Developers do a lot of 4KB operations. Source files tend to be small as do database updates.
The current market leader in this is the OCZ Vertex 3, a considerably faster drive than the Intel 510. Indeed intel's X25-M is better at 4KB operations than the new drive.
The 510 is a disappointment, get an OCZ Vertex instead, its cheaper and faster for the sorts of operations that matter. See anandtech for more details:
Avoid OCZ. I had a Vertex 2 SSD fail after about two weeks. What's really a big gotcha is that it fails 100% immediately; there are no warning signs as there often are with a hard disk.
I looked into it: I believe that there's actually an assertion that got hit in the OCZ firmware, and then it goes into a lock-down mode. However, there's no way for an end-user to exit this mode and recover any data (it simply won't respond to SATA commands), nor are OCZ willing to unlock it for you.
Sure, just sharing my personal experience. The pathological failure behaviour due to a software bug is not something I'd previously considered when choosing a drive.
It's a very common problem with certain levels of firmware. Fortunately, OCZ has been very good for replacing bricked drives for us, almost no questions asked, so yes, keep backups.
Drives fail. SSDs are no exception. That doesn't mean it doesn't drive me crazy when they do, however. :-)
This is not specific to SSDs. Drives fail. Usually very early (infant death) or very late, google for 'bathtub curve'.
Spreading FUD about a specific vendor isn't fair unless you can back it up with data. The failure rate that is commonly cited for sandforce drives is around 2% - regardless of vendor. If you have different data then I'm curious to read about it.
I think there's a bigger problem here - this isn't just normal bathub-curve component failure. What seems to be happening is that the firmware panics due to an assertion being hit, and what could be a hiccup that requires a reboot becomes a total data loss event.
"gamble" suggested above that this is related to power-saving modes. That fits with our different experiences (laptop vs server). Think about how you would feel if you rebooted your server, it went through a different power mode as part of shutdown, and when it came back all eight of your presumably nicely RAIDed drives were dead. Of course a lightning strike could do the same thing, but you have a surge protector that guards against that. How are you protecting against your SSD's firmware? That's my real concern.
As to whether it's SandForce or OCZ, I'm just going to go Intel next time. You're free to go with OCZ or a non-battery-backed ramdisk - it's all the same to me :-)
this isn't just normal bathub-curve component failure
What part of "unless you can back it up with data" didn't you understand?
How are you protecting against your SSD's firmware?
Just like against any other hardware fault: By having backups and redundancy. Bugs happen. You're making it sound as if this was somehow specific to OCZ - which remains bullshit until you provide data beyond anecdotical evidence.
And FWIW I'm neither affiliated with OCZ, nor emotionally tied to the brand. We also run X-25s in production, my Mac Mini has an X-25 and my Macbook has an OCZ.
Straight from the horse's mouth, here's OCZ's patch log for v129, which describes a fix for a software-induced data-loss issue:
"Fixed rare corner case that could cause the drive to reset and clear user data"
http://www.ocztechnology.com/files/ssd_tools/OCZ_SSD_v129_Fi...
That was less than a month ago. Maybe this was the last bug; I'd guess not. I'm sure all the SSD vendors have firmware bugs, but my personal choice is not to go with OCZ in future. As you point out, it seems likely that other Sandforce vendors will share similar issues, so my understanding is that basically leaves Intel (?)
In future, before aggressively going on the attack, I think you should consider the possibility that you may not be as correct as you believe everyone else to be wrong. Let's keep things civilized around here.
In future, before aggressively going on the attack, I think you should consider the possibility that you may not be as correct as you believe everyone else to be wrong. Let's keep things civilized around here.
I don't see where I went "aggressive". On the contrary I consider it agressive to spread FUD about a vendor based solely on anecdotical evidence.
I'm sure all the SSD vendors have firmware bugs, but my personal choice is not to go with OCZ in future.
Exactly. All vendors hit these bugs from time to time. That's why you should refrain from writing posts "Avoid $FOO" when all you have to contribute is a single datapoint.
"I had bad luck with OCZ" would have been more appropriate.
My strategy from now on is to to mirror the SSD to a traditional HDD. That way, in the case of a SSD failure, we can accept the performance hit and still be able to run smoothly from the platter.
Check out Facebook's FlashCache: they use SSDs as a cache on to traditional HDDs. You can have a read-cache to keep 'hot' data fast, and (if you want to) you can have a write cache that will buffer writes on SSD before flushing to HDD.
I don't know whether it's ready for general (non-Facebook) use yet, but it is definitely one to watch.
My only concern with OCZ SSDs are initial quality. Just look Newegg's reviews, there a whole bunch of people who received DOA units or they fail after a month.
I've had two OCZ ssds (granted, they were early models) that worked for a combined total of 2 weeks. My intel ones, though, have been solid. I keep looking at OCZ, thinking that they're a pretty good price for the performance, but not wanting to go down that rathole again.
"Intel’s SSD 510 costs more and it can serve up better sequential numbers than Vertex 3. However, it’s actually slower than its predecessor in situations where you’re working with lots of small files. The applications where this 250 GB drive makes sense are fairly clear cut. But again, it looks like you’d get a better all-around experience from OCZ’s Vertex 3 when it becomes available." [1]
"My biggest complaints about the 510 actually aren't about Intel's use of a 3rd party controller, instead they are about the drive's lackluster random read performance. In a horrible bout of irony Intel fixed its sequential performance and moved backwards in the random department. Random read performance, as it turns out, has a pretty major impact in the real world.
Random write performance is also pretty low by today's standards, however the impact on most of our real world performance tests is minimal. It looks like we may have hit the upper limit of what we need from 4KB random write performance (at least given current workloads)." [2]
The reliability problems with the Vertex 2 make me wary of anything from OCZ. There are many, many reports of OCZ drives failing within a few days of use, some within minutes of booting up. Plus there are well-documented problems with power-saving modes.
Frankly, SSD failure rates from most manufacturers are so high it should be a scandal. Intel is the only company I'm remotely comfortable buying an SSD from right now.
I thouht 510 is Intel's temporary solution for high-end, needed because the delays with newer X-25 (G3); and the true X-25 successor will be the new X-25 whenever that comes out. Now where will the new X-25 fit in this picture?
I just got the X25 less than a week ago. Now that I've seen the testing on this 510 and the Vertex 3, I'm debating returning the X25 and going for one of these models.
I can preorder the 510 from Amazon for 295, still looking for someone selling the Vertex 3.
It's Fast? It seems barely keep up with previous generations Vertex 2 in real-world tests (PCMark), and new Vertex 3 and other SandForces are even faster, and cheaper.
I really wonder why Intel released a drive that's both more expensive and slower than competition. Of course they have strong brand, as X-25 were really successful.
The current market leader in this is the OCZ Vertex 3, a considerably faster drive than the Intel 510. Indeed intel's X25-M is better at 4KB operations than the new drive.
The 510 is a disappointment, get an OCZ Vertex instead, its cheaper and faster for the sorts of operations that matter. See anandtech for more details:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4202/the-intel-ssd-510-review