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SERVER PROFILES
While synthetic workloads do a great job of testing the underlying technology and reporting easy to understand results, they aren’t always indicative of how the drive will be used by the end user. Workloads that simulate enterprise environments try to bridge that gap without being overly complex. As our in our other tests we purge the drive before running the server benchmarks and precondition the respective workload until steady state is reached for each.
The database profile is 8K transfers, and 67% percent of operations are reads.
During our database test the M510DC was unable to keep up with most of the competition. Once it reached a QD of 8 it was able to finally surpass the performance of the SanDisk CloudSpeed Eco. The Samsung 845DC EVO and M500DC clearly dominate it in this workload.
The fileserver profile is based on an 80% read/20% write mix. It’s made up of block sizes from 512 to 64K, each making up a different percentage of the access pattern. The pattern is: 512 bytes=10%, 1k=5%, 2k=5%, 4k=60%, 8k=2%, 16k=4%, 32k=4%, 64k=10%.
The fileserver profile displayed a very similar result, however, this time the SanDisk CloudSpeed Eco and M510DC are about neck to neck with the M510DC being more consistent. Again, the Samsung 845DC EVO and M500DC show much better performance.
The webserver profile is similar to the fileserver profile, but has some additional 128K and 512K accesses thrown in for good measure. Additionally, the profile is 100% reads.
This workload was one which even the M500DC struggled. We can see that the M510DC peaks out at about 17K IOPS while the Samsung 845DC EVO doubles that.
POWER CONSUMPTION
For our power consumption testing, we have the drive connected to the system as a secondary drive. To record the wattage, we use an Amprobe AM-270 multimeter connected to the 5v power line. The multimeter records the amperage draw from the drive during each test preconditioning period. Shown below are the maximum wattage recorded for each workload. In this test we are verifying the drive is within the manufacturer’s maximum power consumption specifications.
Micron rates the M510DC for up to 6W maximum consumption and 1.2W idle. Our results match the specs perfectly. The maximum reported wattage was 5.84W during sequential writing and idle was spot on at 1.2W. Looking at our max wattage during the sever workload profiles we can see that it averaged around 3W.
REPORT ANALYSIS AND FINAL THOUGHTS
Micron is a big player in the SSD market. They offer multiple PCIe options for mission critical storage and IO acceleration via their P420m and P320m. These drives offer high performance and endurance, but with that comes high cost. They also have client SSDs under their name and the Crucial brand, which are a lot cheaper, but offer far less performance and endurance. In recent times data centers started opting for these lower cost client drives for web 2.0 and cloud storage. Once SSD venders caught onto this they started to release SSDs catered towards this demand. Sixteen months ago Micron released the M500DC, which was supposed to be their answer to that demand and it proved to be successful with many data center customers now utilizing SATA drives that are in the 2-5 DWPD range. However, a larger segment of the data center market is utilizing entry level drives that have endurance ratings under 1 DWPD due to cost. This is why companies are often releasing more of these lower tiered products. To keep up with this trend Micron is now releasing the M510DC. They believe it will not only complement the M500DC at a lower price, but become quite a competitor for those with read-heavy workloads like content delivery and virtualization.
Built upon the M500DC’s design and firmware and utilizing Micron’s 128Gbit 16nm cMLC, the M510DC delivers endurance of up to 2 DWPD over the course of 5 years. In terms of speed, sequential performance is rated for up to 420MB/s read and 380Mb/s write. It also has market segment leading random write performance rated for 23K IOPS. Through leveraging Micron’s XPERT platform the M510DC comes with a full suite of enterprise features including power loss and full data path protection. Not only that, but with the release of the M510DC, Micron is also the first vender in the market to deliver TCG Enterprise (TCG-E) support in a SATA form factor.
In testing, the M510DC’s performance beat out its specifications sheet. Our 480GB model was able to reach up to 443MB/s read and 413MB/s write in sequential performance. During random 4K testing its results were even better. After reaching steady state write performance averaged slightly above 23kK IOPS, but reads were hitting near 88K IOPS! That is 25K more than the rated spec of 63K! Latency results were good as well during our SNIA testing, however, when it comes to our server workload testing, the M510DC fell behind the competition.
While it didn’t outperform in the server workload tests, its endurance figures may make up for it. At a reduced cost, the M510DC offers a great balance of reliability, security, and endurance that is almost as good as the M500DC, but introduces it to the entry level enterprise market. While the Samsung 845 DC EVO delivered better performance in multiple tests and is slightly cheaper, the M510DC has nearly six times the endurance! Looking around online we seen the price for the M510DC range from $1.42-$0.69 per GB, getting cheaper as you go up in capacity. The 480GB model tested today is roughly $0.90 per GB. At these prices the M510DC is about 15-25% less than the M500DC. If you are looking for a cost effective read-centric enterprise SATA SSD with very good endurance, the M510DC should do you well, however, competition is starting to get fierce in this part of the market.