SSD in Windows 7 is MEH - Opinion

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tangoseal

[H]F Junkie
Joined
Dec 18, 2010
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This is just an opinion and I would like some feedback if any is to be given.

I have recently purchased a Corsair Force 3 60GB to try out. It is aligned and everything is good with the drive.

I have windows 7 installed on the drive. I also have it plugged into my native SATA II port. I tried native Intel ICH Sata III port and everynight when I wake up and move my mouse my SSD is locked up and my system needs to be reset. NO SLEEP is allowed.

Anyways since windows 7 superfetches and I have 16GB of RAM and no swap file running anywhere I really cant see what the whole big deal of running an SSD in Windows 7 is?

My system hauls ass once windows is running. Sure the SSD boots windows faster but since I am running a Raid 6 and 0 mixed array on my Adaptec 6805 controller it takes time to load the card during bootup.

Firefox and IE open just as fast, start menu items appear just as fast. Only difference I can tell is boot time after my raid card initializes.

Anyone else feel the same? With windows 7 superfetch and a lot of ram that an SSD just isnt as quick as they are hyped to be?

And honestly on a desktop PC is there even enough IO request going on that you need to have 40K iops. Not to mention my SSD in any form or fashion on any port rarely hits 5500 iops.

Or am I just suffereing from too small of an SSD to really feel the benefit of gaming etc... from a bigger i.e. 240GB?
 
My Crucial C300 128GB absolutely flies. Night and day difference from my 6400AAKS Western Digital drive it replaced as a system disk.

Have you tried flashing the firmware on the SSD and getting the newest drivers for your SATA controller?
 
Anyone else feel the same?
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As in dissatisfied with my SSDs......absolutely not. :D

It's a bummer you don't enjoy it but if it doesn't fit with your desktop experience, it just doesn't work for you at this time.

I'm not gonna talk you into trying anything different than selling the drive and going back to your usual set-up.

Sorry it didn't work out for ya but at least you didn't spend a lot on the experiment! :)

Good Luck!
 
Old Hippie said:
As in dissatisfied with my SSDs......absolutely not. :D

It's a bummer you don't enjoy it but if it doesn't fit with your desktop experience, it just doesn't work for you at this time.

I'm not gonna talk you into trying anything different than selling the drive and going back to your usual set-up.

Sorry it didn't work out for ya but at least you didn't spend a lot on the experiment! :)

Good Luck!
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I appreciate it. Also considering that this is the 7th time in row my system has locked up due to the SSD. Im over it. And there is no firmware available for this pos.
 
Try a different SSD or send it back if you can't put your comp to sleep, something is seriously wrong.

I've used my Agility 60GB SSD in my netbook for over a year now, put it to sleep for days on end and it works great. Your Corsair should be far better than my Agility, very surprising.

Also, if you aren't doing any read/write intensive operations and are just loading a single program at a time or just Windows, you probably won't notice anything great.

Where a SSD shines is under video editing and rendering, database and program compiling, loading multiple apps/files simultaneously, and MMORPGs.

For video editing a SSD is a must. Even a RAID0 HDD array will hold back render time due to not having enough write speed.

What do you do on your system?
 
send back the force 3 series for a refund. buy a force gt for $10 more. it is magnitudes better.

Crystal-Comparison1.png


the force 3 series is a cheater drive. it can only do its numbers on data that is 100% compressible. the force gt can do decent rates on data that isn't 100% compressible. the force 3 can't.

corsair force new drives are optimized for two things: writes and 4k qd 1. they top the charts for qd1, but have really bad qd32. guess what though, you'll never bring your OS into qd32. if you do you are working with more data than I can ever imagine for an OS.
 
Also considering that this is the 7th time in row my system has locked up due to the SSD.
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Seems many SSDs don't like sleep/hibernation/whatever.

I've never used any of those functions and have always set my drives to "Never Sleep".

I have no interest if you use an SSD or not and you being a [H]ard|Gawd have the capability to research if you think there's a problem. :)
 
Old Hippie said:
I have no interest if you use an SSD or not and you being a [H]ard|Gawd have the capability to research if you think there's a problem. :)
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QFT

I have to agree. Tangoseal, I suggest you do some research on SSDs before making threads like this. It's not a bad thread, just one that hasn't been fully thought out.

Also, the 60GB models tends not to be as fast as the higher memory SSD variants. The more memory capacity in the SSD, the faster it tends to be, especially with MLC.
 
A lot of the new Sandforce drives seem to be buggy. That's why I went with Intel 320 series... only for it to turn out to be buggy as well. Though, fortunately, I haven't encountered the bug in that. SSDs are THE BIGGEST upgrade an average user can do for any reasonably recent PC. I'd rather have a Core 2 Duo + SSD than a Core i7 2600k + HDD (if we disregard the possibility of upgrading the 2600k system to have an SSD)
 
SSDs are THE BIGGEST upgrade an average user can do for any reasonably recent PC.
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I have no doubt that 98% of enthusiasts would agree that's it's a no brainer.

