SLC OR MLC SSD

A

antok86

[H]F Junkie
2FA
Joined
Feb 26, 2006
Messages
8,682
which ssd is better for netbook use SLC or MLC Types.....
any recommendations in the 32gb to 64gb range ssd?
 
After moving to SSDs on my home rigs, I recently tried one of my Patriot Warp V2s in my work laptop and found it lacking. Too many lags while writing.

So last week I got me a Vertex 60 gig drive for about $200 bux, and I am very happy with it.

SLC drives are still very expensive. So unless money is no object......

Don
 
SLC vs. MLC is becoming a non-issue. Most consumer grade is MLC and that is where everything is heading.
 
well i read..cant remember where...but as of now one of them slc or mlc has a better life in terms of how many times it can write/read expectancy . dont know if its true or not
 
SLC has 10x the theoretical lifespan, so I went for a Samsung SLC SSD and ended up loving it :D. Unfortunately most drives are shifting to MLC which is possibly able to fail within 2 years of heavy use per testing (no one knows for sure yet as it's theoretical so far mostly), and slows down as it's filled up. Even just one 64GB SLC is amazing though :D!
 
Jon55 said:
MLC is faster anyway though right (albeit more expensive)?
Click to expand...

That's the other way around. SLC is more expensive, faster and usually has smaller HD sizes. MLC is less expensive for larger HD sizes.

If you can afford the SLC I would go for it, especially a nice one from Intel.
 
UnknownSouljer said:
That's the other way around. SLC is more expensive, faster and usually has smaller HD sizes. MLC is less expensive for larger HD sizes.

If you can afford the SLC I would go for it, especially a nice one from Intel.
Click to expand...

so slc better projected life?
 
Blue Fox said:
Yes, their lifespan is considerably longer than MLC.
Click to expand...

Another thing to note is that SSD failure is different than magnetic hd failure. When a SSD drive uses up all of its ability to write, the SSD is still readable. So at least you'll be able to recover all of your data from the harddrive. Of course 'end of life' for a magnetic disk drive is 100% failure, not readable, recoverable, etc.
 
antok86 said:
so slc better projected life?
Click to expand...

In theory, SLC has 10 X the life in it than SLC. In practice, almost all MLC drives will be functionally obsolete long before they get used up. So, unless you are running a busy database server, you will be fine. If you are contemplating a large drive, like 256 gig, then I would consider SLC as that will be a viable drive for a longer amount of time.

Don
 
I think anandtech had an article about how even though MLCs get slower over time, they are still way faster than a standard HDD. This only applies to the goos ones however, like the intel.
 
Why is JMicron such a big player still? You'd think someone else would come along and try for the market share in SSD controllers.
 
I'm running the Intel X25 64GB SLC (as an OS drive)...it is a massive improvement over my 150GB raptors.
 
Jon55 said:
Why is JMicron such a big player still? You'd think someone else would come along and try for the market share in SSD controllers.
Click to expand...

Apparently it is quite expensive to develop an SSD controller chip, and Jmicron was the first to step up to the plate for third party builders. Intel built their own controller, that was much better, but they were a bit late to the party. IndilinX is a new player that appears to be kicking Jmicrons ass all over the place. It just amazes me that Jmicron is not able to fix their problems with a firmware upgrade. OCZ is the first major player to use IndilinX, but more should follow soon.

Don
 
My understanding through research online is that when a SSD drive fills up the problem then becomes that it starts writing over previous data to store anything new. I've recently been curious about going SSD but I think that I'll wait a few years until my next build. I'd imagine by then that a couple kinks will be worked out by then and prices/storage options will be better.
 
Parker said:
My understanding through research online is that when a SSD drive fills up the problem then becomes that it starts writing over previous data to store anything new. I've recently been curious about going SSD but I think that I'll wait a few years until my next build. I'd imagine by then that a couple kinks will be worked out by then and prices/storage options will be better.
Click to expand...

