over to x25-m

I bought an Intel X-25M SSD drive for my laptop in early June. I got the 80GB version, and this was to replace a Hitachi 7K200-160 – a 160GB 7200rpm drive. Note that the X25-M is generation 1; Intel has since released an updated, cheaper version of the drive that is slightly faster and uses a little less power. The Intel SSD drives generally blow the competition out of the water in real world applications because they have extraordinary random write performance. SSDs are typically marketed with their theoretical maximum sequential write performance, which – barring a few very specific use cases – is far less important than random write performance for your average desktop or server.

The difference in performance between the old mechanical drive and this SSD is *spectacular*. The machine feels 100 times faster. In other words, you want one of these for your desktop/laptop

As for servers – I can’t wait until these things become big enough/cheap enough to replace mechanical drives there, too…

Here are some bonnie++ results:

Hitachi 7K200-160:

$ bonnie++ 
Writing with putc()...done
Writing intelligently...done
Rewriting...done
Reading with getc()...done
Reading intelligently...done
start 'em...done...done...done...
Create files in sequential order...done.
Stat files in sequential order...done.
Delete files in sequential order...done.
Create files in random order...done.
Stat files in random order...done.
Delete files in random order...done.
Version 1.03c       ------Sequential Output------ --Sequential Input- --Random-
                    -Per Chr- --Block-- -Rewrite- -Per Chr- --Block-- --Seeks--
Machine        Size K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP  /sec %CP
countzero        4G 14755  55 15887  20 13568  13 18775  58 31430  11  72.4   0
                    ------Sequential Create------ --------Random Create--------
                    -Create-- --Read--- -Delete-- -Create-- --Read--- -Delete--
              files  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP
                 16 21341  83 +++++ +++ +++++ +++ +++++ +++ +++++ +++ +++++ +++
countzero,4G,14755,55,15887,20,13568,13,18775,58,31430,11,72.4,0,16,21341,83,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,+++++,+++

Intel X25-M gen 1:

$ bonnie++
Writing with putc()...done
Writing intelligently...done
Rewriting...done
Reading with getc()...done
Reading intelligently...done
start 'em...done...done...done...
Create files in sequential order...done.
Stat files in sequential order...done.
Delete files in sequential order...done.
Create files in random order...done.
Stat files in random order...done.
Delete files in random order...done.
Version 1.03c       ------Sequential Output------ --Sequential Input- --Random-
                    -Per Chr- --Block-- -Rewrite- -Per Chr- --Block-- --Seeks--
Machine        Size K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP  /sec %CP
countzero        4G 51217  98 76395  31 42853  25 43666  80 150391  45 14762  61
                    ------Sequential Create------ --------Random Create--------
                    -Create-- --Read--- -Delete-- -Create-- --Read--- -Delete--
              files  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP
                 16 +++++ +++ +++++ +++ +++++ +++ +++++ +++ +++++ +++ +++++ +++
countzero,4G,51217,98,76395,31,42853,25,43666,80,150391,45,14762.2,61,16,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,+++++,+++