New range of Samsung SSD's available with extreme performance!

[GIBBO]

Hi there


We now have the entire range of new Samsung SSD drives available with 256GB models in stock and other sizes due soon:-


Samsung PB22-J 64GB 2.5" SATA-II MLC Solid State Hard Drive

http://images.novatech.co.uk/ev-sam-ssd641.jpg

Samsung's Solid State Drive (SSD) is an advanced NAND flash-based solution for traditional storage, leveraging the company's longtime leadership in memory technology. This next-generation solution offers several advantages over rotating magnetic media such as significantly lower power consumption, remarkable ruggedness, high reliability, less weight and outstanding performance.

The SSD system is currently selling as an alternative high-end storage device for notebooks by many major PC manufacturers. The SSD's weight is less than that of a conventional hard drive, thus further increasing easy system portability. The device also uses significantly less power. This gives users more battery life.

Samsung's Solid State Drive performance is greater than traditional storage. In addition, random search times are the faster on the SSD, which is not subject to fragmentation and maintains its performance over time.

As a non-volatile storage device, the SSD has no moving parts such as the motor, disks and heads of a hard drive. Thus it eliminates spin-up time, seek time and rotational latency while delivering sustained high-speed data transfers. The SSD's lack of moving parts makes it noise-free and its ultra-low power consumption virtually eliminates heat emissions.

The SSD is also highly rugged, standing up to shock and vibration. These performance features make it well suited to a broad range of users. These include "road warrior" business professionals, as well as those in demanding military and industrial areas. Samsung designed the SSD's footprint to be interchangeable with a hard disk drive. Furthermore, because the SSD is form-factor agnostic, the flash components can be arranged to meet virtually any size or shape configurations.

Features
- Read Speed of 220MB/s
- Write Speed of 120MB/s
- Onboard 128MB Cache
- Samsung Controller


Price: £124.99 +VAT (£143.74 Inc. VAT)


BUY NOW! (http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?SAM-SSD64#)














Samsung PB22-J 128GB 2.5" SATA-II MLC Solid State Hard Drive

http://images.novatech.co.uk/ev-sam-ssd12e1.jpg

Samsung's Solid State Drive (SSD) is an advanced NAND flash-based solution for traditional storage, leveraging the company's longtime leadership in memory technology. This next-generation solution offers several advantages over rotating magnetic media such as significantly lower power consumption, remarkable ruggedness, high reliability, less weight and outstanding performance.

The SSD system is currently selling as an alternative high-end storage device for notebooks by many major PC manufacturers. The SSD's weight is less than that of a conventional hard drive, thus further increasing easy system portability. The device also uses significantly less power. This gives users more battery life.

Samsung's Solid State Drive performance is greater than traditional storage. In addition, random search times are the faster on the SSD, which is not subject to fragmentation and maintains its performance over time.

As a non-volatile storage device, the SSD has no moving parts such as the motor, disks and heads of a hard drive. Thus it eliminates spin-up time, seek time and rotational latency while delivering sustained high-speed data transfers. The SSD's lack of moving parts makes it noise-free and its ultra-low power consumption virtually eliminates heat emissions.

The SSD is also highly rugged, standing up to shock and vibration. These performance features make it well suited to a broad range of users. These include "road warrior" business professionals, as well as those in demanding military and industrial areas. Samsung designed the SSD's footprint to be interchangeable with a hard disk drive. Furthermore, because the SSD is form-factor agnostic, the flash components can be arranged to meet virtually any size or shape configurations.

Features
- Read Speed of 220MB/s
- Write Speed of 200MB/s
- Onboard 128MB Cache
- Samsung Controller


Price: £229.99 +VAT (£264.49 Inc. VAT)


BUY NOW! (http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?SAM-SSD12E#)














Samsung PB22-J 256GB 2.5" SATA-II MLC Solid State Hard Drive

http://images.novatech.co.uk/ev-sam-ssd2561.jpg

Samsung's Solid State Drive (SSD) is an advanced NAND flash-based solution for traditional storage, leveraging the company's longtime leadership in memory technology. This next-generation solution offers several advantages over rotating magnetic media such as significantly lower power consumption, remarkable ruggedness, high reliability, less weight and outstanding performance.

The SSD system is currently selling as an alternative high-end storage device for notebooks by many major PC manufacturers. The SSD's weight is less than that of a conventional hard drive, thus further increasing easy system portability. The device also uses significantly less power. This gives users more battery life.

