Internals, Testing Methodology and System Setup
Internals:
Digging into these was quite easy. No screws to get the lid open. Thermal pads help conduct heat to the lid.
Further disassembly revealed additional thermal compound that appears to be doing the bulk of the cooling here.
Starting with the 1,920GB ECO model, we find the very capable Marvell 88SS1074-BSW2 controller paired with 1GB of DDR3.
On the flip side we find another GB of DDR3. Flash loadout comes to 10x four-die-packages and 2x two-die-packages. Total NAND comes to 2,112GB on this 1,920GB part (10% OP).
Skipping straight to the 960GB MAX, we find the same controller, half the DRAM of the 1,920GB ECO model, and a different flash layout (4x four-die-packages and 8x two-die-packages). That's 1,536GB of flash on this 960GB SSD (60% OP)!
*NOTE* In case you missed it earlier, these are pure TLC SSDs. No SLC cache, no MLC anywhere. Nothing but Micron's 3D eTLC (384 Gbit per die).
Testing Methodology
This is our first review using a purpose-built enterprise testing suite. We will cover the methodology further into the review and welcome your feedback on our process and presentation.
Test System Setup
We have several storage testbeds, but for this piece we used the same setup used in our 5-way SSD 750 RAID testing. It is not true server-class hardware, but it is a reasonable equivalent that allows us to push the CPU to higher clock speeds than server hardware would normally be capable of. This helps shift the burden / bottlenecks to the SSDs being tested.
PC Perspective would like to thank Intel, ASUS, Corsair, Kingston, and EVGA for supplying some of the components of our test rigs.
| Hard Drive Test System Setup | |
| CPU | Intel Core i7 5960 @ 4.5 GHz |
| Motherboard | ASUS X99 Deluxe |
| Memory | 16GB Micron DDR4 @ 3333 |
| Hard Drive | G.Skill 32GB SLC SSD |
| Sound Card | N/A |
| Video Card | GeForce 210 |
| Video Drivers | GeForce |
| Power Supply | Corsair CMPSU-650TX |
| DirectX Version | N/A |
| Operating System | Windows 8.1 Pro X64 (update) |
- PCPer Enterprise Storage Test Suite 0.98 (beta)
- PACED Latency/IO Percentile and High Resolution QoS
micron = elpida =
micron = elpida = ????
samsung still the best for memory.
Elpida was acquired by Micron
Elpida was acquired by Micron recently.
FYI,
“Read on for our full
FYI,
“Read on for our full review of the Micron 5100 MAX 960GB and 5100 ECO 1920GB Enterprise SATA SSDs!” link goes to a different article.
Whoops! I fixed it for Allyn.
Whoops! I fixed it for Allyn.
These seem to be quite
These seem to be quite capable drives, but in Crucial/Micron and Intel’s consumer and prosumer drives there has been some degradation in terms of durability and performance.
I think both Intel and Crucial/Micron should have continued to sell their 16nm 2D MLC parts like their MX200 series, which is actually better than their MX300. The 600 series from Intel also sucks and this trend is going to push people like me from the MX200 class drives into enterprise drives because i actually want SOME overprovisioning and quality.
N-RAM and STT-MRAM cant replace consumer grade NAND fast enough for me.
am i wrong or are these iops
am i wrong or are these iops numbers, terrible??
What kind of shit review is
What kind of shit review is this where the graphs don’t have any other drives for comparison? These numbers are completely arbitrary based on different testing conditions unless you give other drives for comparison.
“completely arbitrary based
“completely arbitrary based on different testing conditions”
Good thing in their methodology they try to keep the testing conditions completely the same you so can see how the drive performs compared to it’s rated specs. Enterprise devices aren’t judged by “What is best?” but rather “What is best for us?”. A slight distinction, but important none the less.
A certain other website used
A certain other website used to be the top dog of AllTime on enterprise hardware reviews, but if PCPer and Allyn keep up this kind of work AnoTher website might see some pageviews stolen!