SSD Experiences?

[George L. Schmauch Jr.]

I’m in the market for an SSD, but I’m extremely concerned about their reliability.  This one will be used in my server under a virtual environment, but I don’t think that’s much of an issue for any hard drive.  Ideally, I want a 120GB drive using synchronous NAND.

My issue is that I’m still seeing people with lots of complaints about SSDs.  I had a bad experience with a Patriot Torqx I needed to RMA twice, over the course of a year, fighting blue screens and random reboots the whole time.  I’m reading similar issues with OCZ’s Vertex 3 drives.  I also know that Intel had some serious FW issues which caused data loss not all that long ago.

So, does anyone have an SSD which has been working for at least 6 months without any issues at all?

[Mike Garcen]

Pretty sure the Intel FW issues were fixed right away (and also from what I heard they were such an isolated issue but blown out of proportion). I preface saying that because I’ve used G1 and G2 SSD’s from Intel for over 2 years now, non-stop in both laptop and HTPC environments, and I’ve never had a single issue.

And the speed is AH-mazing 🙂

[mikinho]

The Intel issue was only with the Intel 320.  I still recommend Intel over any other brand.  If your primary concern is stability you could go for an Enterprise SSD SLC drive but they are ridiculously expensive.

I’ve had several Intel X25-M running 24/7 for years w/o issue.  I’ve had a 1st generation Samsung SSD running for ~4 years as well w/o issue though I don’t recommend it.  I take most horror stories w/ a grain a salt.

[Aaron Ledger]

In my brief experience with SSDs, I’ve been using the following: 120 GB G.Skill Phoenix Pro (in service 10 months), 120 GB Vertex 2 (in service 5 months) and 96GB Kingston V+100 (in service 4 months). The first two use SandForce controllers while the latter uses a Toshiba. The only issue I had was with the Vertex 2 drive. I had to RMA it twice before I had one that worked well in the target system. While OCZ was very good about accepting and sending replacements, return shipping was on my dime.

[skirge01]

When my Torqx was working, it was very fast, which is why I’ve wanted one for my server for a very long time.  Primary concern is stability, followed shortly after by speed, but, I can’t justify the cost of an enterprise level SSD.  It sounds like these SSDs take up to a year to get the FW stable.  Since I like the Vertex 3’s speed, maybe I should wait until March 2012 to buy one, since that’s about a year after its release?  The fact that I’m actually saying that makes me sad.

[babgvant]

FWIW I’m really happy with my Intel 510.  It’s not as fast as the Sandforce 3 drives, but it has been really stable and reliable.  I’ve had some issues with a couple Corsair (Sandforce 2) drives in the past so I’m hesitant to buy more of those, but I did just pick up a Agility 3 to play with so I can let you know where that ends up in a few months.

[Aaron Ledger]

Why deprive yourself of what you really want for a year? Just keep a good image around and you’ll be prepared. You can also go with a more proven option. It’s not like the 2nd gen SSDs are slow by any stretch.

[skirge01]

For a few reasons:

1.  It’s only 6 months, not a year.  😉
2.  I want SATA3.
3.  The price of these should drop nicely in 6 months.
4.  I’ve waited this long.  What’s another 6 months?

Since I’m moving away from WHS and will be using a new backup solution, I’m not as confident about recovery as I currently am with the HTPC.  Not to threadjack my own post, but, now that I’m thinking about it, how exactly do you back up a VM?  Do you simply run backup software inside each guest OS?

[mikinho]

Depends on your Hypervisor product.   Do you know what you’ll be using?  Windows backup can do guest backups for Hyper-V andor you can take snapshots.

[Techbutton]

[quote=skirge01]

So, does anyone have an SSD which has been working for at least 6 months without any issues at all?

[/quote]

I have a Kingston in my Media Center host and that has been running for over a year and I havent touched it.. that machine is on 24/7 and 3 different Xbox connect to it and use it all the time… It has been installed since May 2010…

[Techbutton]

[quote=skirge01]

Not to threadjack my own post, but, now that I’m thinking about it, how exactly do you back up a VM?  Do you simply run backup software inside each guest OS?

[/quote]

I didn’t quote this part but I have a SATA3 SSD..I have seen a few blue screens but I did a firmware update and no issues since…

Snapshot is a decent backup, the Virtual file can also be backed up.. What program are you using for you VM?

[PAPutzback]

Exact same setup at my house. Although my Kingston drive is for the O.S. and apps only. I have a 250GB HDD for recording TV that dumps the recordings to my WHS 2011.

I also run another Kingston in another PC and then in my gaming box I have two Vertexes running in Raid 0. I’ve never had a problem with any of them. 

[PAPutzback]

Why run backup software. Just shut the virtual machine down and copy the VHD, VDI or whatever off to a spare drive. 

[skirge01]

[quote=mikinho]

Depends on your Hypervisor product.   Do you know what you’ll be using?  Windows backup can do guest backups for Hyper-V andor you can take snapshots.

[/quote]

I haven’t decided yet.  However, based on what I’ve previously read (months ago), Hyper-V has issues with USB devices such as the HD-PVR.  I can certainly do some thorough testing, since I’ll be using a second HDD with a fresh install and can swap back to the stable WHS drive when I’m done “playing” (as the wife calls it).

[skirge01]

[quote=PAPutzback]

Why run backup software. Just shut the virtual machine down and copy the VHD, VDI or whatever off to a spare drive. 

[/quote]

Because that requires manual intervention.  I like automation with error emails.

@everyone:  I really appreciate all the feedback so far.  You’re definitely giving me some good data and it’s great to hear success stories about SSDs.  It does still seem to be that the folks who are having little or no issues are using drives which are about a generation behind.

[Author]

Posts