Samsung's Solid State Drive performance is greater than traditional storage. In addition, random search times are the faster on the SSD, which is not subject to fragmentation and maintains its performance over time.

As a non-volatile storage device, the SSD has no moving parts such as the motor, disks and heads of a hard drive. Thus it eliminates spin-up time, seek time and rotational latency while delivering sustained high-speed data transfers. The SSD's lack of moving parts makes it noise-free and its ultra-low power consumption virtually eliminates heat emissions.

The SSD is also highly rugged, standing up to shock and vibration. These performance features make it well suited to a broad range of users. These include "road warrior" business professionals, as well as those in demanding military and industrial areas. Samsung designed the SSD's footprint to be interchangeable with a hard disk drive. Furthermore, because the SSD is form-factor agnostic, the flash components can be arranged to meet virtually any size or shape configurations.

Features
- Read Speed of 220MB/s
- Write Speed of 200MB/s
- Onboard 128MB Cache
- Samsung Controller


Price: £479.99 +VAT (£551.99 Inc. VAT)


BUY NOW! (http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?SAM-SSD256#)

[thesis]

Any idea when they will be available? I ordered a couple but got a delivery date around the end of the month.

[Surfinite]

Why in the email advertising these SSDs did you use an acronym and write Hard Drive?

Solid State Drive Hard Drive
does not make sense

[RawZ]

How do these compare VS OCZ's offering of the Vertex Series?

[riboflavin]

read and writes are right up there, great value here. im tempted to get a 128 just to compare to my 120 vertex

[thesis]

read and writes are right up there, great value here. im tempted to get a 128 just to compare to my 120 vertex

Can you post an ATTO benchmark for the Vertex?

[riboflavin]

Here you go...

http://forum.novatech.co.uk/attachment.php?attachmentid=403&stc=1&d=1239968162

[Andrew Moore]

Just a quick update there GIBBO, the 64gb drive has reads of 220mbs and write of 120mbs making it more appealing and better to sell ;)

Heres a link to a PDF from samsung showing all the date for those that are interested.

http://www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconductor/products/flash/ssd/2008/down/PB22-J.pdf

Andy

[thesis]

And the samsung
http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/4948/samsung128gbver2atto.jpg

[RawZ]

So the Samsung is better than the Vertex?:confused:

[riboflavin]

So the Samsung is better than the Vertex?:confused:

The Vertex beats the Samsung hands down on reads, and the writes are basically even. However, the Samsung is still good value because of the lower price point...

As an SSD enthuiast I would choose the Vertex because of the improvements OCZ has made to their firmware. Also, the fact that the Vertex drive supports the TRIM command means that you are protected against performance drops as SSD drives write speeds can degrade over time without this TRIM function (something explained in a separate SSD thread).

I am very excited to see another MLC drive out that can keep pace, however, and the introduction of 128MB of cache versus the 64MB of the Vertex might be one of the reasons the writes are so good with the Samsung. I'd like to see Samsung publish a TRIM tool or at least announce that their firmwares can be flashed for future updates when it's ready.

[RawZ]

The Vertex beats the Samsung hands down on reads, and the writes are basically even. However, the Samsung is still good value because of the lower price point...

As an SSD enthuiast I would choose the Vertex because of the improvements OCZ has made to their firmware. Also, the fact that the Vertex drive supports the TRIM command means that you are protected against performance drops as SSD drives write speeds can degrade over time without this TRIM function (something explained in a separate SSD thread).

I am very excited to see another MLC drive out that can keep pace, however, and the introduction of 128MB of cache versus the 64MB of the Vertex might be one of the reasons the writes are so good with the Samsung. I'd like to see Samsung publish a TRIM tool or at least announce that their firmwares can be flashed for future updates when it's ready.

I was thinking the cache on the Samsung might have an influce over the OCZ - but thanks for clarifing :) +REP

[PMM]

I'm not convinced about vertex, seeing so many I have this & that issue and obviously serious performance drops.

Also I thought OCZ due to issues amended the write algorithms to improve performance at the cost of bandwidth with the newer firmware ?

I could be talking rubbish though... I would have to re-check.

However when I see Samsung Benchies they seem to have a smoother more constant pattern in there drive performance where others seem top be very erm... /\/\/\ instead of ------

The New sammys also from a review I had seen have 128Meg cache as opposed to 64 on OCZs.

