program generally awarded him first place.
Over the course of a year, wherever it didn’t work for me: on a laptop and on various stationary system units and instead of a flash drive, I carried it in my pocket and dropped it on the floor, but nothing, it still works fine.
Well, okay, enough chatter, I’ll move on to the most important part of the article, the answers to your questions about the solid-state drive, and at the end of the article I’ll give some tests that prove that an SSD for installing an operating system is just what the doctor ordered.
ALL your questions regarding SSDs.
1. What is it like internal organization SSD? Which NAND flash memory should I buy an SSD based on: SLC, MLC or TLC?
2. Which SSD manufacturer should you prefer?
3. Is the lifespan of an SSD really limited? After how many years of use will my SSD fail?
4. Is the user at risk of losing all recorded data if the resource of the memory chips is exceeded?
5. To extend the life of an SSD, is it worth disabling hibernation, paging file, recovery, disk indexing service, disk defragmentation, Prefetch technology, and moving the cache? browser and directory temporary files to another hard drive and so on?
6. How much faster is an SSD than a regular hard drive?
Comparing different SSDs in terms of performance
It is important to know not only average speed sequential reading and writing on an SSD, but also hushed up by all SSD manufacturers - the speed of random writing in blocks of 512 kB and 4 kB! Disk activity for most users occurs mainly in such areas!
At SSD comparison various manufacturers in the AS SSD Benchmark program we can see the following result, for example:
My SSD Silicon Power V70 showed:
Sequential read and write speed 431 MB/s (read), 124 MB/s (write)
The speed of reading and writing in 4 KB blocks turned out to be 16 MB/s (read), 61 MB/s (write)
SSD from another manufacturer. As you can see, there is a high (higher than my SSD) sequential read and write speed of 484 MB/s (read), 299 MB/s (write), but there is a drop in reading/writing in 4 KB blocks, namely 17 MB/s (read), 53 MB/s (write).This means this SSD is not faster than mine, although the box of this SSD may show the numbers 500 MB/s.
SSD test in SiSoftware Sandra program
My SSD ranked first among similar models
When starting a conversation about SSD drives, and this topic is interesting and quite extensive (just look at the numerous debates about technology, speed, reliability and other characteristics on specialized forums), you should define the concept of what an SSD drive for a computer is. What are its differences from conventional hard drives, what advantages does it have, what is worse about it when compared with classic hard drives. So, let's go?
What is an SSD drive for a computer?
First, let's decipher the abbreviation SSD - English. "Solid- State Drive”, aka “solid-state drive” in our opinion. The name, at first glance, is not very clear, but it encapsulates the principle of operation of the drive.
A classic hard drive is a set of plates rotating at high speed (of which there can be from one to several), on which all information is recorded, and a block magnetic heads, moving over the surface of these plates and reading (or writing) the necessary files.
It must be said that if, when applied to traditional hard drives, the concept of “disk” has a very definite basis (recording is actually done on a disk installed inside this device), then in the case of solid-state drives there are parts that at least somewhat resemble this geometric figure, simply no. It is probably more appropriate to use the concept “drive,” although “disk” is familiar, short, and understandable.
Here one of the disadvantages of classical data storage technology is immediately visible - hard drives are sensitive to vibrations and shocks, which can quickly damage them. The slightest touch of the disk head can lead, if not to immediate failure, then to cause problems in the foreseeable future.
It's a completely different matter solid state hard disk. There is not a single rotating or somehow moving part here. If you look at what the insides of such a disk look like, there is nothing particularly interesting there, just a regular printed circuit board with microcircuits located on it. That's all. All information is stored in these chips (NAND memory), and the read/write process is controlled by a controller whose chip is located here.
Since there are no moving parts, such a drive is much less afraid of shaking, movement, and shock. Within reasonable limits, of course. It’s still not worth hitting it with a hammer or throwing it at the neighbor’s cat.
What does an SSD look like?
When it comes to storage devices, one of the characteristics that determines the fundamental possibility of using a particular device in this laptop or a desktop PC, is the “form factor”, also known as the standard size. This is a standard that specifies its dimensions, location and number of connectors and other elements that devices must comply with. For example, disks have a “form factor” motherboards and so on.
Externally, the SSD drive matches its dimensions hard drive 2.5-inch format, which are used in laptops, netbooks and others similar computers. This was done specifically to make it possible to easily replace one drive with another.
Theoretically, the absence of mechanical parts allows these drives to be manufactured in any shape, which is what manufacturers use, albeit within the existing form factor limitations. In addition to the usual small rectangular boxes, solid-state drives are produced in the form of compact oblong printed circuit boards with a connector (M.2 or mSATA) and microcircuits. This is a different form factor, designed to be installed in the appropriate connector (for example, M.2), which allows you to greatly reduce the dimensions of the device by placing such a drive directly on the motherboard or a special adapter board. However, we’ll talk about form factors (i.e. overall dimensions and connectors used) another time.
