A little dissappointed in SSDs

[pcslookout]

Ok this comes to my next question. Why do I feel disappointed with my current SSDs ? Yes they are fast but bootup and shutdown doesn't seem to be as fast as I keep hearing. Bootup around 20 to 30 seconds tops. Shutdown around 5 to 10 seconds. Was I expecting to much? Yes installing games, applications are quicker but don't seem to be instant like I kept hearing. Not saying I believed it either. It is definitely quicker just doesn't seem quick enough. Maybe I want to much speed? Maybe it is because I came from a 150 GB Raptor drive.

Now one thing I see where SSDs really shine and you can tell a huge difference is multitasking! So I guess with the things I am disappointed with that one that definitely makes up for it! Is there anyway I can really test my SSD to feel the difference where I will go wow?


Ok edited for SSD drive brands and models.

160 GB Intel G2 SSD
80 GB Intel G2 SSD

 

[Thor86]

Hmm, your post is kind of pointless without telling us your hardware setups/configurations. Especially what brand/model SSD you are using. All SSDs are not create equal.

I cam from a WD Raptor drive as well, and my new 160GB Intel G2 SSD with Windows 7 boots in less than 12 seconds from post. It also shutsdown in 2 seconds.

 

[MJinZ]

Not all motherboards and chipsets are created equal either.

On my Laptop, it takes a little over 30 seconds to bootup, shuts down pretty much instantaneously. The random read/write is significantly lower than what Anandtech reviews show.

Brand new Intel X-25M G2 80GB.

Still, it makes for an incredibly responsive system that is limited now by my download bandwidths, the program itself, etc.

 

[Zap]

Windows 7 boots in less than 12 seconds from post.

Core i7 mobos seem to take a while to POST, sometimes 15-20 seconds. I think it is still a pipe dream for "instant on" computing beyond deep sleep modes.

Heck, anyone "reboot" their Blackberry lately? Talk about a long boot process!

 

[PClark99]

They are quicker for sure, right now I am in firmware update hell with mine.

 

[Elcs]

My Bootup sequence takes a lot longer with my SSD than it did previously.

In the switchover process, I went from IDE to AHCI and my motherboard seems to dislike this change to a degree and prefers to stop, wait and seemingly do nothing for a time before then booting into Windows.

Shutting down is much quicker, maybe 10-15 seconds top.

Intel X25-M 160Gb with Old Firmware.

 

[Thor86]

Core i7 mobos seem to take a while to POST, sometimes 15-20 seconds. I think it is still a pipe dream for "instant on" computing beyond deep sleep modes.

Heck, anyone "reboot" their Blackberry lately? Talk about a long boot process!

Hmm, my Asus P6T Deluxe takes only 4 secs from turn on and full post before reading from the SSD. I don't use any onboard raid which is the biggest culprit for post times on mobos.

 

[skid00skid00]

For the lurkers out there, who don't have an SSD replacing an HD, I find that on my OC'd E6600, windows just SNAP open. So does Outlook. PS CS4 opens in 1/4 the time it used to, and building the Bridge cache is hugely fast, too.

I can't imagine that this performance isn't obvious to the OP...

 

[richierich1212]

Windows 7 used to boot up really fast for me. I think an updated driver or patch slowed down my bootup time significantly.

Anyways, I see a lot of improvement opening up applications and in-game loading over traditional HDD.

 

[pcslookout]

For the lurkers out there, who don't have an SSD replacing an HD, I find that on my OC'd E6600, windows just SNAP open. So does Outlook. PS CS4 opens in 1/4 the time it used to, and building the Bridge cache is hugely fast, too.

I can't imagine that this performance isn't obvious to the OP...

Oh the performance difference is obvious I just expected faster. Maybe I was expecting to much and my expectations were set to high ? Happens sometimes for me with films as well. I just learned that you really can't make everything instant. No matter how fast your hardware is. It is just not possible. Close but not exact.

Multitasking is a huge difference though I will give you that.

 

[Zap]

I just expected faster. Maybe I was expecting to much and my expectations were set to high ? Happens sometimes for me with films as well. I just learned that you really can't make everything instant. No matter how fast your hardware is. It is just not possible.

If you want to see how fast your SSD is... use it for a month, then switch back to a normal 7200RPM drive.

It's like the speed limit on the freeway going from 55 to 65MPH. Doesn't seem much faster, but if you have to slow back down then it feels as if you're crawling.

 

[pcslookout]

If you want to see how fast your SSD is... use it for a month, then switch back to a normal 7200RPM drive.

It's like the speed limit on the freeway going from 55 to 65MPH. Doesn't seem much faster, but if you have to slow back down then it feels as if you're crawling.

Yeah I think it is more like that. Don't worry though I have a second pc I can try that with instead much easier!

The biggest advantage I see is with multitasking.

 

[KingstonU]

A question on this topic, HD's have been the slowest part of a PC for the longest time, now with SSD's is the hard drive still the bottleneck? if not then what is the next slowest part on today's computers?

 

[Voo]

A question on this topic, HD's have been the slowest part of a PC for the longest time, now with SSD's is the hard drive still the bottleneck? if not then what is the next slowest part on today's computers?

Well SSDs are much faster than conventional drives but compared to RAM they are still rather slow.
RAM has access times of around 20ns and SSDs are probably still in the 0.0x ms area - that's a rather large factor (and caches and the CPU are another factor or two faster than RAM..)

Chances are high that storage will be the slowest part of a system for a long time..

