Some tests of a SSD RAID 0, 07/04/2009 - Your reactions

[NewsBot]

As promised, here some tests carried out on the OCZ Vertex RAID disks of 120 GB installed in the 2008 Mac Pro. We compared this disk to a Samsung Spinpoint F1 that, although it is not the fastest of hard drives nevertheless has a good reputation.

• To start we compared the start up time of the machine using each volume, from the appearance of apple logo until the time when one has the Finder in hand. It took 32 seconds for the hard drive and half the time for the SSD, 16 seconds. 
  
• We then opened an image of 820 MB (size on the hard drive) in  Photoshop CS3. The Spinpoint spent 26 seconds to open this image compared to 14 for the SSD. 
  
• We then duplicated a file containing 55.000 files with a total size of 4,7 GB. This took 205 seconds for the hard drive and 113 seconds for the SSD. 
  
• To finish, a test under xBench. This software is not the most reliable, but everyone, or almost everyone, has it on their Mac.

 



The RAID obtains a score 4 times higher and as envisaged, completely crushes the hard drive regarding the access time and the writings of small files, a thing that Mac OS X does continuously.



In short, a SSD does not make Mac more powerful, that is the reserve of the processor, but it makes it swifter for the majority of the actions using the hard drives, and this is an enormous thing on the daily basis. We await the day that the prices drop enough make them available to the general public.



 

By crispin, original by Lionel

[M!M!C]

Forget price, i just want to know when i can stack two of these in an iMac!

[okeribok]

Forget price, i just want to know when i can stack two of these in an iMac!

You should be able to do that today:
- open your iMac
- remove original harddrive
- attach Y-splitter SATA cable
- attach Y splitter power cable
- attach 2 x SSD
- if you wish to close it, use ducktape or buy a 2*2.5" in 1*3.5" mounting
- enjoy!

[linathael]

Forget price, i just want to know when i can stack two of these in an iMac!

You should be able to do that today:
- open your iMac
- remove original harddrive
- attach Y-splitter SATA cable
- attach Y splitter power cable
- attach 2 x SSD
- if you wish to close it, use ducktape or buy a 2*2.5" in 1*3.5" mounting
- enjoy!

excellent summary

[docmacps]

Forget price, i just want to know when i can stack two of these in an iMac!

You should be able to do that today:
- open your iMac
- remove original harddrive
- attach Y-splitter SATA cable
- attach Y splitter power cable
- attach 2 x SSD
- if you wish to close it, use ducktape or buy a 2*2.5" in 1*3.5" mounting
- enjoy!

You can actually buy a 3.5" drive case that supports TWO 2.5" SATA laptop / SSD drives with built-in hardware RAID 0-5 selectable by DIP switches as one option. Or explore OCZ's APEX line which is a single 2.5" SATA SSD with *two* banks of memory with a RAID 0 striped config controller chip; that could be used with 2.5 ->3.5 adapter cases like the IcyDock. Lots of ways to shoehorn a small SSD into something bigger: www.ssd-solid-state-drives.com

[linathael]

You can actually buy a 3.5" drive case that supports TWO 2.5" SATA laptop / SSD drives with built-in hardware RAID 0-5 selectable by DIP switches as one option. Or explore OCZ's APEX line which is a single 2.5" SATA SSD with *two* banks of memory with a RAID 0 striped config controller chip; that could be used with 2.5 ->3.5 adapter cases like the IcyDock. Lots of ways to shoehorn a small SSD into something bigger: www.ssd-solid-state-drives.com

yep, something similar to what we have been using for putting 2 SSD in a MacBook Pro: http://www.hardmac.com/news/2008/12/18/exc...n-a-macbook-pro