My S$229 24GB SSD

[Sen]

http://www4.picturepush.com/photo/a/1164687/img/1164687.jpg
Acard ANS-9012 (S$139)

http://www5.picturepush.com/photo/a/1164688/img/1164688.jpg
items given

http://www4.picturepush.com/photo/a/1166272/img/1166272.jpg
The PCB inside

http://www4.picturepush.com/photo/a/1172697/img/1172697.jpg
Acard ANS-9012 & 6 x Transcend 4GB SDHC (total cost = S$229)

[Sen]

http://www4.picturepush.com/photo/a/1172707/img/1172707.jpg

http://www2.picturepush.com/photo/a/1172710/img/1172710.jpg

http://www4.picturepush.com/photo/a/1172712/img/1172712.jpg

http://www5.picturepush.com/photo/a/1172713/img/1172713.jpg

[GegeV2]

Very interesting...can't comment much...me not into HDD speeds...

[rollbread]

This is considered as SSD?

[GegeV2]

This is considered as SSD?

Yes, i guess so. It uses an adapter.

[DO_hum]

This is considered as SSD?
should be? whats the difference between this speed to hard disk de?
around 3 times faster? hard disk is measure by RPM...for SSD wise how to compare?

[GuessBoy]

Why never buy the 8GB card instead?

[jtchoy]

Nice DIY SSD! :D

Speed wise comparable to normal SSD...

Just that capacity a bit too small... Even with 8GB SDHC cards its only 48GB...

Another thing... The continuous read/write won't wear out the SDHC cards quickly?

[Sen]

For testing so stick with 4GB SDHC 1st.

BTW 4GB Kingston Class6 SDHC = S$12.60, 8GB Kingston Class6 SDHC = S$23.30 (slow write)
4GB Transcend Class6 SDHC = S$15, 8GB Transcend Class6 SDHC = S$35
4GB Sandisk Class6 Extreme III SDHC = S$49, 8GB Sandisk Class6 Extreme III SDHC = S$88 (20MB/s read/write)

Why never buy the 8GB card instead?

[Sen]

The wear out part need to personally test after some period i guess.

Nice DIY SSD! :D

Speed wise comparable to normal SSD...

Just that capacity a bit too small... Even with 8GB SDHC cards its only 48GB...

Another thing... The continuous read/write won't wear out the SDHC cards quickly?

[hlyagami]

http://www4.picturepush.com/photo/a/1164687/img/1164687.jpg
Acard ANS-9012 (S$139)

http://www5.picturepush.com/photo/a/1164688/img/1164688.jpg
items given

http://www4.picturepush.com/photo/a/1166272/img/1166272.jpg
The PCB inside

http://www4.picturepush.com/photo/a/1172697/img/1172697.jpg
Acard ANS-9012 & 6 x Transcend 4GB SDHC (total cost = S$229)

HOLY SHIAT!!!!!!

Enjoy your h00t.. :D

[yauchong]

nice.... congratz... :love:

[ragnarok95]

Hows the overall feel??? :D

[trichard]

the whole thread I only saw this interesting.

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a79/hlyagami/superwomen.jpg

:s13:

[yukita]

Hows the overall feel??? :D
yah how izzit?
can feel the shiokness?

[MacClipper]

the whole thread I only saw this interesting.
...
:s13:
Wasted all the hard legwork and sharing by Sen... u still lau tiko lah. =:p

[cueball1981]

Have u test the boot up timing? Insignificant improvement?

[FrEeBiEs]

Impressive seek rate. easily 10x faster than normal diskdrives.

[Nakedtoes]

The 6 slots all can put different size and speed right? If different speed will the drive run the slowest speed of the slowest SD card?

[Fedor]

Sen, I too would like to hear your subjective opinion on how the PC feels using this thing. Numbers are great, and thanks for that, but it's not so easy to guess the effect for the end-user of having:
dramatically lower latency
but somewhat slower (although more consistent) transfer rates
lower performance on sub 4K sizes in ATTO than a conventional drive

[FrEeBiEs]

Sen, I too would like to hear your subjective opinion on how the PC feels using this thing. Numbers are great, and thanks for that, but it's not so easy to guess the effect for the end-user of having:
dramatically lower latency
but somewhat slower (although more consistent) transfer rates
lower performance on sub 4K sizes in ATTO than a conventional drive

Correct me if i am wrong, but compared to most 7200rpm drives, only the most recent drives have attained 100mb/s average transfer rate. Isn't it the case that this setup has almost 100mb/s transfer rate?
So i just felt that this setup should offer lower latency but maintaining the good old transfer rate.

