Early OCZ Synapse impressions

N

N1GHTRA1N

Gawd
Joined
Apr 24, 2009
Messages
781
So I installed a new OCZ Synapse 64GB SSD today. For those of you who don't know this drive is a cache drive that uses Dataplex software to cache the most frequently used files on your boot drive on the SSD. The drive has a 50% over provision to improve the life of the drive so basically with the 64GB you get 32GB of Cache. The price of this drive was $125. I was using a 1.5TB WD Black as my primary boot drive and haven't moved to a SSD boot drive because the minimum size I'd be happy with would be 256GB and I didn't want to spend that kind of money, in addition to that I've heard many horror stories of the SSD drives just crapping out.

This drive only work with Windows 7 and will work with 2TB or smaller drives, the drive you are using has to be the boot drive.

After installing the drive and software I was prompted for a reboot. I began recording with my stop watch how long it boot Windows to load. I load a lot of stuff on boot up so my boot time is a little higher than most I would imagine.

I load a ton of Windows Gadgets, MSI Afterburner, Core Temp, HWMonitor, Impulse, Steam, Origin, iTunes, Printer/Scanner software, APC software, etc. I also loaded Google Chrome with 6 tabs. The total time was 5:57. Yeah that is a long time. Windows was usable well before that but I recorded until everything was fully loaded and the HDD stopped cranking.

I rebooted again and this time to get to the exact same state and the HDD activity idle was 1:23. WOW what I drop.

I rebooted a third time and it was now 1:14. On the forth and fifth attempt it was 1:13. That is a total of 4:44 seconds saved. Crazy stuff. This thing seems to work.

I decided to try Photoshop next. 52 seconds to load the application and three 15 mega pixel pictures. 2nd attempt was 21 seconds. third forth and fifth attempts were down to 9 seconds. WOW.

Loading World of Warcraft right into Stormwind was 1:17 on the first run. By the third attempt it was down to 23 seconds.

Loading BF3 went from 47 seconds to 24 seconds by the third attempt.

Skyrim went from 41 seconds to 22 seconds by the third attempt.

After going back to Photoshop it was still quick.

This drive seems to offer the best of both worlds. Instead of me having to decide what I want to install on the SSD so it will be fast the software does it for me. This allows me to continue to fill my 1.5TB drive (with about 115GB free right now) and get speed from the items I use the most. If I stop playing Warcraft I don't need to move it to a slower drive as it will eventually work its way out of the cache and something else will take it's place.

So far I'm very happy with this. Feel free to ask any questions.
 
Most of your second, third and fourth time attempts (one after another without reboot) the speed benefit is coming because of the cached data held in RAM, not because the computer is getting magically faster.
 
mwroobel said:
Most of your second, third and fourth time attempts (one after another without reboot) the speed benefit is coming because of the cached data held in RAM, not because the computer is getting magically faster.
Click to expand...

The SSD is caching frequently used Data. Trust me, without the SSD drive the times were no where near as quick. I open PhotoShop like 20 times a day, it has never been that quick. Same with the games I mentioned. The SSD is doing what it is suppose to do. This works in the same way the Z68 can use a SSD for cache. The only difference is the OCZ Synapse requires a software install to do the work while the Z68 chipset does it without additional software.
 
Thanks for the review. I take it that when you install the Dataplex software it's only good for use on one PC? What's the maximum cache size you can provision? Can you cache muliple drives? I know I could Google, but I'm feeling extra lazy.
 
MassiveOverkill said:
Thanks for the review. I take it that when you install the Dataplex software it's only good for use on one PC? What's the maximum cache size you can provision? Can you cache muliple drives? I know I could Google, but I'm feeling extra lazy.
Click to expand...

OCZ offers two sizes of the Synapse which included a single license for Dataplex. There is a 64GB and a 128GB version. The MSRP is $149 and $249 respectively. These drives are 50% provisioned from OCZ so the 64GB gives you access to 32GB for caching and the 128GB gives you 64GB for caching. Performance wise they would be pretty much the same as a Vertex 3 drive. The 128GB version would allow your cache to hold double the amount of data as the 64GB version so you should be able to expect more data to be faster as it will be less likely to get moved out of cache.

This Dataplex software will not work with other drives as far as I know, it has to be the Synapse drives. I do expect more companies to offer this type of solution.

As for caching multple drives the Dataplex software only works with your Windows 7 boot drive.
 
Here is a couple bench marks scores. I don't have screen shots of just using my WD HDD but they are much better than I use to get overall. BTW my MB doesn't support SATA3.

ssdcp.jpg
 
I just got this drive myself. I've been wanting to get a SSD for a long time, but even the cheapest 240+GB drives (which is the absolute bare minimum for me, 500GB would be better) are well over $300.

A small SSD requires you to make conscious (and agonizing) decisions - Which applications do I use frequently enough to warrant using up precious space on the SSD? Also, which applications you use the most changes over time and you may actually only access *part* of the application or game (gigabytes of video clips, temporary files, unused dll files etc.). This automatic cache should at least in theory take care of that problem.

So far my impressions are favorable. I was a bit skeptical, because ReadyBoost in Windows does absolutely nothing for performance (even when I tried it with a fast 16GB USB stick). However this truly works. I'm using it together with a 1TB, 7200 RPM Hitachi drive.

My boot time, as measured from just after the POST to when I have a "usable" desktop (all autostart applications running and the tray has been fully populated) went from 4 minutes and 25 seconds to 28 seconds. Since I always turn my computer off at night, I'm saving around 24 hours a year just in boot time (not counting reboots to install updates etc.).

All the applications I use regularly, like Live Mail, Live Messenger, Libre Office, Paint.Net, Paint Shop Pro, Propellerhead Reason, Cockos Reaper etc. now start almost instantly. Application load times remained super-fast even after I played some Skyrim and then rebooted the system. Even Skyrim continues to load much faster. It remains to be seen how much you can fit into the cache before it starts evicting stuff you may still be using from time to time. I haven't found any way to display cache usage or statistics.

Unlike ReadyBoost or Superfetch, there's no disk thrashing as it fills up the cache. That is done on the fly when you access the data on your hard disk normally. Also, the fact that it improves boot time is a huge plus.

My only criticism so far is the steep price. You're paying $125 for what is essentially a mid-range, 32GB SSD. The "128GB" (64GB usable cache) is really overpriced, as it approaches the price of regular 250GB SSD drives. If you have an Intel system that already supports SSD caching, this seems a bit redundant (though some reviewers are claiming OCZ's solution is more efficient).
 
Last edited:
I did a long overdue clean Windows 7 review. Everything is faster again. My previous install has been around for a very long time, in fact it was a in place upgrade from Windows Vista.

Anyway. Things improved a lot. The system is much snappier. The boot time decreased again and is now at 0:57 with all the same stuff loading as before. I also noticed a nice increase in overall disk performance, particularily with write performance. Take a look and compare to before.

ssd2.jpg


Also my WEI increased a little. Disk performance use to be 5.9 and remained unchanged after installing the Synapse drive. After a clean install it went up to 6.2, a small insignificant increase but it is something.

weib.jpg


PhotoShop opens in a blink of an eye now. WOW, BF3, and Skyrim all open 2-3 seconds quicker too.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top