There is nothing to stop sammy supporting Trim - details are sketchy but that option may exist.

[riboflavin]

the TRIM spec technically isn't finalised, so I'd be surprised if they had bothered with it. What concerns me is that they are not involved with consumers at the level OCZ is...so the notion that they may support it in the future gives me little optimism...since the alternative would be to produce yet another drive that supports it thus forcing consumers to buy another drive rather than upgrade a current one for free. The fact that OCZ is offering a post purchase update makes me warm and fuzzy inside and trust that I will be future proofed.

OCZ firmware updates are a direct response to the enthusiast community asking for different types of emphasis on the different performance points. The major points of interest with an SSD (capacity aside) is IOPS, read and write speeds...and the biggie...random write speeds. The original firmware for the Vertex lacked proper balance in the eyes 'many'...this has since been sussed.

I'd like to see how the drive holds up in a non synthetic benchmark scenario...where multiple reads and writes are occurring...can the drive still keep pace the way the Vertex has been tuned to? If someone can run the IOMeter bench on the Samsung this would get us to the bottom of this real fast...

Send me one and I'll be happy to!!

I should also mention that while there is little performance variance in the Vertex line from the 30 to the 256GB drives...the Samsung drives appear to be dramatically slower when it comes to write speeds on the smaller capacity drives. Although this *sortof* happens with the Vertex as well, it is not nearly as big a gap as the Samsung drives.

Net-Net...buy the Samsung 128 GB drive and you will **** your pants how fast your Windows PC just got (and if you don't mind tinkering try the 120GB Vertex instead for a few quid more). Looking for ~60 GB only? Get the Vertex over the Samsung everytime.

[thesis]

And here are the IOPS!

HDTune Pro writes Samsung 128GB. Interested to see how the Vertex performs in this bench (I think even with the latest firmware the Vertex is much slower - check the latencies)

Following are the numbers from Anands recent review
Random Write (4KB Block, 3 IOs) IOPS Transfer Rate Average Latency (ms)
Intel X25-M 5923 23.1 MB/s 0.51 ms
OCZ Vertex 1275 1656 6.47 MB/s 1.81 ms
OCZ Vertex 0112 617 2.41 MB/s 4.86 ms

http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/1518/samsung128gbver2s.jpg

[riboflavin]

And here are the IOPS!

HDTune Pro writes Samsung 128GB. Interested to see how the Vertex performs in this bench (I think even with the latest firmware the Vertex is much slower - check the latencies)



This does not appear to be the case by any stretch. I am even using the Vertex as the OS drive while doing this bench (so already it has some load on it).

Vertex 120GB, 1.10 firmware aka 1395

http://forum.novatech.co.uk/attachment.php?attachmentid=413&stc=1&d=1240051434

[PMM]

Its a JP site so just observe the pics ;)

http://blog.nabe.jp/archives/000180.html

but this appears to show how it stacks up....
http://blog.nabe.jp/archives/PB22J-14.jpg

[thesis]

This does not appear to be the case by any stretch. I am even using the Vertex as the OS drive while doing this bench (so already it has some load on it).

Vertex 120GB, 1.10 firmware aka 1395

http://forum.novatech.co.uk/attachment.php?attachmentid=413&stc=1&d=1240051434

Wrong bench. You are showing reads, not writes.

[riboflavin]

Can't run write test, the Vertex is an OS drive that already has a formatted partition.

I would look to the OCZ forum users for a comparison benchmark. Also, I would prefer to see IOMeter results since the community of SSD users I socialize with are more keen on it over IOMeter.

[explicit4u]

aren't the corsair drives the exact same, just re-branded?

[riboflavin]

the 2 major components in an SSD drive is the memory chips and a controller. many of the drives share common controllers, but 'self source' the nand flash chips from different memory makers. samsung makes their own controller, so if they are selling it off to other SSD oems...then there you go.

[Dokko]

Really wish i can afford one of these. :(

[Penfold_90]

Have ordered the 64GB one - it's the last piece outstanding on my new build which as it's intended to hold the OS is a bit of a pain - are Novatech still expecting to ship at the end of this week?

[karateo]

I wouldn't buy it unless a reliable review comes on the surface.
The random writes of this ssd look very low according to a blog posted before.

[nate]

does the speed increase justify their price?