[hlyagami]

the whole thread I only saw this interesting.

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a79/hlyagami/superwomen.jpg

:s13:

bian tai shu shu spotted :o

[Fedor]

Well, take his HDTach, you get 97 average read, 87 average write. For example on a (granted, new) WD6400AAKS you get 92/93 average for both read and write, so in those terms I think they are equivalent, *but* you can effectively bump the speed of conventional drives by limiting your usage to the fastest segment of the drive via partitioning. Plus you get better effective seek times that way (though I've STILL not found a benchmarking tool that can give access times for specific segments of a drive). So I certainly do see where you are coming from, it's a valid point, now perhaps you can see where I'm coming from as well.

Of course, lets not forget that transfer rates do not mean much at all. Seagate has often had monster transfer rates on their newest drives vs competitors because they were often the ones introducing drives with increased platter densities, but yet in terms of single-user benchmarking they would lose out massively to older competing brands. So, the firmware clearly plays a huge role, and in the case of the DIY SSD, I personally have no idea how well the drive would behave, and how well it could leverage its good fundamental/low-level performance (good transfer rates + v low seek time) and transfer it into real-world performance. For example some of the OCZ MLC (Core branding) SSDs apparently make your whole system freeze up and stutter because they are so awful at small random writes.

[Gecko]

what can we do to restore the system if 1 card fails ?

[trichard]

24GB ....not enough for OS + some basic apps leh .......

Put in more CF ...... then the price will up like to my 64GB liao ....

[Fedor]

Really, not enough?

My C: partition is just 10GB, and it's got over 3GB free. XP + Office + other basics (and all of Program Files is still on C:). I prefer just having the OS and pagefile being on one drive, as for bigger apps and/or games, I use another drive (you don't want OS+pagefile+app/game competing for access to data on the same drive anyway - though this is in part due to conventional drives' [high] access times).

If Sen says that subjectively his computer is a lot quicker, I'd definitely consider building one of these!

[hlyagami]

my concern here is how well disk failure recovery plan is executed. If 1 of the card fail, what and how is going to be done to save the data?

[jtchoy]

my concern here is how well disk failure recovery plan is executed. If 1 of the card fail, what and how is going to be done to save the data?
I think when 1 card fails, all data is lost. Its like running RAID 0 on all 6 SDHC cards to achieve that kind of speeds...

That's why SSDs are normally used for OS drive only. Data is stored on a normal HDD.

[HeCToR]

I think when 1 card fails, all data is lost. Its like running RAID 0 on all 6 SDHC cards to achieve that kind of speeds...

That's why SSDs are normally used for OS drive only. Data is stored on a normal HDD.

correct me if im wrong, if you only install OS on this drive and all other big apps like games, commercial software like adobe etc. etc. which eats alot of space on conventional hdd, arn't you back to square 1? coz in the end, everything will be bogged down to the hdd again except the OS? hmmmmm

[jtchoy]

correct me if im wrong, if you only install OS on this drive and all other big apps like games, commercial software like adobe etc. etc. which eats alot of space on conventional hdd, arn't you back to square 1? coz in the end, everything will be bogged down to the hdd again except the OS? hmmmmm
Yeah, installing the OS on a SSD will allow you to have quick boot up speeds. Launching apps will still be the same speed if its installed on a normal HDD.

You have to balance which apps you want to install on the SSD or HDD depending on how often you use it and how much capacity your SSD has. But most of the time data like pictures, videos, songs, etc will be stored on a HDD, unless you have plenty of money to buy multiple/large SSDs. :)

[hlyagami]

I think when 1 card fails, all data is lost. Its like running RAID 0 on all 6 SDHC cards to achieve that kind of speeds...

That's why SSDs are normally used for OS drive only. Data is stored on a normal HDD.

it can also be quite disastrous consider e amount of time to install and update the os :(

[jtchoy]

it can also be quite disastrous consider e amount of time to install and update the os :(
Ya... But not as bad as lossing all your data lor... At least can recover back OS...

[Fedor]

it can also be quite disastrous consider e amount of time to install and update the os :(

Well, without having a number that describes the chance of failure of such an SSD, it's hard to say whether this is any better or worse than a conventional HDD? Frankly my OS is fairly disposable, but any data I don't treat as such I have backups of. If you were worried about your OS (on an SSD or normal drive), it would be easy to have a daily/weekly backup of the drive as an image that you can just restore.

