New Intel 520 Benchmarks

[kevinsbane]

Why no comparison to higher end toggle drives like Wildfire or Chronos Deluxe? That would be more interesting.

Don't really care how well a new drive performs to Intel's own previous model or drives like M4 which aren't the fastest to begin with. For $500 I want toggle flash too, not just another async drive with an Intel badge and f/w.

Is this not a synchronous flash model? Nowhere do I read that it uses async flash.

On a similar note, would Toggle NAND flash provide superior performance to synchronous flash? All I could find was marketing claiming better performance, but it seems both current gens are at 133 MB/s?

 

[kbp]

The best TRIM is simply ... Over Provisioning!

 

[capeconsultant]

What SSD's do have toggle flash? Did I miss something? I too laugh out loud when similiar drives with similar GB and Controller are reviewed at great length only to "confirm" that they are extremely similiar. I mean, really??? Was I supposed to be surprised by that? Thanks, Dave

 

[KingFatty]

I think the Plextor M3 is toggle flash, with marvell controller, 5 yr warranty. I still need to install mine, it's just sitting there waiting.

 

[groberts101]

Vertex 3 Max IOPS
Patriot Wildfire
OWC Mercury Extreme Pro
Mushkin Chronos Deluxe
Samsung 830
Corsair Performance Pro
Plextor M3/S

and probably a few others not listed.. use everything from 32nm to 24nm toggle these days.

 

[capeconsultant]

Thanks! I own the Samsung, so I have toggle. I was just not aware of that distinction re SSD's. I am looking forward to Friday when the Intel arrives!

 

[palladium]

Running the 520 for a week + now under vista and sata2, no BSODs, massive speedup. I'm a happy camper

 

[groberts101]

massive speedup. I'm a happy camper

what drive did you run prior to this one?

 

[LokutusofBorg]

Thanks! I own the Samsung, so I have toggle. I was just not aware of that distinction re SSD's. I am looking forward to Friday when the Intel arrives!

Samsung and IMFT are the major NAND manufacturers at this point. Toggle is the type of NAND Samsung makes, and IMFT is the main force behind the ONFI standards as that's the type of NAND they make. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. But it really just comes down to whether any given SSD is using Samsung or IMFT NAND.

 

[palladium]

what drive did you run prior to this one?

A Seagate hard drive

 

[exdeath]

a seagate punch card drive

ftfy

 

[capeconsultant]

My 520 came a day early. Cloned from my Samsung 830 256GB to the Intel 520 240GB using Active@diskimage (my favorite software) And I am stunned. It feels twice as snappy with program openings.

I am totally happy. Word is like Notepad used to be... instant. Dreamweaver and Photo elements are the fastest they have ever been by far. Almost instant. Have not done much copying yet, heck, I have only had it running for 15 minutes. But I wanted to login here and say that all the folks that say one is as fast as the other are, um, well, wrong

Do not ask for benchmarks as I do not mess with those any more. So far, hats off to Intel!

 

[Obsoleet]

My 520 came a day early. Cloned from my Samsung 830 256GB to the Intel 520 240GB using Active@diskimage (my favorite software) And I am stunned. It feels twice as snappy with program openings.

I am totally happy. Word is like Notepad used to be... instant. Dreamweaver and Photo elements are the fastest they have ever been by far. Almost instant. Have not done much copying yet, heck, I have only had it running for 15 minutes. But I wanted to login here and say that all the folks that say one is as fast as the other are, um, well, wrong

Do not ask for benchmarks as I do not mess with those any more. So far, hats off to Intel!

Twice as fast at opening programs as the 830? Seems hard to believe, even if it's a figure of speech of sorts. I'm writing this off to only 15 minutes of time to use the drive, and I think that's a more than fair assessment.

 

[OlafSicky]

My 520 came a day early. Cloned from my Samsung 830 256GB to the Intel 520 240GB using Active@diskimage (my favorite software) And I am stunned. It feels twice as snappy with program openings.

I am totally happy. Word is like Notepad used to be... instant. Dreamweaver and Photo elements are the fastest they have ever been by far. Almost instant. Have not done much copying yet, heck, I have only had it running for 15 minutes. But I wanted to login here and say that all the folks that say one is as fast as the other are, um, well, wrong

Do not ask for benchmarks as I do not mess with those any more. So far, hats off to Intel!

I don't belive it I need video proof there is no way the intel is 2x the samsung.

 

[groberts101]

why don't you guys just go buy any locally available Sandforce 2281 based drive and see for yourself?

Speeds will be similar to cape's(especially when comparing a used state drive to one that is still fresher) and many vendors even have satisfaction guarantee's these days which is one reason why 30 day return policies exists in the first place.

Seeing really is believing and I've seen quite a few SF-2281 users who convert from using the same exact drives you guys keep harping on for "stability". About the only one's moving away from speed towards stability are the ones who get fed up with issues they can't sort out with some configs. And not all have issues on every config out there.

 

[capeconsultant]

I go by feel in hard drive speed. Since I do not do any hard core video editing or heavy photoshop use, I find that is the bets way to "intuit" the speed of a hard drive.

Dreamweaver and Photoshop Elements are 2 of the slowest opening programs on the planet. And they open the fastest I have ever seen/felt on the new Intel.

I was not expecting to be able to notice the difference, but I definitely did. Whereas when I went from the Crucial M4 to the Samsung, I did not notice any discernible difference. Just my 2 cents, but I am very happy with her speed boost and the drive in general. Again, it has only been a few hours, but so far I am going to keep it as the main drive for sure.