[Penfold_90]

Seems to get a pretty good write up at RegHardware - http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2009/03/17/review_storage_ssd_samsung_mmd0e56g5/ although it's specifically the 256GB version they're testing which has a faster write rate but either way it doesnt look too shabby. In terms of the costs I think it's largely related to the cost of the chips used which are expensive to produce. In my opinion I'm just looking for it to largely improve the boot time which to me will hopefully justify the cost.

[Solari]

I'm so tempted to get an SSD but I'm quite nervous about being such an early adopter. What is this TRIM stuff all about?

[teknokid]

I'm so tempted to get an SSD but I'm quite nervous about being such an early adopter. What is this TRIM stuff all about?

Id like to know that too.. although its a bit late since I've already got an SSD :S

[Penfold_90]

From what I can tell, TRIM is related to pages actually being deleted on the SSD itself (ie the disk 'knowing' that the pages are deleted rather than the entire block) rather than the OS just making the space available. Did some checking around t'internet when I was looking at getting the Samsung SSD but imo it's not entirely obvious - just taken away that (a) drives that have / support TRIM are better.. and (b) it seems that it's a matter of a firmware upgrade to get TRIM on a number of drives.

There are people who probably understand this whole thing a lot better than me who will hopefully read / correct....

[riboflavin]

are these in stock? the original thread said they were gonna be here the 1st of May, but they still show 'due'. i'd like to know if it will ship or not same day should i decide place an order for one. (look at at least one of the 128GB ones).

[Penfold_90]

Sort of wondering the same... Actually have one on order but it's still showing as Backorder - Awaiting Stock and the site shows 108 (64GB) due today which is the same as it showed yesterday. Wondering when it's actually going to get dispatched....

[riboflavin]

This stock confusion has happened before with another SSD drive (Vertex)...ultimately it was 4 weeks till the drives showed up and the date on the site kept moving around during this time. This was very frustrating for me as I was quite eager to get some. That said, I don't think that is the case with these drives since this was mostly related to OCZ supply not NT. I would appreciate more accurate stock information...no sense in ordering an SSD that might not ship for weeks (at which point other drives might be available at better prices).

[Penfold_90]

Hmmm.... seem to have gone back a week - stock now seems to be expected on 8th May. Hope what riboflavin suspects doesn't come true - really don't want to wait 4 weeks for this to arrive!!

[Dano]

For those wanting to know about the TRIM command and why it's needed this is a very good article about SSD's and their inherent issues:

http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3531

It's a long read but well worth it.

[riboflavin]

Hmmm.... seem to have gone back a week - stock now seems to be expected on 8th May. Hope what riboflavin suspects doesn't come true - really don't want to wait 4 weeks for this to arrive!!

Penfold,

If it's not too late and you can stretch your budget...I really suggest you get a 128GB version over the 64. The write performance is much better on the 128 - far better value for money.

[Penfold_90]

Yeah - was sort of considering that myself after re-reading the sammy document that was posted earlier saying the 64 was 120MB/s whereas the 128 and 256 were 200MB/s just seeing if i can stretch to the extra £120!! Shame it wont make it actually arrive any sooner.....

[explicit4u]

As much as i would love an SSD i just dont agree with the prices, i know there silly fast but right now its just not worth it IMHO. Also SATA 6Gb/s is coming this year or Q1 2010 and by then SSD's should be faster, cheaper and more reliable.

Good to see that normal hard drives are getting the boot, they've been slowing down computers for years.

[riboflavin]

says due today still...showing no stock. very frustrating.

[henz]

Last time I bought something which was "Due Today" I was told that that was the ETA and then had to wait a couple of weeks. Was worth it in the end though :)

[explicit4u]

says due today still...showing no stock. very frustrating.

Been like that for a couple of days now :confused:

[riboflavin]

It now says the 128 GB drives are due the 25th...This is a far cry from the original date of the 1st!

To miss a quoted stock date by the 20+ days is unacceptable. Having worked in supply chain for many years I understand how things can change, however, it is incumbent on procurement and product buyers to to work better with your vendors and suppliers to get a reasonable date. It's part of the job. If it's not possible to get firm dates, then don't bother putting them on there as it is only going to frustrate serious buyers.

Instead of these fantasy dates that mean nothing, I suggest you eliminate unconfirmed anticipated in-stock dates and instead give customers an option to be notified when a specific product is in stock. Information is only worthwhile when it is accurate and directed to the right people.

