confused re Samsung SSD

[qbus]

reading Anand Lal Shimpi's review of SSD's, particularly the reference to Samsung SSD RBB based SSD's, overall I felt I should steer clear of Samsung SSD altogether.

Then I read this article http://thessdreview.com/our-reviews/samsung-470-series-256gb-ssd-review-final-thoughts/ which seemed almost over-the-top enthusiastic about the Samsung 470 series SSD's, and wonder if Samsung have moved on so much from the 2009 reviews of SSD's by Anand.

Intel SSD's are just so expensive I'm looking for more reasonable priced SSD's.

 

[ochadd]

A review stating the Samsung 470 ranks right at the top.

http://thessdreview.com/our-reviews/samsung-470-series-256-gb-ssd-review-30nm/

 

[FishAk]

A review stating the Samsung 470 ranks right at the top.

http://thessdreview.com/our-reviews/samsung-470-series-256-gb-ssd-review-30nm/

It looks to me like they pulled a tweakboy. They bench-marked the drive while at the same time running their OS from it.

They also failed to benchmark any other drives using the same set-up, unless I'm missing something. How can they claim the drive is in the top tier without actually comparing it to other drives?

I would steer clear of the Samsung SSD unless it can be had for 1/4 the price of real drives.

 

[ochadd]

Another review of the 470. Seems like a good drive.

http://www.storagereview.com/samsung_470_series_ssd_review_256gb_mz5pa256hmdr

 

[Voo]

It looks to me like they pulled a tweakboy. They bench-marked the drive while at the same time running their OS from it.

They also failed to benchmark any other drives using the same set-up, unless I'm missing something.

That may be so, but their numbers for the synthetic benchmarks (which are comparable since they should only differ marginally depending on the rest of the HW) look pretty good and are in the same league as SF/Crucial drives from what I see - using it as a OS drive while benchmarking should only hamper it.

Though they don't look at all at performance over time, but it does have TRIM from what I see so there shouldn't be big surprises there.

 

[ochadd]

Another comparison that includes the 470:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/samsung-470-sandforce-best-ssd,2783.html

 

[Old Hippie]

It does look like a very nice drive and I would have considered it over my Crucial300 purchase. :thumbsup:

 

[AdamK47]

I would steer clear of the Samsung SSD unless it can be had for 1/4 the price of real drives.

How is this not a real drive?

 

[Zap]

wonder if Samsung have moved on so much from the 2009 reviews of SSD's by Anand.

Well, if Jmicron can go from being pure crap to being the lowest of the decent, then I don't see why Samsung couldn't improve their stuff with over a year's worth of time.

Intel SSD's are just so expensive I'm looking for more reasonable priced SSD's.

How about waiting for the next generation? It isn't that far away (maybe Q1 of next year? Or maybe Q2?) for Intel's G3 drive which should drive down prices by 33% - they expect a 120GB Intel G3 to be the same street price as an 80GB Intel G2.

Or, just look for hot deals. There was a hot deal for a Sandforce 60GB for around $70 or so which is a rare one, but Black Friday/Cyber Monday is coming up so you never know. 120GB Indilinx/Sandforce drives have been seen at $180, and 240GB Sandforce have been seen at $380. That's really cheap because even a couple months ago at the end of Summer 240-256GB SSDs were going for $650-700.

 

[FishAk]

The Storagereview, and Tom's Hardware review have much less to complain about, and the Samsung drive looks pretty decent compared to the top Gen 2 drives that are out.

How is this not a real drive?

Hmmm. Perhaps "real drive" isn't the best description.

Still, with their competitors set to launch their 3rd generation drives over the next couple months, with marked improvement expected, this is the best Samsung could come up with? They are still quite a ways behind the eightball, in my view.

 

[Old Hippie]

They are still quite a ways behind the eightball, in my view.

I guess my view is that it equals my new Crucial300 256GB and anything in the future is just that....in the future.

 

[Zap]

Still, with their competitors set to launch their 3rd generation drives over the next couple months, with marked improvement expected, this is the best Samsung could come up with? They are still quite a ways behind the eightball, in my view.

Maybe they are still just targeting OEMs, with a token retail presence?

 

[QueBert]

Sorry to bump an old thread but am I missing something with the Samsung 470's? I'm looking for an SSD and everything I'm reading pretty much says to buy an Intel or OCZ Vertex. I can only find a few reviews, but the Samsung had the best benchmarks in just about every category in 3 reviews. The price is only a few bucks more, what exactly is wrong with these drives because nobody at all seems to be recommending them. Looking at the 65GB version on Newegg for $129.

 

[rainkinz]

Just wanted to say that after getting a C300 that bricked itself in a week, I bought a Samsung 470 and haven't looked back. It's been great. Stable and 'feels' fast. I'm using it on a MBP 2008 FYI.

