ssd rec...

[bdub]

thinking about doing ssd boot drives in our systems that run avid. the boot drive shouldn't contain any video data, just th OS and avid project information, and other program data... it is really just a launch drive. what's a good 128-256gig drive out these days? crucial, ocz, intel? any actual experience with firmware updates and longevity is appreciated.

[Roach412]

crucial M4 128gb SATAIII

love mine.

tons of room actually with Win7 64bit. i have a number of large games installed on it as well (which i also love having an SSD for) and still have 20-30gb free. skyrim, dragon age 2, BF3, payday, counterstrike: source...etc...

boots in about 12- 15 seconds. haven't had a single issue.

-Roach

[Mr T]

I have an OCZ Agility and an OCZ Vertex... Can't complain... Both boot really quickly and haven't had any issues with them ...

[bdub]

i used the agility drive for a build once. heard good things about vertex, too, but the crucial m4 was the one i was leaning towards.
i read somewhere that you need to keep half the drive free for garbage collection... this is not you all's experience? also, as far as the pagefile and temporary internet files... would you suggest placing one or both of those on a seperate drive? i've displaced those off my kingston drive for the build in my sig, so i've not seen what happens when they are on the ssd.

how about longevity? is there a chance the drives have a short life? they will be going in systems that will be shipped to customers, and i don't want to have to replace a bunch of drives a year down the road.
i think 128 gigs would be enough for our customers, but my boss is leaning towards 256.

[Roach412]

i have not had any issues with the garbage collection, however i'm using TRIM with Win7.

also, as i had mentioned i've got approximately 20-30gb of open space...so i would really need to do a ton of deletes in order to starting hitting any write performance... i don't do much writing of files and deleting so i don't have any concerns.

since this is my only drive, i have everything on it. and haven't had any impacts with having the pagefile or temp internet files on it. i don't really see why it would come into play if you have enough physical ram - which currently is too cheap to skimp on anyways.

all the reading i've been able to do says the fears of the drive failing early are mostly unfounded. they should last, on-average, just as long as a standard spinning disk. standard drive failure rates are in the low single-digit percentages within ~5 years of "typical" use from my research...SSD's appear to be following in the same mold. they just don't have enough evidence/history yet to conclude that for sure though.

-Roach

[bdub]

roach, have you done any firmware updates to the m4 series?

also what is the difference between sd1 and sd2 on the m4 line? i'm guessing sd2 came out after sd1, but both are available. height of the drive???

[Roach412]

nope, no firmware changes/updates.

i'm not sure on the difference between sd1 or sd2...

my drive is very small - you would need a specific SSD mount in your case, or an adapter in order to install it. luckily my case has specific harness points for SSD drives.

-Roach

[bdub]

here's some info on the latest firmware for the m4...

"010G Crucial m4 2.5-inch (7mm & 9.5mm) SSD Release Date: 09/25/2012

Firmware for the Crucial m4 2.5” SSD is being updated from version 000F to 010G.

The m4 is updatable to this new firmware starting from any previous version in a single step.

Do NOT use any other m4 firmware update for your 2.5” SSD such as the 01MG firmware for the mSATA form factor.

Version 010G includes the following changes:

•Improved Trim response time
•Improved power-on-to-ready time (known as POR, or TTR for Time-to-ready)
•Improved resume-time from low power modes, and improved reliability of warm reboot
•Improved power consumption by disabling HIPM (Host Initiated Power Management)
Additional details can be found in the firmware guide"

so i've got the m4 and it's working fine. haven't done any real benchs yet.