MyDigitalSSD BP4 2.5" & mSATA (240GB) Review
by Kristian Vättö on April 3, 2013 11:13 AM ESTPerformance Over Time & TRIM
Our new performance consistency tests give a pretty good indication of performance over time but HD Tach is still a good method for checking TRIM functionality. As usual, I took a secure erased 2.5" BP4 and ran it through HD Tach to get the baseline performance.
Next I filled the drive with sequential data and tortured with 4KB random writes (QD=32, 100% LBA space) for 60 minutes and reran HD Tach.
Performance drops to as low as 20MB/s for the earliest LBAs, which is similar to what the steady state performance looked like in our IO consistency test. Over time, performance gets better as the drive defragments itself and after about 150GB of sequential writes, peak performance gets over 300MB/s. Again, the behavior we're seeing here is related to what we saw in IO consistency tests: there are short peaks and then the drive goes back to do garbage collection.
To test TRIM, I secure erased the drive, filled it and tortured again for 60 minutes to make sure that it's fully fragmented. Then I TRIM'ed all the LBAs:
And TRIM works. Write speed is actually higher than after a secure erase but if we look at IOmeter scores, ~350MB/s is what the BP4 gets. Sometimes drives perform weirdly right after a secure erase. Especially if you're erasing a highly fragmented drive, it may take some minutes for the drive to complete the request, even though it shows up as secure erased.
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watersb - Wednesday, April 3, 2013 - link
Excellent. I shall purchase the 512GB!Death666Angel - Wednesday, April 3, 2013 - link
Well, the availability in Europe seems crappy (only one UK shop 35% higher priced than the Samsung 840). I don't understand why the mSATA version is so under performing either. All-in-all, not something I would buy.MyDigitalSSD - Thursday, April 4, 2013 - link
mSATA uses 4 channels (can only fit 4 chips on board) on an 8 channel controller while the 2.5" uses all 8 channels. You will never notice a difference in daily use.Oxford Guy - Thursday, April 4, 2013 - link
"The Samsung SSD 840 has really been the only budget drive without any serious drawbacks."HardOCP's review of the 120 GB TLC drive found that its read speed plummeted because of testing, indicating that the low lifespan of the TLC NAND can be a problem. That is in addition to not very impressive write speed.
MyDigitalSSD - Thursday, April 4, 2013 - link
Good point. We only use the best Toshiba MLC toggle (synch) flash. Our BP4 performance over time will not deteriorate at all. This drive is a great alternative to Samsung for sure.pcrusan - Thursday, April 4, 2013 - link
Where is the 240GB BP4 at $160? I find it at $180 and $200.MyDigitalSSD - Thursday, April 4, 2013 - link
Low stock is causing the temporary pricing fluctuations. There is a serious flash shortage right now.MyDigitalSSD - Thursday, April 4, 2013 - link
They are in stock at MyDigitalDiscount.com at 159.99!AKFlyerFan - Friday, April 5, 2013 - link
I just ordered one of the last two reported in stock there, so we'll see how good they are when it comes in and I get it up and running..pcrusan - Tuesday, April 9, 2013 - link
Now $179.99.