[PMM]

My belief was they got sourced direct from Samsung going by previous threads/posts

So If they said a date and no longer can honour that date all Nova can do is adjust accordingly.

[Nox]

It now says the 128 GB drives are due the 25th...This is a far cry from the original date of the 1st!

To miss a quoted stock date by the 20+ days is unacceptable. Having worked in supply chain for many years I understand how things can change, however, it is incumbent on procurement and product buyers to to work better with your vendors and suppliers to get a reasonable date. It's part of the job. If it's not possible to get firm dates, then don't bother putting them on there as it is only going to frustrate serious buyers.


I completely agree, but you're posting on the wrong forums, you should be contacting the people meant to be sending them to Novatech when they said they would :p

Maybe 'due' sould be changed to 'expected' but its pretty much the same thing.

Nox

[riboflavin]

You are certainly entitled to your view on the matter, and I get how the relationships can work between reseller and OEM. However, I disagree with the sentiment that NT aren't culpable for inaccurate dates posted on their site. Bottom line: Their site, their dates, their responsibility. Plenty of procurement and supply chain companies manage to get accurate dates from vendors - Novatech isn't going to get a pass on this (not from me anyway).

That said, I'm sure I'll continue to buy from NT as there are many other reasons they have won my business. However, I'll be also looking for this type of unsatisfactory behaviour to be addressed.

Ultimately, a lost customer was an underserved customer.

[thesis]

I agree.
As for who we should be contacting, we would be contacting the people meant to be sending them to Novatech if we indented to buy the disks from them and not Novatech.

[Nox]

I would rather have a 'probably' date than none at all.

And yes, I am going to get one of those too... or an X1 :D

Nox

[riboflavin]

There is a suggestion thread in another section of the forums. I have twice asked for better arrival dates and an option to be notified via e-mail/sms when an item is in stock. Either of these would help me out as a buyer of all things nerdy. For example, my wife wants the new Logitech g35 headphones...and rather than me waiting for a notification I am checking NT's website regularly for stock updates. I'd rather just get an e-mail notifying me of when they arrive as there is a sense of frustration that sets in after about the 10th time I check the page only to see no change.

[Penfold_90]

At least the 128GB drives have a date - the 64GB ones are merely showing as "Overdue" - well, duh... accurate but unhelpful, maybe they've been taking lessons from Microsoft!!

[Penfold_90]

Oh great - knew I shouldn't have said anything - 64GB now due 30th May! That's nearly a month late.....

[GIBBO]

Hi there

They are coming from Samsung direct!

The last supplied ETA they could not meet and even though they have given a re-vised date for the drives we are confident at all in their ability to meet this date and as such we have moved our dates to end of the month to stop causing any further upset.

Yes they may arrive sooner but at the moment were not taking any more chances.

Unfortunately Samsung are very bad when it comes to product dates, these SSD's are an example as are 120Hz monitors and their TV's.

They are very sucessful with great products and always struggle to meet worldwide demand on hot new products hence these silly long delays and date put backs.

[tomcom2k]

The real scary question is how many people have ordered one of these drives? 35 due on 25 may...

if there are 150 orders does that mean i'll have to wait until christmas?

[Apeman]

You could go for the Corsair 128GB 2.5" SATA-II MLC Solid State Hard Drive (http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?CSR-SSD128) at £178.24 which, apparently (http://www.legitreviews.com/article/949/2/), is a re-badged Samsung PB22-J. This is only £35 more than the 64gb Samsung, and £80 cheaper than the 128Gb Samsung!

[GIBBO]

You could go for the Corsair 128GB 2.5" SATA-II MLC Solid State Hard Drive (http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?CSR-SSD128) at £178.24 which, apparently (http://www.legitreviews.com/article/949/2/), is a re-badged Samsung PB22-J. This is only £35 more than the 64gb Samsung, and £80 cheaper than the 128Gb Samsung!

Hi there

No its not a re-badged Samsung PB22-J it a re-badged rev1 one Samsung MLC Drive. Still very fast but not as quick as the newer rev2 PB22-J drive.

[Apeman]

Hi there

No its not a re-badged Samsung PB22-J it a re-badged rev1 one Samsung MLC Drive. Still very fast but not as quick as the newer rev2 PB22-J drive.