It is important that if your computer uses a 2.5-inch (laptop) hard drive, then install the same one in its place SSD form factor won't be a problem. Even if we are talking about a desktop computer where 3.5-inch hard drives are in use, many case manufacturers already provide space for installing smaller format drives. As a last resort, you can use an adapter from 3.5 to 2.5 inches.
Advantages and disadvantages of SSD
When it comes to SSD drives, the first thing people talk about is significantly higher operating speed. And indeed it is. Even the most inexpensive, budget SSD drive will be much faster than any mechanical hard drive. The speed of your computer will change for the better.
What else are these drives good for:
- As I said above, they are not afraid of shaking and mechanical shocks.
- Very high read and write speeds, which can exceed those of hard drives several times.
- Less energy consumption. A laptop with such a drive will last a little longer on battery power.
- Less heat.
- Quiet operation.
A comparison of some of the characteristics of two drives (SSD and HDD) that are installed in my laptop is shown in the pictures at the end of the article.
Naturally, it cannot be that everything is so good and there is nothing bad. In fact, there is really nothing bad, but there are some shortcomings. The first one that is mentioned when it comes to an SSD drive for a computer is the price, which is higher than that of conventional hard drives.
In this case we are talking about the so-called “price per 1GB”. This is the value that can be obtained by dividing the price of an average hard drive by its capacity. For example, let's take a regular HDD with a capacity of 500 GB. At a price of 2800 (approximately) rubles, the cost of a gigabyte of volume will cost 2800/500 = 5.6 rubles.
The cost of the cheapest SSD drive of approximately this volume (480 GB) is approximately 8,700 rubles (retail prices). It turns out that in the case of an SSD, the cost of 1 GB will be 8700/480 = 18.13 rubles. What immediately comes to mind is: “Do you want checkers or go?”
I think we’ll talk about connecting an SSD drive and configuration options for the computer’s disk system in a separate article. Now you should understand that SSD is faster, but more expensive.
Finishing with the shortcomings, let’s also mention reliability. This is not about mechanical reliability or fear of overheating, but about the reliability of the technology for storing the data that is written and ensuring that what was written to the disk can be read. This is a controversial question and it is difficult to give a clear answer. This is also due to the type of NAND memory used in each specific SSD drive model and the conditions of use.
Conclusion
So, an SSD disk for a computer is identical in size (if we are talking about 2.5-inch models) to regular laptop hard drives, has the same connectors for connections and performs the same function - storing and processing data. And, I must say, it does it very quickly.
The only difference is in the principles of information storage, and in a greater variety of form factors, which somewhat expands their application possibilities. Is it possible to install an SSD drive instead of a regular one? I don't see any obstacles. You pull one out, put another in its place - that’s it! There are more interesting possibilities though.
Which SSD is better? Perhaps we’ll talk about this, but there are quite a few different factors on which the answer depends, and it’s difficult to say for sure. The best is the one that is the fastest - probably yes, but the price... The best is the one that strikes a balance between speed, reliability, durability and price? Why not? In general, this is a topic for a separate conversation and, possibly, an argument.
Now let’s finish talking about what an SSD drive is.
Magnetic hard drives are being replaced by solid state drives, abbreviated as SSD (Solid State Drive). And although the word drive is mentioned in the abbreviation, new information storage devices can hardly be called disks, since there is nothing resembling a disk in them.
Let's figure out what good solid-state drives (SSDs) are and how they differ from the familiar hard magnetic drives (HDDs).
Advantages of SSD over HDD.
The most important thing advantage of SSD in front of the HDD is that their performance much higher than “classic” hard drives. The fact is that SSDs use a completely different technology for recording, storing and reading information. The technology is borrowed from flash memory, so SSD can be called a specialized high-capacity flash drive.
The second advantage of SSD is no moving parts and details. It's no secret that magnetic hard drives are very sensitive to vibration loads, especially in operating condition. An accidental fall and you can say goodbye to the HDD forever. It is also not uncommon for the drive that spins those same magnetic “pancakes” to stop standing. Mechanical parts are the Achilles heel of any high-tech device.
Since SSDs simply have no moving parts or parts, their resistance to vibration and shock is much higher than that of conventional HDDs.
Third and important for portable equipment SSD quality is their light weight. If you put a 2.5” SSD with a capacity of, for example, 128Gb on one palm, and a 2.5” HDD with 180Gb on the other palm, then the solid state drive will seem like just “fluff” to you. They are incredibly light.
The fourth advantage of SSDs over HDDs is that they consume less energy, A working temperature they are much lower.
That's probably all the quality SSD differences from HDD.
SSD drive device.
This is what an average SSD looks like. Naturally, models in open-frame versions are available for sale. The most common SSD drives are the 2.5" form factor.
A typical solid state drive is a printed circuit board with a set of chips installed on it. This set consists of a microcircuit NAND controller and, in fact, microcircuits NAND memory.
The printed circuit board area of the solid-state drive is fully utilized. Most of it is occupied by NAND memory chips.
