3.2TB SSD for $240

When I selected make an offer, it said he was not accepting offers. Therefore, I sent a personal message offering $200, is that the way you guys did it?

I made an offer yesterday at about noon EST when the option was still available. I bet he's running low and has gotten lots of offers below his threshold.
 
I made an offer yesterday at about noon EST when the option was still available. I bet he's running low and has gotten lots of offers below his threshold.
More likely he misjudged demand and wishes he’d never included the “offer” option. Knowing that you just missed out on thousands of dollars by just waiting a month or two is an eye opening experience.
 
Got the drive in, benched it against my current drives. Fusion is first, M550 is second, WD Black is third (and it's a shitty black at that).

Fusion.jpg
M550.jpg
WDBlack.jpg


Endurance numbers:

end.jpg
 
what drivers did you use?

Mine wasn't recognized by Windows 10 - just opened it up now and put it in the PC. Will download the ones I linked earlier in the thread, unless you'll suggest otherwise.

I used the ones from WD, https://link.westerndigital.com/enterprisesupport/software-download.html You need an account though. I made a post about it on the STH thread " On the drop down menu on the left choose ioScale, Windows (assuming you're on windows), Current Release (which is 3.2.15 in my list)." Mine came with a later firmware than what was recommended for Windows, not sure if I should downgrade or not since the drivers are supposed to be paired with each firmware. For now things are just gonna sit for the time being. Mine also runs hotter than the other fellow, 65c idle 71c after running benches, so I might rig up a fan.

EDIT: For clarification, my install order was:
1: Chuck in the drive.
2: Start up PC and install Fusion_ioMemory_VSL_3.2.15.1699_x64, restart.
3: Open CMD as admin, "cd C:\Program Files\Common Files\VSL Utils", "fio-status -a" to check firmware and endurance.
4: Decide if you need to upgrade firmware (use the one on the same page as the binary, fusion_3.2.11-20150618.fff, if you decide to go this route, I skipped as mine was on v7.1.17 and downgrading isn't recommended)
5: Check if your PCI-E slot supports full 75W power mode (using the same CMD you had open before, this time use "fio-pci-check" to see if your slot supports the full 75w (or, if you're sure that it supports up to 75w go ahead and skip the check).
6: Enable PCI-E power override if your board supports it. Get the adapter serial number from fio-status, "fio-config -p FIO_EXTERNAL_POWER_OVERRIDE <SN-value>:75"
7: Restart PC. Pop into disk management as before and it should tell you a disk is uninitialized etc etc, continue on as any other drive install.

I don't think I missed anything I did, lemme know how it works out for ya. The power override is optional, but you won't get full write speeds if you don't do it (supposedly).
 
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I used the ones from WD, https://link.westerndigital.com/enterprisesupport/software-download.html You need an account though. I made a post about it on the STH thread " On the drop down menu on the left choose ioScale, Windows (assuming you're on windows), Current Release (which is 3.2.15 in my list)." Mine came with a later firmware than what was recommended for Windows, not sure if I should downgrade or not since the drivers are supposed to be paired with each firmware. For now things are just gonna sit for the time being. Mine also runs hotter than the other fellow, 65c idle 71c after running benches, so I might rig up a fan.
doesn't sound too hot -- these things performance throttle at 93*C according to the Dell documentation

Temperature Fusion ioMemory devices require adequate cooling. In order to prevent thermal damage, the Fusion ioMemory VSL software will start throttling write performance once the on-board controller reaches a specified temperature. If the controller temperature continues to rise, the software will shut down the device once the controller temperature reaches the maximum operating temperature. 32 Dell Fusion ioMemory VSL 3.2.15 User Guide for Microsoft Windows These temperatures depend on the device. Newer Fusion ioMemory devices have higher thermal tolerances. Consult the Dell Fusion ioMemory Hardware Installation Guide to determine the thermal tolerances of all devices you will monitor. This table uses the follwing controller thermal tolerances: 93°C throttling, 100°C shutdown. GREEN <93°C YELLOW 93-99°C RED 100°C