My bad :hail:

[thesis]

Hi there

No its not a re-badged Samsung PB22-J it a re-badged rev1 one Samsung MLC Drive. Still very fast but not as quick as the newer rev2 PB22-J drive.


The PB22-J re-badged one is a different model.

[PMM]

The PB22-J re-badged one is a different model.

that's what Gibbo has said!!


No its not a re-badged Samsung PB22-J it a re-badged rev1 one Samsung MLC Drive



The PB22-J is the Corsair P series drive the Rev1 is the S series drive.

[coursemyhorse]

All very exciting these SSDs, but I can't help but think it's worth waiting a month or two. I know you can always say that with computer hardware, but these SSDs are so early in their life cycle at the moment that it seems manufacturers are just trying to whack a few out there to get an initial headstart in the market, without producing as best they can with overly high prices. I guess what I'm saying is, I think this will be one of the best example of "early adopters lose out" in terms of both functionality and cost, as this is probably the most significant thing in computing performance increases in the last decade and is likely to advance and improve so very quickly and end up replacing magnetic drives eventually anyway.

[riboflavin]

The current generation are pretty good, actually. Price per GB has already come down to reasonable levels given the performance gap they have now introduced. If you are willing to rethink how you store data (SSD for OS and Apps and cheap 'slow' platter based drive for storage) you can really get the best of both worlds. The Intel 25-M80GB is down to ~215GBP, the OCZ Vertex 120 is down to under 300 (250 at one point) and now these Samsungs...

Given the 2x multiplier for cost per GB of a fast HDD - I'd say there isn't a single component upgrade that gives you more bang for your buck.

Short version: I disagree with you.

[thesis]

The Intel 25-M80GB is down to ~215GBP, t.

Where is that?

[riboflavin]

eBay, there are 2 - 3 sellers letting them go for 200 - 250 in auction and buy it now.

i lost one auction by a few quid for 216

[Dokko]

Are we expecting and decent price drops on these soon?

Would like to pick up a 256gb for about £250 at some point in the future, are we talking years for that to happen?

[Josama Bin Eating]

Well the 250GB drives are £400+ at the moment, so give it at least 1 whole year, maybe 2 to reach that price.

[Nox]

Are we expecting and decent price drops on these soon?

Would like to pick up a 256gb for about £250 at some point in the future, are we talking years for that to happen?

i'd like to pick p a 256GB for £1 :D

I think you'll be waiting a year or so for that kind of price drop, if not a bit longer, they have dropped loads in the past 6+ months. It will be governed by memory prices too.

Nox

[coursemyhorse]

Well the 250GB drives are £400+ at the moment, so give it at least 1 whole year, maybe 2 to reach that price.

I personally think we will see them hit about that price before 2010. Just my opinion tho. Nobody really knows.

[wuyanxu]

not until i can get 128GB SSD at 200MB/s read or higher at £150 or lower price, i think it's better to hold off SSD for now. after all, new tech drops price fastest.

(unless you've bought the 64GB Samsung for £100 Novatech deal)

[tundra]

i think im going to try and hold off for now, maybe when the pci-e ssd are more available these will drop down in price

[Penfold_90]

Ok - it's getting near the time these are now due in.... what are the chances???

[GIBBO]

Ok - it's getting near the time these are now due in.... what are the chances???

Hi there

In all honesty looking pretty slim, Samsung seem to be avoiding phone calls / emails regarding these now. Next step is myself and KPKP bashing some heads together as its becoming a joke now. :(

On an alternative note we have some G.Skill Falcon drives arriving which perform on par with these Samsungs at a similar cost so go check those out as we have small amount of 64GB's in today with 128GB and 256GB due to arrive Monday. :)

[karateo]

@GIBBO

I recommend you start adding in the description of the products the controller they use.
I think there are only 3-4 different types right now, Like:
jmicron, jmicron@raid0, indlix barefoot, samsung 1st gen, samsung 2nd gen and intel controller!

It will make it very easy for the customers to compare products :)

[coursemyhorse]

I personally would like to see Novatech not stock any inferior SSDs using the jmicron controller at all. I'm only interested in the good stuff.

[GIBBO]

I personally would like to see Novatech not stock any inferior SSDs using the jmicron controller at all. I'm only interested in the good stuff.

Hi there

Were pretty much there at the moment, we don't stock the OCZ Solid drives for this reason, we only order them to request. As I personally feel they are slow drives not worth the money.

