The Official PC building thread - 4th Edition

Sam,

Are you talking about the full screen logo? Look in the Advanced BIOS Features, near the end, and turn it off!

Russ

 

SSDs or atleast my G2 went for 2 years, atleast with no formats and still performed great, and I suspect I am a bit rougher on mine then most as I have showed no remorse for read/writes. Anything other then bittorent or major ftp originally goes to my ssds and they have held up great. Maybe it was just the controller, but I think people are a bit paranoid on the ssd front in terms of wear and tear.

I am curious though about your choice on the 330/520. Was the size a respective to the models or in general and what has changed between the G2s, besides the controller, and the 330/520 respectively? I am in the market for about 120/180GB as well.

I am debating on going RAID or not as a SATA3 SSD compares to 2xSATA 2 SSDs.

 

No Russ, I'm talking about the splash screen when installing windows, that has no cursor.
This:

http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/3697/backgroundcli.jpg

Only about 5 minutes later do you finally get this:

http://ourcoffeestops.com/yaosiang/images/windows7/windows7_1_large.jpg

 

the windows 7/vista delay i never had on my DFI mobo, but all the ASUS boards i have had have had it.

interesting list sam, esp with ASrock being top for failure rates consdiering asus are their parent company.

 

Sandforce is a good controller, I don't think it is a negative that Intel has switched over. For me Size/Price is most important as I've have bought brands that some say are bad and they work perfectly, without flaw! I haven't used OCZ which seem to be considered the worst but I will and I'm sure they will work fine too.

So if you like Intel go with them and the new controller.

As Intel's second SandForce-based drive line-up, the SSD 330s are positioned underneath the SSD 520s as inexpensive performance-oriented alternatives offering SATA 6Gb/s-class performance more affordably. The SSD 330 series is only available at three capacity points: 60, 120, and 180 GB.

The following table allows you to contrast the specifications of Intel's SSD 520 and 330 families, both of which employ second-gen SandForce controllers.

Code:

Intel SSD 330 / 520
Compressible Performance                (60 GB)            (120 GB)           (180 GB)
========================            ===============     ===============    ===============
4 KB Random Read (IOPS)             12,000 / 15,000     22,500 / 25,000    42,000 / 50,000
4 KB Random Write (IOPS)            20,500 / 23,000     33,000 / 40,000    52,000 / 60,000
128 KB Sequential Read (MB/s)          500 / 550           500 / 550          500 / 550
128 KB Sequential Write (MB/s)         400 / 475           450 / 500          450 / 520

The SSD 330s certainly doesn't appear to be hobbled at all, despite Intel's apparent value focus. Because they occupy a space one tier below the SSD 520s, these 330s go heads-up against mainstream SSDs like OCZ's Agility 3 and other drives that combine asynchronous flash with SandForce's tech.

 

But not Asus themselves you notice... work that one out

 

i know. trying to wrap my head arounf that one. quite perplexing.

well, i am building 2 new builds today for frinds, one with a lowish end z77 asus board, one with a mid to high end. will let you know how it goes.

but i guess i have okayish luck with asus. esp with my mobo. i shall stick to them till i know otherwise.

 

Even though the one I bought from you lasted a matter of months

 

Thanks for posting those images Sam. I meant to do that

 

Mr-Movies,

I tried a little experiment. I played swap the two Sata III SSDs. Even thought the performance numbers are very similar, the Intel is much faster in the real world. As near as I can figure, it's about 20% faster than the Patriot, not in terms of numbers, but in terms of executing the work! Any time I can save 5 minutes off of a 25 minute encode, just by installing a higher quality and faster SSD drive, I've accomplished something worthwhile! A 20% gain is amazing with such a small time line to start with! It's running at 3.8GHz, and runs as smooth as glass!

I have a problem with my computer set up, and I can't figure out what is causing it. I have the Sata drives set to AHCI mode, but it gives me a message that Windows has detected a Raid array. I didn't install any raid array! Any suggestions?

