Linux & SSDs (Solid State Disks)

[undoIT]

With the new Intel G2 SSDs coming out, I'm thinking about upgrading my hard drive. However, there seems to be an extra level of software support needed for SSD drives. From what I have read there can be performance degradation over time and other issues.

Does anyone know how well SSD drives are supported in Linux and also if there is support for the TRIM command or if it is planned?

[saikee]

I have been looking at them as well but the price is still too high. I could be wrong but from the description I expect these devices are just looked upon as hard disks as they are offered in Sata or IDE connections.

It seems two types are offfered; MLC and SLC standing for multi level cells and Single level cells. SLC can last considerably longer than MLC which is a lot cheaper to manufactured. 128 and 512Gb are widely available now and mostly in 2.5" Sata hard disk size.

[saikee]

Just an update.

For what it worths I bought a 128Gb SSD for HK$2890 which is about US$372 or GBP225 yesterday. It is a AData 592 Series rated to read at 230Mb/s and write 170Mb/s maximum speed.

I just download a Ubuntu and use it to clone a Vista in a HP laptop.

The transfer speed of moving a 250Gb 5400rpm Samsung to a 500Gb 7200rpm Hitachi 2.5" hard disk was 18.6Mb/s. This is a hard disk to hard disk speed.

When I moved the Vista partition (81Gb) from a 500Gb 5400 rpm Hitachi to the AData 128Gb SSD the transfer speed was 28.6Mb/s. I am using the transferred Vista to write the post after substituting it into the Laptop by removing the 500Gb Hitachi hard disk.

The above transfer speed is sequential read/write using Bash command "dd" via a eSata cable between a docking station and a eSata adaptor using the PC card slot (newer type of PCMCIA) which is faster than the USB port but 2 to 3 times slower than a standard eSata port. The figures are useful mainly as a like-to-like comparison. The actual speeds may change if different CPU/Mobo/port are used.

The SSD hard disk has a Sata connection and behave exactly like an ordinary hard disk in both Linux and MS Windows.

The boot up speed of my Vista has been improved from 1 min 22 sec with a 5400 rpm hard disk to 55 sec with the AData SSD.

The respnse of the SSD hard disk is "definitely" faster. This is particularly so in random read when it excels. Everything is genuinely faster.

The downside is the cost. There are several grades of SSD priced according to the maximum read write speed. 200Mb/s read and 170Mb/write is not the best as 250Mb/s read and 200Mb/s write SSDs are available. Lower grades do about 80Gb/s read and 40Mb/s write. A decent 128Gb costs about HK$ 3000 while almost any 500GB 2.5" latop disk (Seagate, WD, Samsug, Fujitsu etc) asking price is between 600 to 650.

The SSD hard disk is the MLC type. The SLC SSDs are even more ridiculously price. The maximum size of SSD in the Hong Kong market is 512Gb for the 2.5" laptop hdd size.

What it prompted me to dive into the SSD was my wish of getting a large capacity pen drive which cost HK$500 for 32Gb and HK$1000 for 64Gb. At that price a solid state 128Gb pen drive, if available but not yet in the market, will cost HK$2000. Thus buying a SSD hard drive is about 50% dearer. By putting the SSD in a casing it will work as a pen drive and a hard disk too, although I am using it as an internal hard disk at the moment. It is an device that can go anywhere.

The AData adverted the SSD having the following advantages

(1) Resistance to shock, vibration, high altitude and temerature
(2) No noise
(3) 80% reduction in power consumption over conventional mechanical hard disks.
(4) Faster startup
(5) Low read/write latency times
(6) Build in ECC and wear-levelling

It does looks to me SSD when getting cheaper eventually can be hard to resist as a fast operational hard disk.