Intel X25-V 2.5" 40GB SATA II MLC SSD - $106 shipped - TODAY ONLY!

[AkG]

Raid'ing Intel SSDs is a royal PITA becuase their Idle Time Garbage Collection is so mild. They really do need TRIM to stay fast. On the otherhand they are still very fast when they do get into a degraded mode, but with other options out there the question becomes: why bother?

Basically you need either break the array every so often and run a manual trim (via the ssd toolbox) or fill all the empty cells with 1's. Couple ways to do the latter, like FreeSpaceCleaner w/FF. The former option....you need to break the array (yank one, run the array in degraded state, run the toolbox, shutdown, reinstall one ssd, yank the other, reboot,etc etc)

Intel took the time and resources to update their driver because enough people were running a M (for example) as their workstation OS drive and had a large array for their data (for example) that were complaining to make it worth Intel's time. I don't think Intel really cares too much about the enthusiast home user...we are just to small a niche for Intel to notice. Intel has gotten into SSD for the corporate environment and the SOHO niche is just a bonus to them. This IS changing as they did release the V...but only after Kingston proved their was a viable market for it! Hell these guys are great deal at 105 BUT that was the price Kingston (with their added overhead compared to the mfg'er) was selling them at so Intel IS still making a great ROI on them.

[attonbitusira]

How did I miss this....

[ilya]

Don't worry if you missed it, it seems retailers are taking turns putting the Intel SSDs on sale.
Intel X25-V Value 34nm 2.5in SATA II Solid State Drive, 40GB at Memory Express Computers

[Hunt]

Hmm, very tempted to head to a Memory Express now to pick one up.

[Patramix]

that's cool, but i might just wait an extra week or 2 and pick up a single bigger drive. but 99$ is perty cheap :)

[dragoonxx]

OOS at online store

[Musabi]

Originally Posted by AkG

Raid'ing Intel SSDs is a royal PITA becuase their Idle Time Garbage Collection is so mild. They really do need TRIM to stay fast. On the otherhand they are still very fast when they do get into a degraded mode, but with other options out there the question becomes: why bother?

Basically you need either break the array every so often and run a manual trim (via the ssd toolbox) or fill all the empty cells with 1's. Couple ways to do the latter, like FreeSpaceCleaner w/FF. The former option....you need to break the array (yank one, run the array in degraded state, run the toolbox, shutdown, reinstall one ssd, yank the other, reboot,etc etc

I just got linked here from another thread because I was also misinformed about TRIM being supported in RAID. For your latter way of yanking one and running the toolbox, if you put the raid array back together would it still work?
And how often should you do this?

[AkG]

It should work. Depends on what you are using for an array controller. BUT it has been a LOONG time since I ran fakeraid/software raid. So others would be more knowledgeable then me.

What should happen is when you yank a drive and reboot the controller wont find the other drive, think it is dead and run the array in degraded mode. When you reinstall the drive, you will have to point it to the "new" SSD for it to rebuild the array. This may take a lil while as it will clone all the data from one to the other. When it is FINISHED, yank the other drive and rinse and repeat. Worst case scenario is you have to break the array and start from scratch....twice. Once after the first is cleaned and a second time for the second one. Not all that difficult and with Raid 0....no risk.

How often depends on how full the drive is. Basically when you start noticing it losing its "pep" its past time to do it. Take note of how long that took....and subtract a couple days from that number. At the minimum Id do it every couple months. More is BETTER, but it comes down to performance loss vs hassle factor.

Compare and contrast this to running FreeSpaceCleaner w/ FF option which is run inside windows, doesnt take all that long AND is not that much harder on the cells. Running it every week will not reduce the life expectancy all that much. For example say you use an avg of 9 cell writes per week. Add in one for FreeSpaceCleaner and you have 10 used. Since you get on avg 10,000 writes....this means it would take 1000 weeks for the drive to die. ;)

[Empty_Quarter]

Recieved my SSD today.

Very pleased with it, pleased with SSD, packaging, and loved the fact intel included a 3.5" adapter.

Pleased with performance, and most of all? I am soooo pleased with the silence.

After dealing with loud raptors for years now, it will take a while to get used to ... well.. a silent machine.

Happy with newegg's service, they've been flawless on their end.

[kk22]

Looks like MemoryExpress is still the best deal. There are 3 online now.

Found another relatively low price for Vancouverites who don't want to wait for shipping. $105.78 with $4.99 pick-up fee (yeah, it doesn't make sense to me either):
Buy Intel [SSDSA2MP040G2R5] Intel X25-V 40GB 2.5IN SATA2 SSD Solid State Disk Flash Drive Retail Box

I wonder if retailers know something we don't, perhaps the new Intel SSDs are coming?