Bottom of page 32
file:///C:/Users/jvone/Downloads/Dell_ioMemory_VSL_3.2.15_User_Guide_for_Microsoft_Windows_2017-04-11.pdf
 
doesn't sound too hot -- these things performance throttle at 93*C according to the Dell documentation

Temperature Fusion ioMemory devices require adequate cooling. In order to prevent thermal damage, the Fusion ioMemory VSL software will start throttling write performance once the on-board controller reaches a specified temperature. If the controller temperature continues to rise, the software will shut down the device once the controller temperature reaches the maximum operating temperature. 32 Dell Fusion ioMemory VSL 3.2.15 User Guide for Microsoft Windows These temperatures depend on the device. Newer Fusion ioMemory devices have higher thermal tolerances. Consult the Dell Fusion ioMemory Hardware Installation Guide to determine the thermal tolerances of all devices you will monitor. This table uses the follwing controller thermal tolerances: 93°C throttling, 100°C shutdown. GREEN <93°C YELLOW 93-99°C RED 100°C


Bottom of page 32
file:///C:/Users/jvone/Downloads/Dell_ioMemory_VSL_3.2.15_User_Guide_for_Microsoft_Windows_2017-04-11.pdf
Well that's a relief, thanks for the heads up (y)
 
Wow - so I think I got real lucky in this lottery. My estimated life remaining is 99.77%

I've got a couple things to figure out. Apparently on my x99 Gigabyte Gaming Ultra board the bottom PCI-E slot is only giving me 4 PCIE- lanes? (maybe my Samsung 960 Evo nvme is taking the other four?) I can't use the third PCI-E slot up because it shares lanes with my first slot where my Nvidia 2080 is - which knocks my 2080 GPU down to 8 lanes. So I guess that leaves slot 2 - which is lame because that is going to share some heat from the graphics card being that it's the closest slot under the 2080.

Also my PCI-E slot is only doing 25 watts? What? I didn't even know you had to specify that it would offer up to 75 watts. I thought that was all automatic. News to me! Hmmm, do I want to trade performance for heat (on both GPU and IOScale) with the move to PCI-E slot 2? More testing is in order. My idle temp is 65*.

Looks like I have the newest firmware on mine with Firmware v7.1.17, rev 116786 Public according to the SanDisk release notes.

upload_2020-1-23_21-57-35.png


First round of benchmarks in current position with 4 lanes of PCI-E and 25 watts.
The I/O scale card went to 74* C in this benchmarking session. (open air Thermaltake P3 case - no fans)
upload_2020-1-23_22-11-50.png
 
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Wow - so I think I got real lucky in this lottery. My estimated life remaining is 99.77%

I've got a couple things to figure out. Apparently on my x99 Gigabyte Gaming Ultra board the bottom PCI-E slot is only giving me 4 PCIE- lanes? (maybe my Samsung 960 Evo nvme is taking the other four?) I can't use the third slot up because it shares lanes with my first slot where my 2080 is - which knocks my 2080 down to 8 lanes. So I guess that leaves slot 2 - which is lame because that is going to share some heat from the graphics card being that it's the closest slot under the 2080.

Also my PCI-E slot is only doing 25 watts? What? I didn't even know you had to specify that it would offer up to 75 watts. That's news to me. Hmmm, do I want to trade performance for heat with this thing? More testing is in order. My idle temp is 65*. I haven't done any benchmarks yet.

View attachment 217956

Yep, as far as I know, these are PCI-E 2.0x4 devices, so you're at full link speed. The 6.4TB is 8x I believe.
 
mazeroth and Ready4Dis

Thank you both for finding this deal. I'm exceptionally pleased with my card.
I just tried to copy a 700MB ripped movie file from my 960 EVO NVME to my IO Scale 3.2 TB drive so I could see that 1500MB/s expected speed windows copy dialogue flash up briefly and grin...