BUT there's always gonna be some that can't quantify the purchase based upon their expectations.

Since it's impossible to anticipate what an individual expects there's no way to anticipate that they will be satisfied with the product.

Some will NEVER be satisfied and that's OK!

Many years ago I gave up trying to talk people into what I think is the best idea and it's come down to my life's philosophy.....I just don't care and it just doesn't matter unless it involves me or my family on a personal basis. :)

I have no problem giving advice but I'm not gonna try to talk anybody into anything.
 
Thinkapd T61+kinstonssd+linux 2.6.38-8 kernel: Sleep works great.
eeepc+xp+160GB x25-mg2: works great
Q8200 on G31+80GB+xp x25-mg2: works great.
lenovo s10-2+linux 2.6.38-8 kernel +crucial 64GB-m4: works great.

I blame the ssd for your bad experience, esp with sleep.
 
There are some tasks and use profiles that SSDs really help with, and there are others that an SSD doesn't do much for. If all you do is stuff that an SSD isn't great for, then you won't see much of a benefit. So it's really an individual experience.
 
You guys always quickly assume.

This is my second SSD in 3 years. Yup first one was OCZ Revo, it sucked, now this one sucks.

I am not running any sleep. I do not sleep my PC. I never said I did and I never will. But surfing freaking the internet and my whole computer suddenly locks up. This doesnt happen with hard drives. This doesnt happen with my raid card. This doesnt happen on my laptop, or my other 2 desktop.

Thanks.

oh and I DO NOT SLEEP MY PC.
 
It doesn't happen with our SSDs, either. It didn't happen with my OCZ Vertex. It didn't happen with my OCZ Vertex LE. And it doesn't happen with my Intel 320.
 
dandragonrage said:
It doesn't happen with our SSDs, either. It didn't happen with my OCZ Vertex. It didn't happen with my OCZ Vertex LE. And it doesn't happen with my Intel 320.
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ANd you know that the tens of thousands of other H users out there work fine.

Could it somehow be my overclock? I have also turned off every ounce of power management, even registry settings.

I would flash the SSD with the latest firmware except there is none. Im on the phone with Corsair but they will probably be useless.
 
We assume because you don't provide enough information. How else would we know?

Give us more info if you don't want assumptions.

Why would an OCZ Revo suck? It's the PCI-E model that is very high-end as far as I can tell. Why do you say that it sucks?

Something might be up with your system if you are having all of these issues.
Have you tried the SSDs in different systems or in another configuration?
 
Just found this thread of yours: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1037525212#post1037525212

In it, you state:
I said earlier in this post that this is is my first SSD that I have kept for longer than one day.
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From this I am taking that the OCZ Revo was only used for less than a day?

Why would you state that it sucks when you used it for less than one day? That makes zero sense.
If you obtained a faulty model, it happens. But a DOA or faulty model does not mean the SSD sucks.

tangoseal, you really need to elaborate what your experiences are and what you have done with your system and these SSDs so we better understand your point of view and potentially what the problem may be.
 
Red Falcon said:
Just found this thread of yours: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1037525212#post1037525212

In it, you state:


From this I am taking that the OCZ Revo was only used for less than a day?

Why would you state that it sucks when you used it for less than one day? That makes zero sense.
If you obtained a faulty model, it happens. But a DOA or faulty model does not mean the SSD sucks.

tangoseal, you really need to elaborate what your experiences are and what you have done with your system and these SSDs so we better understand your point of view and potentially what the problem may be.
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LOL..... I meant to say first SSD from Corsair. Not period. This is my second period.

Anyways I got off the phone with Corsair. They said the drive is bad, Replace it or RMA it.
Here is what I did:

I install SSD.
I install Win 7 fresh.
I enable Trim.
I use Intel SATA III controller built in motherboard.
I install Intel RST 10. whatever
My computer locks up randomly.
I look for firmware updates nothing.
I disable completely all power management.
Computer locks up randomly.
I call corsair, describe the problem, they make me do some test, they say BAD DRIVE replace it.
I guess I over expected to much from this SSD and it was bad so I will re-evaluate my opinion and update this thread with more meat and potato.\

I did try this in my 2500K yesterday and it locked 3 times atleast before I said screw it.

I also did own the Revo drive for 21 days before I was so sick of it I couldn't take it anymore. I tried 2 of those, so technically I had 3 SSDs, After 10 days I took it back and got a replacement, same problem. I will agree it was first generation type stuff back then.

