I recently bought an Adata 32GB SSD to boot and build Ultimate Edition from, when I first installed it and Ultimate Edition 2.6 from a USB stick at the time the boot time was almost unbelievable (working on Ultimate Edition 2.7 at the time of screenshot):
1 X Adata 32 GB SSD (flashed to 1848 firmware):
Min: 198.9 MB/s
Max: 263.7 MB/s
Avg: 223.5 MB/s
Many ppl falsely assume it is the bandwidth that makes them so hard core, it is the seek time and latency. Find me a hard disk with avg access time of .1ms (millisecond). 2 or 3 Velociraptor's in raid 0, would probably not hold a candle. To a single $95 drive (at least what it cost when I bought it). I am not even going to bring up bottlenecks in a system, which is typically the hard disk.
Screenshot
Ultimate Edition 2.6 Boots in 7.6 seconds
O.K. That said, it is no more. I have built literally a 100 O/S's from it since (I am hard on a hard drive, SSD is no exception).
I thought I would come back and post what I have learned with SSD's this is the first of many more I will purchase. SSD's slow down over time, never to the speed of a regular hard disk, but none the less they slow down, a long read, the guy knows what he is talking about. There is only one way to restore the speed and it is not re-installing Ubuntu / Ultimate Edition, this will actually also slow it down.
Even a SSD with trim support will also slow down, yes Trim support is in Karmic / Lucid if your drive supports it (not just a Win7 thing):
- Code: Select all
theemahn@SledgeHammer:~$ sudo hdparm -I /dev/sda1
[sudo] password for theemahn:
/dev/sda1:
ATA device, with non-removable media
Model Number: A-DATA SSD
Serial Number: 0607T3J6B0AA5F4I788T
Firmware Revision: FW1848
Standards:
Supported: 8 7 6 5
Likely used: 8
Configuration:
Logical max current
cylinders 16383 16383
heads 16 16
sectors/track 63 63
--
CHS current addressable sectors: 16514064
LBA user addressable sectors: 62533296
LBA48 user addressable sectors: 62533296
Logical Sector size: 512 bytes
Physical Sector size: 512 bytes
device size with M = 1024*1024: 30533 MBytes
device size with M = 1000*1000: 32017 MBytes (32 GB)
cache/buffer size = unknown
Nominal Media Rotation Rate: Solid State Device
Capabilities:
LBA, IORDY(can be disabled)
Queue depth: 32
Standby timer values: spec'd by Standard, no device specific minimum
R/W multiple sector transfer: Max = 1 Current = 1
DMA: mdma0 mdma1 mdma2 udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 udma5 *udma6
Cycle time: min=120ns recommended=120ns
PIO: pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4
Cycle time: no flow control=120ns IORDY flow control=120ns
Commands/features:
Enabled Supported:
* SMART feature set
Security Mode feature set
* Power Management feature set
* Write cache
Look-ahead
* Host Protected Area feature set
* WRITE_BUFFER command
* READ_BUFFER command
* DOWNLOAD_MICROCODE
SET_MAX security extension
* 48-bit Address feature set
* Device Configuration Overlay feature set
* Mandatory FLUSH_CACHE
* FLUSH_CACHE_EXT
* SMART self-test
* General Purpose Logging feature set
* Gen1 signaling speed (1.5Gb/s)
* Gen2 signaling speed (3.0Gb/s)
* Native Command Queueing (NCQ)
* Phy event counters
DMA Setup Auto-Activate optimization
Device-initiated interface power management
* Software settings preservation
* Data Set Management determinate TRIM supported
Security:
supported
not enabled
not locked
not frozen
not expired: security count
not supported: enhanced erase
Checksum: correct
theemahn@SledgeHammer:~$
Note the * Data Set Management determinate TRIM supported
This slows down this happening, but eventually the end results are the same.
I now see:
Min: 96.9 MB/s
Max: 256.3 MB/s
Avg: 170.2 MB/s
Compare it to my numbers above & will get worse, avg is what we really care about.
What Happened? Read the whole 20+ page article posted above. The real question is how do I fix it...
No, we do not need Windows to fix it. hdparm is a wonderful tool. I do not care if you use Ultimate Edition or Ubuntu just booting a live disk and wiping the drive will restore full speed. I hope you read the full article about SSD's then you would know that you can only do this ~ 10,000 times before errors begin to appear.
I will not take any responsibility if you wreck your SSD (and there is a good chance if you do not follow it to a T), but here is your answer.
I just thought maybe I could help a few ppl out. I typically do not have the time to do so. Please use care & enjoy your new rocket.
Damn, just noticed Newegg home paged my review All SSD's are currently the same they all slow down. Hopefully in the future this will go away. Irregardless, I will never go back to a Hard disk for booting / building again. Raided SSD, maybe. Another tip for you SLC is typically better then MLC depending on the controller / controllers in the SSD, minus longevity.
TheeMahn,