 

[sxr7171]

The 470 is a new design. You can't judge it based on last year's product.

 

[sxr7171]

Maybe they are still just targeting OEMs, with a token retail presence?

It will at least mean better factory SSDs in laptops. I believe Dell uses only Samsung as well as Apple with the exception of the Air. Possibly Sony with the exception of the X and P series. Lenovo too I think.

 

[Emulex]

who sells samsung other than a few boutique resellers? microcenter?egg? not alot of folks. they are traditionally oem only

 

[flamenko]

Hmmm I guess I am a little confused at the 'TweakBoy' comment. Fish I would appreciate your explaining how the tests could be improved. The tests were not done with the drive as an OS drive and were compared to that of other drives were the tests were conducted in exact scenarios.

We had stated that the Samsung had become a top tier drive simply because we all know the crucial to be a top tier drive and it did surpass the Crucial. The comparisons are also best left for Vantage and how one would determine between the quality of SSDs that are so closing to pushing the bandwidth limit is a bit mind boggling.

I would also suggest that any drive that is now pushing Vantage above 40000 HDD suite points is a top tier drive.

Its actually good that someone has finally been critical of the review IMHO because know I can return to see your response Fish as to how we could have bettered the testing.

If it will help at all, we are working on degradation testing right now and the Sammy is one of only two that does nt degrade in Crystal or Vantage when completely full... This was a bit surprising and I have been looking for similar tests unsuccessfully.

IMHO Samsung will have alot of success in upcoming months simply because of the results, the name, the packaging and the fact that they have finally released them worldwide to e-tail. Do you ever wonder who will be the first major manufacturer to mass ship to Brick and Mortar outlets?

EDIT: Fish can I also ask why you would stay clear of the Samsung? Specific reasons as it seems to have hit a home run with several reviewers since ours.

 

[Emulex]

Samsung is going to get pwned by the G3 in feb. straight up bish-slapped.

Microcenter specials like the ADATA S599 rebadged that crashes w00t.

 

[flamenko]

This is another thing that confuses me that nobody can seem to explain. People are laying so much praise in Intel yet they have already announced their upgrade and it now falls behind all that we are already seeing now. According to the footprint, the only real competitive upgrade was going to be the capacity of the drive which has since been put to rest with all manufacturers starting to come out with high capacity drives.

I just reviewed superTalents new 500GB drive last week.

Intel has stated they are not going SATA 3 which is going to be the event of the year but even if your not interested in SATA 3, Intel does not stand up to others performance wise, especially when you calculate in the new SF firmware releases that are bringing their SF1200 specs to the level of SF1500 drives.

If your not aware of it, there is no hardware difference whatsoever between the SF1200 and SF1500 and all relies on the f/w/ My guess is this is being done in prep for the SF2000 release.

But I am still confused... What does the Intel have to offer that others dont have right now before the announcements are made?

 

[Old Hippie]

Samsung is going to get pwned by the G3 in feb. straight up bish-slapped.

There's a fanboy!

 

[Emulex]

intel is switching from read only memory to super capacitor write back cache. right now your indilinx/sandforce is doing write back caching without a battery - how does that make you feel? This will be a HUGE performance gain since everyone else is doing write back and intel is doing write-through.

Sandforce really isn't that much faster than intel when you remove the compression - my benchmarks using simple AS/CDM with random data show the intel G2 is on par with the sandforce.

They've got a few tricks up their sleeves more than that(google man) - and then their business class emlc with slc + mlc in one unit to prolong life and boost speed.

Honestly most people that do linear editing are going to afford SLC enterprise flash for their SAN/$50K RED/EPIC - the rest of folks are going to shove the ssd into existing servers to give them a performance boost.

Raid controllers will be modified to cut through directly to the drives (trim,TLER[like]) support in enterprise models.

The NCQ on the samsung isn't impressive at all. If i had a core solo processor i guess that would be okay.

I think samsung has one tactical advantage over the little guys (sandforce/indilinx) in that they make the controller and the chips - so they know what works best - like intel.



Keep in mind anything sandforce can do - intel probably has around done. their R&D team rocks the world (israel).

 

[Old Hippie]

intel is switching from read only memory to super capacitor write back cache. right now your indilinx/sandforce is doing write back caching without a......

Spoken like a true fanboy. LOL!

 

[Emulex]

yes you said that once - this is a technical forum not 4chan - grow up.

 

[Old Hippie]

yes you said that once - this is a technical forum not 4chan - grow up.

Sorry, I only repeated myself because it's true.

When you show me some specs on the new Intel drives that crush the competition I'll agree with you.

'Till then you're just proving yourself to be a fanboy.