There's no Windows copy dialogue box to be seen. It's just 'instantly' there on the IO Scale drive as far as I can tell. There isn't even a flicker of the copy dialogue. It's like it never happened - but the file appears there like a 1MB picture would on a traditional drive setup. WOW.

I did it multiple times to confirm I wasn't just missing it. it's....just....there.

How cool is that? I've been a tech geek a long time, and it's still fun when you see stuff like that for the first time.

My Samsung Evo 960 NVME (PCI-E)
upload_2020-1-23_23-0-24.png



My Fusion I/O Scale 3.2 TB drive off ebay. (PCI-E) (25 watt limit)
270539_upload_2020-1-23_22-11-50.png



My Pair of WD Blue 5TB 5,400 RPM Platter drives in RAID 0 (SATA)
upload_2020-1-23_23-18-12.png
 
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Apparently on my x99 Gigabyte Gaming Ultra board the bottom PCI-E slot is only giving me 4 PCIE- lanes? (maybe my Samsung 960 Evo nvme is taking the other four?) I can't use the third PCI-E slot up because it shares lanes with my first slot where my Nvidia 2080 is - which knocks my 2080 GPU down to 8 lanes. So I guess that leaves slot 2 - which is lame because that is going to share some heat from the graphics card being that it's the closest slot under the 2080.
The 3.2 TB drive is only PCIe 2.0 x4, so you're not going to get more than 4 lanes no matter which slot you put it in.

I know what you mean about juggling slots/lanes on X99, though. This is what I had to do to install a second NVMe drive in my x99 board without stealing lanes from either the GPU or onboard NVMe slot:

20200115_230845[1].jpg

That's the slimmest flexible PCIe 4x riser I could find, connected to the slot hidden behind my RTX 2070's triple-slot cooler.
 
my x570 board is all damn 1x sized slots except for the 2 x16 slots. no slits in the back for full sized either. cutting slits like some have done, always ends up botching the slot
 
my x570 board is all damn 1x sized slots except for the 2 x16 slots. no slits in the back for full sized either. cutting slits like some have done, always ends up botching the slot

If you have a spare x16 slot you can use that. That's what I'm doing.
 
I created a thread over the 25 watt PCI-E slot question.
https://hardforum.com/threads/x99-g...efaulting-to-25-watts-on-pci-e-ports.1992175/

I'll be curious, as more of you get this device to see what your slots are maxing out at by default?

I could follow the manual's suggestion to over-ride my 25 watt limitation, but I'd rather solve it from the BIOS/motherboard software on the Gigabyte X99 Ultimate Gaming motherboard. I can't find anything on the internet in my searches as to why my slots would be showing they are only 25 watt slots. I've tried my second and 4th slot now with the same 25 watt limitation result showing up.
 
Yes - they support trim:
Page 27 of the user manual.
http://dell-support.sandisk.com/
I/O Scale -> Windows -> 3.2.15

View attachment 217958
not that i don't believe that it does support but could you run hwinfo and verify that it actually does.
upload_2020-1-24_1-12-19.png




// found its spec sheet
https://docs.huihoo.com/opencompute...o-3.2tb-io-accelerator-specification-v0.5.pdf

some other info from the pdf

It is actual 3.8TB (3.2TB usable) over-provisioning for more endurance.
the endurance is ~2 PBW (or ~7200TBW max according to vmware)
MTBF > 2,000,000 hours
-> It uses ECC chips
Does not support TRIM, but something custom called Adaptive Flashback | "Proprietary wear-leveling is implemented to maximize NAND life" I expect it to be quite weak.

I also wonder how much life they have left on them too.


(Note to self, quite old samsung 850 pro had 9.1 PBW <Petabytes written> before death)
 
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So, is it worth the $239 plus tax? He is no longer accepting offers and did not respond to my personal message about an offer.
 
not that i don't believe that it does support but could you run hwinfo and verify that it actually does.
View attachment 217981



// found its spec sheet
https://docs.huihoo.com/opencompute...o-3.2tb-io-accelerator-specification-v0.5.pdf

some other info from the pdf

It is actual 3.8TB (3.2TB usable) over-provisioning for more endurance.
the endurance is ~2 PBW (or ~7200TBW max according to vmware)
MTBF > 2,000,000 hours
-> It uses ECC chips
Does not support TRIM, but something custom called Adaptive Flashback | "Proprietary wear-leveling is implemented to maximize NAND life" I expect it to be quite weak.