Best Regards,
Russ

 

Where's the message? I'm not familiar with 'Windows has detected a RAID array' even when there genuinely is one!

 

That is normal my setup reports the same thing and it is because you are using the RAID controller for your AHCI mode, Windows isn't smart enough to know that you are only using AHCI. Don't worry about that message even though I too find it very annoying.

As to numbers, that is why I always go by tried and true performance and don't get too wrapped up in statistics. I do use statistics and like them so don't get me wrong but you need the big picture in the end and statistics can be lied about and miss-used, on purpose!

Don't fret all is well,
Stevo

 

Sounds about right Steve. I had a similar instance once upon a time.

 

Mr-Movies, thanks for the feedback. So from what I gather Intel has changed controllers, but the nand has remained the same? The Intel SSD 330 / 520 spreadsheet shows some nice differences in numbers, As yourself and theonejrs numbers like this are nice but I will have to check out some real world benchmarks. My main concern was simply in which brand to confide in since the SSD market has changed and grown substantially since I picked up my G2s(was running 2 in RAID0 until the hdd case slipped out of my hand one night and the plastic around the sata port broke off with no easy way to fix it that I can see-ideas welcome).

 

shaff,

My first experience with Asrock was in early 2004. My landlord's computer caught fire, and luckily I was home. I walked in the room, just as the drapes lit up! It was an exciting few minutes! LOL!! Anyway, the motherboard he bought was from Asrock, and was a cut above the basic 2 memory slots, socket AM II, DDR2, $39 boards, many are known for selling. Turned it on one morning, and it went "PoP!" I took it over to Asrock (about 45 minutes away), and they exchanged it for a new board. In short, 3 new boards and none lasted the 1 year warranty. The 3 combined didn't last 14 months! I've never had much interest in Asrock since!

Best Regards,
Russ

 

Stevo,

It won't let me set up the drive properly using trim, it just repeats the error message but won't let you do anything. Can I re-install the correct driver, or is it a one time only windows install deal?

Best Regards,
Russ

 

Russ, I'm certain that the drapes on fire instant you told me was an AOpen PSU, not an ASRock motherboard.

 

You can uninstall the original driver (fully delete) however once you have a bad driver that Windows likes it is hard to get rid of it and even though you delete the old they don't always go away, you got to love MS in their cardinal knowledge. There are ways to fully purge it from the system but it can get a bit tricky/tasking to do so and is typically easier just to re-install Windows unfortunately.

I'd give it a go and see if it works to remove the old driver and update to a new one. Don't reboot until you have the new driver installed first, that seems to work better for me in the past. Good luck I hope all goes well!

Stevo

 

Russ, it sounds like Sam has heard about those drapes on fire. So I'm waiting to hear, was it the PSU, or the Asrock board? LOL

Hey guys, all of you who discussed this caviar black drive about 6 days ago (sorry for the lag) used the word "enterprise" but I can't find anything indicating the drive is an enterprise drive. I found a caviar blue over at the egg for about $69, but with less cache, at 16MB not 64BM - but still not an enterprise drive.

Enterprise drives, to the best of my memory, support the spindle on both sides rather than just on the bottom, are capable of running at higher temps (up to 50, versus up to 40) have about 1/10th the non recoverable error rate, usually have more platter alignment sensors, are built to higher standards, are supposed to last longer in 24/7 operation, etc. per all my research 18 months ago building a triple raid mirror photo server for my animator buddy, Miles, for his family pictures and videos. I bought two 1TB Enterprise drives that I used in a Raid 1 mirror Cavalry E-Sata external enclosure, for maximum peace of mind, cross my fingers.)

So, again, why do you guys think that Russ bought Enterprise drives?

Like others have said, nice work on that hardware failure chart, Sam. That chart has gone straight to PaperPort for future possible review. (So you're saying that AfterDawn helped you get your current job, and your current boss - way to go!!)

Rich

 

I'm curious about the 3Tb Red drive myself! But it needs to come down at least $30!