 

[Swivelguy2]

A question on this topic, HD's have been the slowest part of a PC for the longest time, now with SSD's is the hard drive still the bottleneck? if not then what is the next slowest part on today's computers?

Generally, the user. Or, as more and more work is done online, the networks.

 

[Majic 7]

I really like 4 min virus scans and 1 1/2 min defender scans. My antivirus updates almost as fast as it takes for the desktop background to show after coming back from sleep. So far I am impressed with the speedups I see.

 

[Ben90]

A question on this topic, HD's have been the slowest part of a PC for the longest time, now with SSD's is the hard drive still the bottleneck? if not then what is the next slowest part on today's computers?

I think it depends on what your doing if the HD is a bottleneck or not. I could live off a 2000rpm drive, and still be confident that its not bottlenecking my system. Obviously when i start a program it would take around 4 times as longer, so i guess my HD would be a bottleneck for ~2 mins max every day, but for the other 23 hours and 58 minutes I would be better served overclocking 1 extra bclock.

 

[chrisf6969]

OP you still didn't give details of your system specs. If you put it on a crappy computer, and didn't configure everything correctly that could be part of your problem.

Have you benchmarked the drives to make sure they're performing optimally?

My computer boots in < 20 seconds.

But then again who boots their computer? Use stand-by!

My computer comes out of stand-by (everything is powered off, the fans, harddrives, etc) in literally like 1 second. It feels like a normal computer that just had a black screen screensaver on.

On a traditional harddrive, when you'd open a folder with A LOT of large files, it would take a while for the folder to populate and show all the icons, especially on like my (install) programs folder, with an SSD any drive stuff is instant. You can click through folders with thousands of images, songs, etc.. and everything is instant.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

Coming from a 74 gig raptor I wasn't awed by the ssd improvement like I see some people say they are, but I'm quite satisfied with the improvement. I might have went with a cheaper non-intel one after trying it out, but I don't regret it.

 

[pjkenned]

Heck, anyone "reboot" their Blackberry lately? Talk about a long boot process!

My Bold does so all by itself even. I love watching that thing boot when I'm all of the sudden late to dial into a conference call.

SSD's are certainly an everyday improvement that you get accustomed to quickly. That being said, if you are coming from a big raid config, large sequential transfers won't be much better if better at all. Also, it depends on what type of applications you use (there are many that just need raw sequentials to load stuff into RAM and then not a lot of extra disk access).

To be honest, I just changed a notebook over this weekend and the thing I'm liking the most in all of my SSD rigs at the moment is the lack of noise and vibration. The notebook (Gateway P-7811 FX) boots Win 7 Ultimate faster than my Core i7 rig, but I'm fairly sure that's due to the fact that my desktop runs tons of services and the notebook was booting quick on a clean install.

 

[her209]

I want to try it but I can't such a price.

 

[Barrok]

A question on this topic, HD's have been the slowest part of a PC for the longest time, now with SSD's is the hard drive still the bottleneck? if not then what is the next slowest part on today's computers?

This might be a stupid response but... my windows 7 EXPERIENCE INDEX (ranging from 1 to 7.9) my hard drive is still my weakest link lol! I get 7.6 cpu, 7.8 memory, 7.9 graphics, 7.9 gaming, and 7.2 hard drive. Even with my supertalent 128gb ssd. But its better than nothing!


And like mentioned earlier, I also a slightly let down by how fast it is. Anandtech made it sound like its insanely fast, i expected much quicker windows load times (5 seconds rather than 12) etc. Still damn fast but not out of this world fast.


BTW, if you have a SSD and want to see the difference, load up team fortress 2 and click on "character and achievements" (i think thats what its called) Should show you all your items and stats. On my velociraptor it felt like the computer hung for a second while it loaded that, on my SSD its instant.

 

[taltamir]

OP, now try going back to a spindle drive...
It doesn't seem "that fast" when you get used to it, but when you try to go back you realize how good you have it.

 

[Elcs]

My Bootup sequence takes a lot longer with my SSD than it did previously.

In the switchover process, I went from IDE to AHCI and my motherboard seems to dislike this change to a degree and prefers to stop, wait and seemingly do nothing for a time before then booting into Windows.

Shutting down is much quicker, maybe 10-15 seconds top.

Intel X25-M 160Gb with Old Firmware.

To update, my PC is now booting from power button press to inputting password and having all start-up programs fully loaded takes less than 90 seconds. I consider the start-up process complete when the on-boot programs have loaded up and hard drive activity ceases.

I have also made a couple of BIOS tweaks which sped things up. (swapped SATA ports so my SSD is on 1 (not 2) then cleared CMOS and re-configured my BIOS, item by item to ensure it was fully done)

On my Vista install (which is on a mechanical drive), booting up is much more painful and something I do not wish to repeat often.

 

[pcslookout]

To update, my PC is now booting from power button press to inputting password and having all start-up programs fully loaded takes less than 90 seconds. I consider the start-up process complete when the on-boot programs have loaded up and hard drive activity ceases.

I have also made a couple of BIOS tweaks which sped things up. (swapped SATA ports so my SSD is on 1 (not 2) then cleared CMOS and re-configured my BIOS, item by item to ensure it was fully done)

On my Vista install (which is on a mechanical drive), booting up is much more painful and something I do not wish to repeat often.

I consider that the boot up time as well. Don't think all review sites and people include everything that is why some people say they have 12 to 20 second bootup times with SSDs. Maybe I am wrong though.