I also wonder how much life they have left on them too.


(Note to self, quite old samsung 850 pro had 9.1 PBW <Petabytes written> before death)

I’m confused again. Theres some conflicting info in that IO accelerator document as compared to the IO scale documentation. Power use being one. This accelerator document mentions 25 watts max, that the card will not use more than 25 watts. The IO scale document says performance can be hindered unless you give the drive the whole 75 watts.

My auction I purchased from was the flat $200 priced one that ready4dis mentioned and it said IO Scale and there is a sticker on the card (and auction pics) that clearly says IO Scale.

The scale or accelerator may or may not be the same thing?!? But I have the scale.

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.com/ulk/itm/303439105018

A google image search seems to have some overlap, but the majority of pictures on Google Image seem to line up with IO Scale as similar to what I got (pictured in auction).
 
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So, is it worth the $239 plus tax? He is no longer accepting offers and did not respond to my personal message about an offer.

I would say yes if you are not overly concerned at its power usage. Its an enterprise drive with 20 PB of expected endurance and 3.2TB of space.
 
mazeroth and Ready4Dis

Thank you both for finding this deal. I'm exceptionally pleased with my card.
I just tried to copy a 700MB ripped movie file from my 960 EVO NVME to my IO Scale 3.2 TB drive so I could see that 1500MB/s expected speed windows copy dialogue flash up briefly and grin...

There's no Windows copy dialogue box to be seen. It's just 'instantly' there on the IO Scale drive as far as I can tell. There isn't even a flicker of the copy dialogue. It's like it never happened - but the file appears there like a 1MB picture would on a traditional drive setup. WOW.

I did it multiple times to confirm I wasn't just missing it. it's....just....there.

How cool is that? I've been a tech geek a long time, and it's still fun when you see stuff like that for the first time.

Thanks for the updates, seems pretty good for $200 for over 3TB. Yeah, 700MB used to take a bit of time, nowadays, I'm wondering when I should start looking into 10gb/s Ethernet because my network is my bottleneck. This drive would continue this trend.
 
Has anyone quantified the power draw difference before and after installation? The post above about ensuring 75W slot capability has me a bit concerned.
 
I would say yes if you are not overly concerned at its power usage. Its an enterprise drive with 20 PB of expected endurance and 3.2TB of space.

*Sigh* Why are some of the best deals popping up when I cannot really justify spending the money, at this time? Thanks though. :) (Vet bill for my cat ate this money, oh well.)
 
Has anyone quantified the power draw difference before and after installation? The post above about ensuring 75W slot capability has me a bit concerned.
Even so. All my benchmark pics are run on the 25 watt max lock, which seem basically in line with Oniigumo ’s benches at 75 watt max lock. We have the same firmware on our cards, so its appears more of a curiosity than a real world performance issue. Oniigumo, was your pci-e slot already set to 75 watts or did you follow the instruction in the user guide to override the 25 watt limit?
 
Even so. All my benchmark pics are run on the 25 watt max lock, which seem basically in line with Oniigumo ’s benches at 75 watt max lock. We have the same firmware on our cards, so its appears more of a curiosity than a real world performance issue. Oniigumo, was your pci-e slot already set to 75 watts or did you follow the instruction in the user guide to override the 25 watt limit?

Override for me. Afaik, it will default to 25w unless you have the external power cable. I'm using mine in my second x16 slot, but might move it to the third (electrically x4) as currently its sharing with my gpu. I'm on a z97 board. From what I understand it's like a power limit slider for GPUs. It's not going to all of a sudden start chugging 75 watts once you enable, but it'll use whatever it needs should the time come. All the power stuff was from the manual on the WD driver package page on install instructions.
 
