Recent Posts

Crucial RealSSD 64Gb – Benchmarks (2)

We left the best for last with respect to testing and one will soon see why. The SSD Review uses benchmark software called PCMark Vantage x64 HDD Suite to create testing scenarios that might be used in the typical user experience. There are eight tests in all and the tests performed record the speed of data movement in MB/s to which they …

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Crucial RealSSD 64Gb – Conclusion

CONCLUSIONS The price for the Crucial C300 64Gb SSD at the time of writing was $139.99 which puts this at $2.18/Gb, well below the competition. Crucial has the only present release of a SATA 3 SSD on the market. Crucials C300 64Gb has the single highest SATA SSD scores available to the consumer. The warranty for this SSD is 3 years. In testing, the Crucial …

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OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 120Gb SSD Review

The SSD Review has been utilizing two drives for the passed two months now and we have to say that we just can’t get enough of these drives!!! They are truly hidden gems of the ssd world and we are not alone in this belief. It seems that everyone that seems to be buying them or, as in our case, …

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OWC MERCURY EXTREME PRO – BENCHMARKS

BENCHMARKS When we stated that these two drives were identical except for the over provisioning and that the performance didn’t suffer whatsoever, we weren’t kidding.  Both drives resulted in extremely similar results in testing with Crystal Disk Mark and ATTO Disk Benchmark and it wasn’t until our HDTune and subsequent PCMark Vantage scoring that we could see that the drives …

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OWC Mercury Extreme Pro – Conclusion

CONCLUSION The conclusion to this review is actually one in which I am not wanting to write. It means that once I hit the magic ‘Publish’ button, I will then be formatting this OWC Extreme Pro Drive, removing and packaging it up, contacting and waiting for UPS and then watching the driver smirk as he gets to finally take a …

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SSD Processors

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SSD Drives have matured considerably since Intel released their 2 1/2 SSD in early 2008. Many others were released consecutively, none of which could maintain the standard of the 1st generation Intel drives. These early SSDs contained JMicron and Samsung processors (controllers) and suffered stuttering and micro freezing issues and their overall performance was average compared to the Intel offering, that of which …

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SSD Manufacturers

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The below list comprises all SSD manufacturers, each listed in alphabetical order and is updates as frequently as possible. Should an error, an error, omission or update be recognized, please contact The SSD Review and we wil do our best to get the list updated . . SLC versus MLC The majority of solid state drives use MLC (multi-level cell) Nand …

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OWC Mercury Pro Extreme RE 100Gb SSD Review

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Lets just get the article going by stating that this drive is a rocket of a SSD and if you want the best in performance right out of the gate, you have it here.  We were so accustomed to the huge success of the Intel drives in overall performance that we had to give the Intel a few runs just …

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OWC Mercury Extreme Pro RE – Benchmarks

A discussion of benchmarks would not be fair without a brief reminder that we quite often look in the wrong place for performance in our SSDs.  If you look at the Crystal scores below, the 4K random measurements are actually the criteria by which the reader will see the most visible difference from their previous storage medium.  Briefly, small 4kb random reads and writes …

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OWC Merc Extreme Pro RE – Conclusion

Two unique features that stand out with the OWC Mercury Extreme Pro RE SSD release are that performance will not be lost as the SSD fills and that it will remain intact over the life of the drive due to its 28% over provisioning.  This certainly goes against the grain of what we have seen with SSDs historically and it …

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Why Do I Want an SSD?

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Ok so thats it!  You have spent weeks reading every article ever created about SSDs and are convinced that you have to have one.  Life will simply cease to exist if you cant experience the amazing technology that has rocked the earth for the past 3 years.  And thats why you are here!  From this point forward, we are going to …

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The SSD Processor

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In 2008, a SSD controller manufacturer named JMicron released their new and amazing SSD controller to manufacturers for inclusion in their solid state drives.  SSD companies received mass shipments, blindly incorporated them into their SSDs and got them out to millions of consumers worldwide.  This controller wreaked havoc on the growth of solid state drives as it did the reputation of …

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OWC Releases 400Gb SSD

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This just in from OWC Folks!!! I also have a 100Gb version of the newly released SSD below enroute to play with and review. More To Follow!!! . . . . . . . . OWC Doubles Capacity Of Award Winning Built In The US Mercury Extreme Pro Solid State Drive To 400GB. SandForce® processor based SSD line offers up to 285MB/s …

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Price, Brand and Size

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Our featured picture is a Sandisk 64Gb SSD which is the size of a postage stamp. . The primary concern 99.999% of us have with respect to SSDs is the price.  The size of the ssd, for the most part, dictates price and let me precede this by stating that if you are looking to build a RAID setup consisting …

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Introduction To The SSD

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WHAT IS A SOLID STATE DRIVE? To start, lets tackle the question of exactly what is an SSD and what are the benefits. The easiest way to describe this is as an SSD being an array of flash memory modules similar to a flash drive which are controlled in such a way that, once the computer is shut off, it …

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