 

[Makaveli]

Twice as fast at opening programs as the 830? Seems hard to believe, even if it's a figure of speech of sorts. I'm writing this off to only 15 minutes of time to use the drive, and I think that's a more than fair assessment.

Placebo effect he bought this drive expecting it to be faster. 15mins of uptime isn't enough to compare. Also is the drive even 25% full?

 

[groberts101]

Placebo effect he bought this drive expecting it to be faster. 15mins of uptime isn't enough to compare. Also is the drive even 25% full?

I'm just guessing here(as the current theme seems to be), but it seems like that user may be well beyond being a just a newb here.

And why would it take much longer than that to compare when he's working with the IDENTICAL image on the IDENTICAL machine? I have Adobe PS loaded for bear with tons of brushes and filterpacks that bog down even a slower SSD. Different controllers have different strengths and there is very real perceptible differences in disk intensive usage. Latency and random performance of just one Sandforce drive is beyond that of 6 Indilinx based drives in R0.. and yes.. you certainly can "feel it" with no placebo effect or benchmarks being required.

Unless you guys actually have direct first-hand knowledge of doing this same thing between various SSD's?.. maybe you should try to listen and learn a bit more before thinking you have it all figured out by now. Either that?.. or check some different drives out for yourself.

Not all SSD's are created equal in benchmarks or the overall "feel" they present to the end user.. and that's a fact.

 

[capeconsultant]

groberts101, you know of what you speak The drive is about... 103GB free of 223GB. So over half full. It was done using a disk to disk copy of the Samsung. Not sure what the exact difference is between that and a disk clone (active@disk image software) but it seemed to be the better choice here.

I have had: a 16GB SLC Korean drive (forget the name Memoright maybe?) 3 or so Corsair indilinx. Not reliable. A Intel 160 (second revision) , an Intel 320, a Crucial M4, and not this. And probably one I forgot about.

I love hard drives and therefore now love SSD's. Since all my space needs can easily be handled by a 500GB external, I juts use the SSD as boot and only drive.

My very first hard drive? Sure, like I remember my first woman, I fondly remember my Plus Hard Card 20, (count 'em) yes twenty MEGAbytes.

And certainly the placebo effect could be present. That is, after all, one VERY powerful effect.

 

[sequoia464]

My very first hard drive? Sure, like I remember my first woman, I fondly remember my Plus Hard Card 20, (count 'em) yes twenty MEGAbytes.

From some of the posts I see sometimes - not you of course - I have to wonder what percentage of the posters on some of these forums have ever actually been with a non-vinyl gal.

I myself am just about old enough to have forgotten what all the excitement was about, but I also still remember the first - it was an IBM.

The first woman is kind of hazy anymore though.

 

[Makaveli]

I'm just guessing here(as the current theme seems to be), but it seems like that user may be well beyond being a just a newb here.

And why would it take much longer than that to compare when he's working with the IDENTICAL image on the IDENTICAL machine? I have Adobe PS loaded for bear with tons of brushes and filterpacks that bog down even a slower SSD. Different controllers have different strengths and there is very real perceptible differences in disk intensive usage. Latency and random performance of just one Sandforce drive is beyond that of 6 Indilinx based drives in R0.. and yes.. you certainly can "feel it" with no placebo effect or benchmarks being required.

Unless you guys actually have direct first-hand knowledge of doing this same thing between various SSD's?.. maybe you should try to listen and learn a bit more before thinking you have it all figured out by now. Either that?.. or check some different drives out for yourself.

Not all SSD's are created equal in benchmarks or the overall "feel" they present to the end user.. and that's a fact.

I'm not saying he is wrong but its very hard to gauge the "feel" of it. I don't think he is a newb at all but it's difficult for others since they can't feel this and benchmarks don't show a 2x improvement. There may be other things are play here and yes I know it was a drive image so there shouldn't really be any differences when it comes to the OS.

I would love to get my hands on one of these drives but I will be staying on my SATA2 board for awhile longer plus i'm adding a second intel 160 G2 so I can go Raid 0 when the 11.5 RST are released.

 

[Coup27]

I know he said he wouldn't, but a CDM score would be useful right now.

Theres no need to run 5 runs of 1000MB, one will do fine. I have an 830 on a native 6Gbps port I can use for comparison.

I know it's not the be all and end all but it would be a reasonably accurate like for like shoot out.

Edit: Looking at his spec, he runs the 520 on a H55M board which means it's either at 3Gbps or using an add on card...

 

[capeconsultant]

Oops, forgot, I changed Mainboards so I could have the SATA III I have the ASUS P8Z68 M pro board Will change sig asap.

 

[palladium]

I know he said he wouldn't, but a CDM score would be useful right now.

Theres no need to run 5 runs of 1000MB, one will do fine. I have an 830 on a native 6Gbps port I can use for comparison.

I know it's not the be all and end all but it would be a reasonably accurate like for like shoot out.

Edit: Looking at his spec, he runs the 520 on a H55M board which means it's either at 3Gbps or using an add on card...

My 180GB Intel SSD 520:

http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa316/ragnarok2007/Untitled-1.jpg

I think I posted this before in this thread but it got lost in the midst of discussions.

This is on a SATA 3Gbit/s port on an (old) X58 MB.

 

[Coup27]

I've never seen 35 on a 4k read on any drive. Thats definitely impressive. I get 25 on my 830.

Although if you look at the two drives on bench, the 830 actually wins more tests than it loses (without using pen and paper) and many of the scores are very close so I do find it hard to believe there is a 2 fold in noticeable speed.