[MattU]

I'm interested in one of these, is there any more news on the ETA?

[mouldeeves]

I'm thinking of getting the 64gb SSD. I was also looking at the SSD with the slightly slower speed currently on offer with a read speed of 90mb/s. Is it worth the extra £50 for the increased speed?

[Penfold_90]

I'm thinking of getting the 64gb SSD. I was also looking at the SSD with the slightly slower speed currently on offer with a read speed of 90mb/s. Is it worth the extra £50 for the increased speed?

I'd have thought that was a decision for you! Is the extra speed worth 50 of your pounds? Personally - I think so but if you're planning on RAID or something the costs multiply etc etc so that might also sway you one way or the other.

I had an order in for quite some time for one of these (since the original thread went up and they appeared) but after the delays went for the G.Skill one - slightly quicker and slightly more expensive but in my opinion worth the extra to actually physically have one

[stevemilw]

If your only buying the drive for its reliability, then the cheaper 90mb/s is fine, but if your buying it because you think it will be faster, then properly not.
My Samsung f1 is around 100mb/s read time and its got about 15x the space at half the price. Sure the access time might be slightly lower, but is it worth it?
If your buying it for better performance, yes the extra £50 will do that for you, but with that extra £50 you could have also bought another 1TB drive. I personally would wait until the prices come down.

[adamp999]

I recently bought one of the 64GB Samsungs from novatech after seeing the 220/120mb specs, but I'm not seeing anywhere near the figures from the First set of HD Tune benchmarks (see attached)

What's wrong with it??

[TheMadDutchDude]

Run the benchmark rather than random access. Report back :)

[PMM]

Results will be lower and or inconstant when used as a boot drive
tips...don't ever use defrag
turn off any drive caching programs (there not needed).

[thesis]

Have been waiting for mine for two weeks now. Hope the finaly have them today.

[adamp999]

All the results I get are around 110mb/s for reads on HD Tune and HD Tach.

I've disabled write cache and a few other things I found to do online (page file, hibernation, defrag and indexing)



Please see attached...

[CraigN]

Looks like you have one of the cheaper slower samsung drives there from those results.

[adamp999]

It shouldn't be!

I believe this to be the right part number...

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?SAM-SSD64

[PMM]

what sort of controller .. onboard / plugin / other system specs / os

check to make sure its not being throttled to Sata1 speeds instead of Sata2

[adamp999]

Sorry I should have included this perviously!

It's in a laptop, Lenovo T61p as the Primary disk.

Disk Controller is an ICH8M/ICH8M-E
OS is Windows 7 x64 with 4GB RAM
CPU is a T7800 2.6

Hows does one check to make sure it's not being throttled to SATA1?

[PMM]

if you open up your intel matrix storage manager app

navigate to a drive on a port - you will get some information
in that will be a 'Current Serial ATA Transfer Mode' and it will quote either .. 'Generation 1' or 'Generation2'.

[adamp999]

Generation 1, it seems!

Is there anything I can do about that?

[adamp999]

I think I must answer my own question!

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?p=488474#p488474

Nevermind, it is considerably faster than the other drive!

[PMM]

maybe.... gets complex from here.

1st - And easiest is check the Bios setup for the drive & make sure the drive is set to AHCI instead of ATA. there maybe other option in the bios but it depends on the manufacturer if there they included extra options but route around for anything related to setting DMA transfer speed.

2nd - May require a Bios update - check on your manufacturers website to see if there have been any updates any if anything in the change log mentions supporting Sata 2 mode - and follow the instructions to the letter for flashing if you decide to go that route rather than put up with it.

3rd - Would involve some low level tinkering with an app called baredit, and forcing a setting in bios then setting this app to run on boot up (( that maybe out of my scope to advise due to not knowing bios )).

[PMM]

quick google....

scroll to post #44

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=4882948

[adamp999]

haha yes, beat you to it....shame it means nothing to me!

[xpress]

How do these compare the the vertex's and intel's x25m?

[Pixulated]

Oo I don't know which one to buy!

[shinho]

Still way too expensive these SSD's

Will most likely wait until next year to get one myself

[xpress]

Still way too expensive these SSD's

Will most likely wait until next year to get one myself

Theres a few cheap ones floating around on a certain auction site..ive managed to get some good deals on there:thumbs: