Super Talent Begins Shipping Affordable 64GB and 128GB SSDs Next Week

[malware]

Evolution continues, flash storage solutions and DRAM memory modules manufacturer Super Talent today launched a pair of new high quality SATA-II SSDs. Solid state drives have become legendary for their many advantages over hard drives, but still can't take the market share they deserve because of their high retail prices. The new MasterDrive LX SSDs, offered in 64GB and 128GB capacities, combine all the advantages the solid state technology can offer but also appeal with an attractive price. The Super Talent MasterDrive LX 64GB model will retail for about $179, while the 128GB unit is expected to retail for under $300. Unfortunately performance scores are little lower. Using SATA 3Gbps interface both drives will offer sequential read speeds of up to 100 MB/sec, and sequential write speeds of up to 40 MB/sec. Both models will begin shipping this week, backed with Super Talent's 1-year warranty.



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[InnocentCriminal]

I'll be looking out for a 32GB or maybe a 64GB SSD for when I come to build my Bloomfield based rig. The write speeds for this drive are half of the Samsung and OCZ, then again, the price is more than half of that so, y'know... ^^

 

[iStink]

so one of these with windows loaded on it and used as the boot device would let my computer start up very quickly?

 

[InnocentCriminal]

Yep!

The draw back with SSDs at the moment is the write speed really, but that'll improve with better revisions. If you're interested, Anandtech have a good article on the Samsung and OCZ SSDs.

 

[Drac]

Only 1 year warranty, what a crap

 

[GSG-9]

Only 1 year warranty, what a crap

Thats what I was thinking...

 

[JC316]

Wow, that looks nice. Much more affordable too. Might get the 64 gig version when it comes out. Very nice.

 

[Frogger]

OH BOY more toys that are cheep enought to really play with

 

[CyberDruid]

If I wanted to make my rig slower I would deffo get one. V-raps uberalles! Those speeds are wayyyyy too slow for anything I would use them for...

 

[DonInKansas]

Yep!

The draw back with SSDs at the moment is the write speed really, but that'll improve with better revisions.

Write speed would be moot if it's just an OS drive. Super speedy boots ftw!

 

[R-T-B]

If I wanted to make my rig slower I would deffo get one. V-raps uberalles! Those speeds are wayyyyy too slow for anything I would use them for...

I have one of the OCZ drives (the 64GB SLC variant, not the core) and I have to say, it's quite speedy. You just need to really fork out some cash to get a worth while SSD. Regardless of MB/sec transer though, the access times make things seem much quicker. I speak from experience.

 

[rampage]

i just did an staticice.com search and here in australia there selling the 32gb for $200 and the 64BG for $350 .... silicon power ssd's are cheaper, but i don't have a clue how they compair

 

[FR@NK]

If I wanted to make my rig slower I would deffo get one. V-raps uberalles! Those speeds are wayyyyy too slow for anything I would use them for...

+1

I have a 60GB MLC SSD and also 2x "V-raps uberalles" and I would have say that the raptors perform much better for the gaming/web browsing that I do.

Write speed would be moot if it's just an OS drive. Super speedy boots ftw!

Nope. These SSDs wouldnt be anygood for an os drive. The random small file write time is way too slow on these drives. Remember that when windows is loading, its reading and writing a bunch of small bits of data in random places on the drive....like reading configuration files and updating log files. These SSDs cant erase small bits of data like a normal hard drive can, it has to erase the entire data page and rewrite it with the modified data(most SSDs have a 4KB sector size compared to a hard disk drive with a 512-byte sector size; then factor in that hard drives normally have 8 or 16MB cache where most SSDs only have 16kB of cache). So there is too much overhead when the OS is modifying small files that are randomly stored across the drive.

If you want a SSD for an OS drive pay $600 and get one of the 80GB intel drives.

Hopefully windows 7 has better support for these drives; I think these would be best used as a readonly cache drive for quick data access. Like just used for files that are never modified and just small enough to benefit from the zero access times.

IMO SSDs are only good for increasing the e-penis.

 

[JC316]

+1

I have a 60GB MLC SSD and also 2x "V-raps uberalles" and I would have say that the raptors perform much better for the gaming/web browsing that I do.



Nope. These SSDs wouldnt be anygood for an os drive. The random small file write time is way too slow on these drives. Remember that when windows is loading, its reading and writing a bunch of small bits of data in random places on the drive....like reading configuration files and updating log files. These SSDs cant erase small bits of data like a normal hard drive can, it has to erase the entire data page and rewrite it with the modified data(most SSDs have a 4KB sector size compared to a hard disk drive with a 512-byte sector size; then factor in that hard drives normally have 8 or 16MB cache where most SSDs only have 16kB of cache). So there is too much overhead when the OS is modifying small files that are randomly stored across the drive.

If you want a SSD for an OS drive pay $600 and get one of the 80GB intel drives.

Hopefully windows 7 has better support for these drives; I think these would be best used as a readonly cache drive for quick data access. Like just used for files that are never modified and just small enough to benefit from the zero access times.

IMO SSDs are only good for increasing the e-penis.

Ouch, good point. That wouldn't work worth a crap. Needs better write times and that price, then I might consider.

 

[CyberDruid]

I am all about fast HDDs...I've been using Cheetahs in SCSI for 4 years, and started using the Raptors almost as long ago and I always run RAID0 or RAID5 on an HBA...so if these SSD were the shit I would be all over them...they might be good for some applications but I am waiting for the tech to mature. This is one time I would not reccomend being an early adoptee. You would need 8 of them RAID0 on a high end controller with a buttload of onboard cache-RAM to see the speed they are capable of.

It's coming....

That's why HDD prices are falling like a stone.