I’m confused again. Theres some conflicting info in that IO accelerator document as compared to the IO scale documentation. Power use being one. This accelerator document mentions 25 watts max, that the card will not use more than 25 watts. The IO scale document says performance can be hindered unless you give the drive the whole 75 watts.

My auction I purchased from was the flat $200 priced one that ready4dis mentioned and it said IO Scale and there is a sticker on the card (and auction pics) that clearly says IO Scale.

The scale or accelerator may or may not be the same thing?!? But I have the scale.

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.com/ulk/itm/303439105018

A google image search seems to have some overlap, but the majority of pictures on Google Image seem to line up with IO Scale as similar to what I got (pictured in auction).

I think this documentation i've attached is the one, and correct one. Dell is likely giving a summary of couple models. Still quite hard to find the documentation anywhere on it. Or details on their trim alike system are fairly non existent.


~ as it contained model number
F11-002-3T20-CS-0001
 
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i do not :( since the pcie 4.0 1x run @ x4 or areat least faster than pcie 2.0 / 3.0 i wonder how slow it would run with a 1x to 16x adapter.

Is it full, half, or small sized slot?
220px-PCIExpress.jpg


I think without some internal switch on the adapter you won't be able to get it running at any decent bandwidth matching pci-e4 x1 due to electrical lane switching. ~ please correct me i'm likely wrong.
I think you would be stuck at something around 1-2GB/s with 5GT/s (so around pci-e2 x2-4)

noting small pci-e 1x (only 4 pins for data, while its likely only 2 are actually usuable)
pins
1-3 power
4 ground
5-6 smbus
7 ground
8-10 power standby
11 wake
12 clock signal
13 ground reference clock
14-15 data
16-17 hslp data
18 ground
 
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Welp, now he bumped the price up to $249.99, making it less desirable than before. You can get 3TB of SSD space, brand new, for just a little more money, at that point.
 
I copied over my 2TB's of games and the temp got as high as 76* during that two-ish hour span of copying (with no fans in an open air case.)

upload_2020-1-24_13-21-36.png
 
Is it full, half, or small sized slot?
View attachment 218034

I think without some internal switch on the adapter you won't be able to get it running at any decent bandwidth matching pci-e4 x1 due to electrical lane switching. ~ please correct me i'm likely wrong.
I think you would be stuck at something around 1-2GB/s with 5GT/s (so around pci-e2 x2-4)

noting small pci-e 1x (only 4 pins for data, while its likely only 2 are actually usuable)
pins
1-3 power
4 ground
5-6 smbus
7 ground
8-10 power standby
11 wake
12 clock signal
13 ground reference clock
14-15 data
16-17 hslp data
18 ground

i was thinking with the limited pins, you'd be limtied to the DEVICE'S 1x setting. so if the device is PCIe 1.0 then you'd get PCIe 1.0 1x speeds? my board is an asus prime x570-p: https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/PRIME-X570-P/

i have a GPU and a PERC 6i in the x16 slots.
 
Well, he upped the base price to $249.99, but is accepting offers again. I tried the other day at $190 and was declined, then again today at $200 and it was auto-accepted. It sucks that he took off the `make offer' button yesterday when 5% eBay Bucks was still active, but oh well. =(
 
i was thinking with the limited pins, you'd be limtied to the DEVICE'S 1x setting. so if the device is PCIe 1.0 then you'd get PCIe 1.0 1x speeds? my board is an asus prime x570-p: https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/PRIME-X570-P/

i have a GPU and a PERC 6i in the x16 slots.

quite possible, you would have to test (with pci-e 2 x1 you would be getting almost 1GB/s)

How about using ur m.2 slot?
https://www.amazon.com/EXPLOMOS-NGFF-Adapter-Power-Cable/dp/B074Z5YKXJ

if you aren't using it now - it might be ok approach. (similar capacity m.2 cost over $600)
(but are also likely faster - 3.1GB/s read, 2GB/s write)
 
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