Buy an SSD hard drive and VJ with your hair on fire!

[bart]

We have recently bought a lot more hardware so we can more easily do endurance testing on different platforms, Windows 7, 64 bit Vista etc. This new hardware sports an 80 GB Intel X25-M Postville SSD hard drive. And for another project we have used a 60 GB OCZ Vertex SSD. We'd like to share some benchmarks and experiences with you.

We can actually be short about SSD drives. Buy one! Now!

SSD drives are SO fast. With average transfer rates of about 200MB per second they are WAY faster than any traditional hard drive, including 'fast' 10.000 rpm Raptor drives which 'only' get about 100MB transfer rate. This means you can comfortably play higher resolution video files and more layers when your footage is on an SSD drive.

Playing more video layers and higher resolution is nice but what really amazed us is how much faster you can trigger clips, or an entire column of clips. It feels so much more responsive. This is because the access time (the time it takes the drive to actually find a file) of an SSD drive is also much faster. We measured 0.1 ms for the SSD drive, ~14.2 ms for a normal 7200 rpm drive and 7.2 ms for a 10.000 rpm Raptor drive. This does not not sound like much because it is measured in milliseconds but it makes quite a difference.

We can highly recommend everybody to get an SSD drive, not just because it's measurably faster but it makes Resolume feel even more responsive.

80 GB Intel X25-M Postville SSD

HDTune_Benchmark_INTEL_SSDSA2M080G2GC.jpg (87.51 KiB) Viewed 22511 times

150 GB 10.000 rpm Western Digital Raptor

HDTune_Benchmark_WDC_WD1500HLFS-01G6U.jpg (92.68 KiB) Viewed 22511 times

1.5 TB 7.200 rpm Seagate Barracuda

HDTune_Benchmark_ST31500341AS.jpg (94.27 KiB) Viewed 22511 times

[GeeEs]

Great test! a SSD is high on my wishlist for some time now... the prices are still a bit high imho... but the results are great indeed!

(The link to the dance writer project made me think of this (horrible) sms game that's on TV now (2 girls showing your name with their body when sending a text message.... is there any link?? )

[gpvillamil]

I agree!

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=4641#p21445

14 layers playing at 640x480, with frame rate at a rock steady 60fps.

[gradek]

OH man, I want want one. I was thinking about upgrading my now aging MBP from Late 2006 with an internal SSD Drive since I can hear the old HD about to die. and I know that it biggest thing slowing down that computer.

I suppose the best for VJing however would still be to have the drive external using eSATA. Or has anyone tested performance from an internal laptop SSD? But really I don't want to store all my VJ video clips on my internal drive, just too much stuff. Too bad the new MBP 15" machines don't have a express slot anymore, I think firewire 800 does not have enough bandwidth to support full 200mb read times!

Is it even worth doing a RAID setup with SSD drives or are they fast enough to just use solo.

[glasshopper]

Wow - I am seriously into getting myself one of these ... a mate of mine a tec head tho - was telling me that these drives can over time lose the initial speeds they achieve. Interested to know if this does occur over time with heavy usage - keep us posted guys ... I am going to get one as soon as I can - so will also post my results as well. This is what we have been waiting for if you ask me ...

14 layers playing at 640x480, with frame rate at a rock steady 60fps.

wow - gpvillamil - that is serious business ...

[bart]

a mate of mine a tec head tho - was telling me that these drives can over time lose the initial speeds they achieve. Interested to know if this does occur over time with heavy usage

This degradation of SSD drives is solved with TRIM, info here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRIM_(SSD_command)

[glasshopper]

Bravo. Useful info thanks.

[gradek]

Bart are you using these SSD drives as external or internal? is the OS and the Resolume 3 running on the same drive SSD or not?

[lo-res]

Hi, I've just ordered a 60 GB OCZ Vertex SSD.

I was sure there was a guide on the forum somewhere to installing ssd drives into external enclosures with esata for use with a mac. I can't seem to locate it unless it was on a different site.

Would anyone be able to point me in the right direction or offer any advice on this?

Thanks

[jim]

I reakon about 4 months and the price will be reasonable enough for them.