To elaborate for the OP: conventional hard drives don't suffer a significant performance drop when writing data to locations that already have data. Because of this, your operating system doesn't bother telling your drives when data has been deleted because it assumes it will just be overwritten eventually. Flash, on the other hand, takes longer to write data to page that has old data on it. For the most part, this issue isn't bad enough to make SSDs inferior to hard drives, but it does cause a discrepency when benchmarking a "freshly formatted" SSD compared to benchmarking a used SSD.

Eventually, Windows 7 will support the 'TRIM' command, which will tell your SSD which pages are no longer holding important data. Your SSD can then erase those pages in its spare time, which should let the SSD perform "like new" when it needs to write some data.

SSDs will have to suppor the TRIM command too, and so far only the OCZ Vertex support planned in a future firmware update. Other manufacturers will surely follow.

With respect to MLC and SLC... it's important to note that even though SLC is faster at the cell level, the availability and affordability of MLC makes it easier to have highly-parallel drives make up for that. write endurance is a non-issue for most of the flash market, so MLC will continue to expand its dominance. I doubt you'll see many consumer SLC drives in the future.
 
I love the 32g super talent SLC I got for my netbook. BUT I got it for ~113 shipped, about the same as my vertexes cost.
 
http://3btech.net/sost322sumap.html I paid the extra 3.99 for UPS ground shipping.

Benchmark wise it was pretty much as advertised for sequential read/writes. 4k write was pretty low, not sure why - didn't jack with it to much. That was on a zotac 630i itx board. In the netbook it runs super cool/quiet and boots Windows 7 in < 15 seconds.
 
Last edited:
G.skill uses the jm602 controller (aka - trash), the vertex doesn't. *shrug*
 
drgnfang said:
http://3btech.net/sost322sumap.html I paid the extra 3.99 for UPS ground shipping.

Benchmark wise it was pretty much as advertised for sequential read/writes. 4k write was pretty low, not sure why - didn't jack with it to much. That was on a zotac 630i itx board. In the netbook it runs super cool/quiet and boots Windows 7 in < 15 seconds.
Click to expand...

what netbook are you using..never heard of this site
 
Asus EEE 1000h. I'd never heard of them either - but couldn't pass up the price.
 
drgnfang said:
Asus EEE 1000h. I'd never heard of them either - but couldn't pass up the price.
Click to expand...

i have heard of the brand supertalent just not that site...thats a cheap SLC unless theres something im missing...any stuttering on your netbook when writing/reading
 
None what so ever. Install was fast, boots fast, usage is fast :)

Like I said the crystal mark 4k were pretty low, but I'm not sure if that was because of the chipset on the motherboard or not (it was still better than the HDD I had on the other sata port). So far I've been very pleased, but I've had it for less than a week.

Here are my benches:
atto_01.jpg

crystal_01.jpg
 
drgnfang did you update the firmware? i noticed they dont have that model with any updates
 
I didn't, the performance was good enough for me that I wasn't gonna jack with it. There are no release notes saying what was updated/improved/etc...
 
how is the super talent brand in general? customer service?
drgnfang did you get an increase in battery life?
 
Some what... but it should be noted that I've let the battery do a full drain by accident which kills Li Ion batteries. I get about 4.5 hours under Windows 7 with WiFi on, bluetooth and camera disabled in bios.

I actually haven't used any other super talent products, so I can't say how good they are in general.
 
drgnfang said:
http://3btech.net/sost322sumap.html I paid the extra 3.99 for UPS ground shipping.

Benchmark wise it was pretty much as advertised for sequential read/writes. 4k write was pretty low, not sure why - didn't jack with it to much. That was on a zotac 630i itx board. In the netbook it runs super cool/quiet and boots Windows 7 in < 15 seconds.
Click to expand...

Hah that site incorrectly lists the drive as MLC, but I looked up the model and it is SLC. That's pretty cheap if they ship you the same drive :)

Could you post IOmeter results for that drive, please?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top