[Guyver]

bookmarked. SEN boss .. pls update us more with the long period of read and write .. will kill the SD card bo ? :D

[petrarchan]

correct me if im wrong, if you only install OS on this drive and all other big apps like games, commercial software like adobe etc. etc. which eats alot of space on conventional hdd, arn't you back to square 1? coz in the end, everything will be bogged down to the hdd again except the OS? hmmmmm

i install all programmes iinto my raptor C:... no issues leh..

some programmes like office if u install on D: but when u reinstall your OS, it just cannot associate automatically the office documents..

so programmes in raptor C:.... anything else, working files all in other conventional hdd...

i do have many progs like office, adobe, steam with abt 7 games and many more other software... enuff space leh.. i keep the source .exe files elsewhere... saves quite abit of space

[ImaFreak]

if using as portable hdd....will it be good enuff? since usb2 only limit to 30mb/s

[petrarchan]

bookmarked. SEN boss .. pls update us more with the long period of read and write .. will kill the SD card bo ? :D

yea...

wish to know too...

btw... where did u get the adapter?

then how to fit into 3.5" casing slot?

[Eon]

I think when 1 card fails, all data is lost. Its like running RAID 0 on all 6 SDHC cards to achieve that kind of speeds...

That's why SSDs are normally used for OS drive only. Data is stored on a normal HDD.

Raid 0 on 6 card is like increasing the risk of losing all data by 6 times. That is madness :s12:

[yauchong]

if using as portable hdd....will it be good enuff? since usb2 only limit to 30mb/s
only advantage will be access time.. so, imho, totally pointless... :s34:

[jtchoy]

Raid 0 on 6 card is like increasing the risk of losing all data by 6 times. That is madness :s12:
Yes, quite high risk of failure... But for the price...

We can't be sure of its reliability for now, only time will tell...

[whitepandaeyes]

wah the speed not bad leh..

[Gattberserk]

How come Transcend one 4GB only $15? MLC type ar?


SEN can try testing with 6 RAID 0 Scandisk Extreme III SDHC not? lol

[trichard]

it can also be quite disastrous consider e amount of time to install and update the os :(
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a79/hlyagami/superwomen.jpg

:D

[yauchong]

http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/image.php?u=628&dateline=1225024979 :love: http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a79/hlyagami/superwomen.jpg

[hlyagami]

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a79/hlyagami/superwomen.jpg

:D

mai beo la.. :(

[hlyagami]

For testing so stick with 4GB SDHC 1st.

BTW 4GB Kingston Class6 SDHC = S$12.60, 8GB Kingston Class6 SDHC = S$23.30 (slow write)
4GB Transcend Class6 SDHC = S$15, 8GB Transcend Class6 SDHC = S$35
4GB Sandisk Class6 Extreme III SDHC = S$49, 8GB Sandisk Class6 Extreme III SDHC = S$88 (20MB/s read/write)

hmm where u find lobang of e 8gb kingston class 6 sdhc @ 23.3? i found e cheapest 33 :(

[Sen]

Best Bargain

hmm where u find lobang of e 8gb kingston class 6 sdhc @ 23.3? i found e cheapest 33 :(

[Gattberserk]

So SENS u havent tell us if the Transcend u use is MLC type... Because if $15 for SLC is uber nice price wor~

[Sen]

You can try WinBench99

*but* you can effectively bump the speed of conventional drives by limiting your usage to the fastest segment of the drive via partitioning. Plus you get better effective seek times that way (though I've STILL not found a benchmarking tool that can give access times for specific segments of a drive)

[Gattberserk]

Up for my question :s22:


Ur $15 4GB transcend is SLC or MLC type?

[Heston]

this is very good price, how long does it take to boot into xp?
i intend to build a fast bootup htpc.

[Kucha]

where to buy the adapter for the sd cards?

[Heston]

where to buy the adapter for the sd cards?
Storage Studio

[Fedor]

I was in SLS on Sunday, and Storage Studio has moved to another unit in SLS, which is no big deal, but also they no longer work Sundays. Just FYI.

BTW Sen, great tip on the Winbench. Took me forever to find somewhere to download it from but it works well, and yes getting proper access times for partitions now :D

[sAxman_Returns]

faster than Intel SSD 80GB?