This SSD gave the same issues as the Revo so I immediately assumed that all SSD are crap. Sorry. My bad.

edit: I went back and re-read my original thread. Wow it did suck. My bad.
 
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gjs278 said:
send back the force 3 series for a refund. buy a force gt for $10 more. it is magnitudes better.

Crystal-Comparison1.png


the force 3 series is a cheater drive. it can only do its numbers on data that is 100% compressible. the force gt can do decent rates on data that isn't 100% compressible. the force 3 can't.

corsair force new drives are optimized for two things: writes and 4k qd 1. they top the charts for qd1, but have really bad qd32. guess what though, you'll never bring your OS into qd32. if you do you are working with more data than I can ever imagine for an OS.
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Will do.
 
Perhaps the Intel RST is causing the problem. There may just be an issue with it and Corsair SSDs of that model/chipset.

Also, you don't need to enable TRIM on Win7, it should automatically do it for you.

Yeah, the drive was definitely faulty, I think we all agreed on that since it was not giving you normal operations.

As for the OCZ Revo, that's just bad luck. I know having multiple SSDs fail in succession like that will definitely give you bad impression. They aren't all bad though.

If the next model you get does the exact same thing, there may be a problem with your CPU OC like you mentioned earlier. It could very well be causing voltage stability issues in your PSU unknowingly. If that is the case, the SSD may not be able to handle it properly, thus why you are seeing the issues. This is just speculation though.

Once you get the new SSD, let us know and we'll help you make sure everything is going ok or if there is anything abnormal with your results.
 
I just got the 120gb. I would get the gt. If I can get this to.work out. I made sure to get one that had a post corsair recall serial no. According to the serial this model should have no problems.
 
We're behind you, just keep us updated with what's happening. It could just be a driver bug with the SATA controller that was originally causing the issue. Just speculation, but we will see.
 
If you booting of the intel controller why do you have to wait for the Adaptec to post during boot? Did you disable it's BIOS on boot and/or it's PCI-e slot?
 
lovemyram4x4 said:
If you booting of the intel controller why do you have to wait for the Adaptec to post during boot? Did you disable it's BIOS on boot and/or it's PCI-e slot?
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Because the raid card will not work if it doesnt load its bios into the nvram area.

Anytime you use a hardware PCI or PCI-E raid card you must lets its bios load.

Not to mention this is a $780 NAND flash cached enterprise card I use. It is a really stupid fast raid card for running my drives on. I get 1GB/sec (big B) in raid 0 benches on this 4 disk array.

Anyway I have solved the problem for tonight. I raised my PCH voltage just a tidbit and have been running this 120 on SATA III port. It seems to be running okay for now but only time will tell. Also the Drive is now hitting 23K/33K iops in various test where my faulty 60GB was maxing at 4-5K IOPS.

If this SSD works out, Im going to get a 240GB Corsair Force 3 GT and use it in my sig rig below. I will use this 120 in my 2500K system hooked to my plasma TV.

And now that this SSD appears to be functioning properly it is really really really much faster at loading windows and just mousing around than the bad SSD was. Now I can see and feel a difference.
 
That's odd my 51645 and 5445 both work fine if disable there BIOS or the ROM for their PCI-e slot or both as did any other brand(mainly LSI) I've used.
 
lovemyram4x4 said:
That's odd my 51645 and 5445 both work fine if disable there BIOS or the ROM for their PCI-e slot or both as did any other brand(mainly LSI) I've used.
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Really. Well I havent tried with this 6805. I will try and see what happens. To my understanding the arrays will not work in windows if the cards bios is not loaded.

Ahh its worth a shot. Im not really worried about a 4 sec boot time since I never ever shut my system off unless im doing maintenance/upgrades/or mandatory rebooting.
 
Forceman said:
There are some tasks and use profiles that SSDs really help with, and there are others that an SSD doesn't do much for. If all you do is stuff that an SSD isn't great for, then you won't see much of a benefit. So it's really an individual experience.
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My thoughts... my systems are on 24/7, most items are in super fetch, so an SSD would be awsome, but i know that i would not get the %100 experience others may...
 
OMG this SSD is fast now. I load wow in like 2 secs lol .... windows is hauling ass, I can still benchmark 350MB/sec while playing games. I copied 30GB to the SSD in like 1 min 10 secs or someting stupid from my Raid 0 array.

The only thing I notice is that the IOPS (which are important to me as a measure of overall data flow to and from the drive) drop a little each time as you fill up the drive.

Other than that this is a total night and day over that crapass faulty defective 60GB I got and returned today for this 120 Force 3. And good lord hard drives are slow when loading stuff. Raid arrays are still badass once you get a LARGE data transfer moving but random access is terribly slow and I totally notice it now.

I guess I just had really bad luck with SSD in the past and this is a total refresher.
 
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