As you can see, there are no mechanical parts or disks in an SSD drive - only microcircuits. No wonder the last time SSD time increasingly called "electronic" disks.
Types of memory in SSD.
Now that we have understood the structure of SSD drives, let's talk about them in more detail. As already mentioned, an ordinary SSD consists of two interconnected parts: memory and controller.
Let's start with memory.
To store information, SSDs use NAND memory, which consists of a huge number of MOSFET transistors with a floating gate. They are also called cells (memory). Cells are combined into 4 kB pages (4096 bytes), then into blocks of 128 pages, and then into an array of 1024 blocks. One array has a capacity of 512 MB and is controlled by a separate controller. This multi-level drive design model imposes certain restrictions on its operation. For example, information can only be erased in blocks of 512 kBytes, and recording is possible only in blocks of 4 kBytes. All this leads to the fact that a special controller controls the recording and reading of information from memory chips.
It is worth noting here that a lot depends on the type of controller: read and write speed, resistance to failures, reliability. We'll talk about what controllers are used in SSDs a little later.
SSDs use three main types of NAND memory: SLC, MLC and TLC. In memory type SLC (Single-Level Cell) single-level transistors are used. This means that one transistor can store 0 or 1. In short, such a transistor can only store 1 bit of information. It won't be enough, won't it?
Here big-headed men “scratched their turnips” and figured out how to make a 4-level transistor cell. Each level represents 2 bits of information. That is, one of four combinations of 0 and 1 can be written on one transistor, namely: 00 , 01 , 10 , 11 . That is, 4 combinations, versus 2 for SLC. Twice as much as SLC cells! And they called them multi-level cells - MLC (Multi-Level Cell).
Thus, on the same number of transistors (cells) it is possible to record 2 times more information than if SLC cells were used. This significantly reduces the cost of the final product.
But MLC cells have significant disadvantages. The lifespan of such cells is shorter than that of SLC and averages 100,000 cycles. For SLC cells this parameter is 1,000,000 cycles. It is also worth noting that MLC cells have longer read and write times, which reduces the performance of the solid-state drive.
Since technologies for storing information on solid-state media are developing very quickly, it is possible that everything you learned about here is already considered obsolete.
For example, when this article was still being written, SSD drives made using MLC technology were leading the sale. But now they have almost been replaced by SSD drives with memory like TLC– three-level cells ( Triple-Level Cell). TLC memory has 8 levels, and, therefore, each cell can store 3 bits of information (000, 001, 011, 111, 110, 100, 101, 010).
Comparison table of flash memory types: SLC, MLC and TLC.
The table shows that the more levels are used in a cell, the slower the memory based on it works. TLC memory is clearly inferior, both in speed and in “lifetime” - rewrite cycles.
Yes, by the way, USB flash drives have long been using TLC memory, which, although it wears out faster, is also much cheaper. That is why the cost of USB flash drives and memory cards is steadily decreasing.
Despite the fact that SSD drives are produced by various companies under their own brand, many people buy NAND memory from a small number of manufacturers.
NAND memory manufacturers:
-
Toshiba/SanDisk;
Samsung.
Intel/Micron;
Thus, we learned that SSD drives come with three different types Memory: SLC, MLC and TLC. Memory based on SLC cells is faster and more durable, but expensive. Memory based on MLC cells is noticeably cheaper, but has a lower resource and performance. Only SSD drives based on MLC and TLC flash memory can be found on general sale (at the time of editing the article). Disks with SLC memory are almost never found.
3D XPoint memory and Intel Optane storage.
It is also worth noting that drives based on a new type of non-volatile memory have recently appeared on sale. 3D XPoint(read as "three di cross point"). Based on 3D XPoint, Intel produces solid-state drives under the Intel Optane brand. Two companies, Intel and Micron, were developing a new type of memory.
3D XPoint is fundamental new type non-volatile memory, unlike NAND memory, which has been known since 1989.
3D XPoint has faster read-write speeds since the cell is accessed directly. As stated, the 3D XPoint memory has no transistors at all, and each cell is capable of storing 1 bit of information. Thanks to direct access there is no need for complex controllers, which are simply necessary in NAND drives with multi-level transistors (MLC, TLC). In addition, the resource (wear resistance) of this memory is much higher than that of NAND, which has such a basic defect as electron leakage from cells.
Since the performance of Intel Optane drives exceeds the capabilities of the SATA interface, they are usually produced in form factors M.2, as well as in the form of a solid-state drive under PCI slot Express (PCI-E AIC ( add-in card)). A new interface is used to work with such drives NVMe, which replaces SATA.
SSD drive controllers.
At the time of writing, the following controllers were most widely used:
About installing Windows on an SSD.
It is not recommended to install Windows XP on an SSD, as this operating system not designed to work with SSD. In Windows 7, 8 and 10, SSD support is fully present. However, for more durable and “correct” operation of the SSD with Windows 7, it is recommended to check/adjust some parameters of this OS.