Let's switch to SSD: a guide to choosing a solid-state drive and a test of the best models. HDD vs SSD in games: comparison of boot time and performance SSD read/write speed

In this article we will find out how and to what extent the SSD affects performance in real-life conditions of use.

If you have long wanted to see the real performance of SSDs in comparison with conventional HDDs, or if you were thinking about migrating your system to an SSD, but didn’t know if it was worth it, this article is for you!

There is little point in testing the disk under ideal conditions, because... This doesn’t happen in real life, so I deliberately consider tests using examples from real life, when the disk is filled with thousands of files, games, cache files of browsers and video processing programs, etc.

So, grab some popcorn, sit back, and let's get down to business.

What is the problem with HDD drives?

The problem is that ordinary HDD drives, which we still use in computers, have not changed since the 1990x wiki, when it was first decided to ref make HDDs operating at 4300 rpm and 5400 rpm (revolutions per minute)

It was 2016 - 20-25 years later, we still have the same 5400 rpm drives running at 60-90 MB/s, but user needs have long since changed, we are now working with huge projects and big amount files in multitasking mode, requiring a lot of bandwidth and disk responsiveness, even if several other programs are already running in the background.
Since 2001, some manufacturers began to produce consumer segment drives operating at 7200 rpm, instead of 5400, but this did not change anything, the increase from 90 MB/s to 120 MB/s (33% - 5400-7200) is still does not give a significant effect.

Tests | synthetic (potential disk speeds)

Below is a synthetic test comparing the performance of the most important aspect - the disk's performance with small data blocks (specifically 4 KB):
During operations - reading (read)
  • HDD is slower 94 times(0.68 MB/s vs. 63.6 MB/s), compared to SSD
  • HDD is slower 53 times(0.36 MB/s vs. 19 MB/s), compared to SSD
During operations - recording (write)
  • HDD is slower 178 times(0.78 MB/s vs. 139 MB/s), compared to SSD
  • HDD is slower 86 times(0.64 MB/s vs. 55 MB/s), compared to SSD

Why are we mainly interested in the result of disk operation with small blocks of data?
The thing is, whether you open a browser, or import a project consisting of hundreds of files into a program like Unreal Engine, no matter what you do, in all such cases, the computer is processing a huge number of small blocks of data (mostly reading , so read speed is usually more important than write speed)
Sequential speed (“Seq Q32T1” and “Seq” in the screenshot above) is important when writing/reading large files (MB or GB), which happens less frequently and does not affect the responsiveness of the system to the same extent as working with thousands of small ones blocks.

Why are Apple computers so much more responsive than regular PCs and “never” slow down?

In the world of computers, there is an opinion that the whole problem is in the operating system - Mac OSX on Apple computers is “optimized”, “never slows down”, “no blue screens system failure"

Maybe it's because:
Apple computers (not counting the cheapest configurations): have all the same components, except one - m.2 SSD drive / proprietary analogues:
- Running at speeds (700 - 1100 MB/s) over NVMe, with the ability to handle 65,000 wait threads executing 65,000 commands each
- Having data loss prevention systems, overheating protection systems that help prevent errors and freezes when working with several GB of data consisting mainly of small blocks, in multitasking mode
- etc. and so on.
While, experience with Windows PC was formed while working with computers that have:
- Regular HDD 5400 rpm (noisy and vibrating during operation, due to the presence of moving parts) capable of processing 1 standby thread executing 32 commands
- Running at speed (60 - 110 MB/s)
- Constantly forcing all users to observe the “Not responding” state, observing the mockingly slow response when working in multitasking mode, not only with small, but also with relatively large blocks of data.

Leaving all the other components of the computer in place, swap the disks, putting the 5400 rpm HDD on the Apple, and the m.2 SSD on the Windows PC, and it turns out that the disk is really the most important (for speed and responsiveness) part of the computer, because a regular HDD drive is very slow, and forces the entire system to wait until it finishes processing all queues of tasks from programs and the OS, which slows down greatly when working in multitasking mode, having, in addition, applications doing work in the background, which can be quite a lot - from auto-updating project dependencies to tasks assigned for processing by the user himself.

Now, let's move on to the tests!

Test configuration | Real-life tests

All test results were obtained on a laptop with these components:
OS: Windows 10
CPU: i7 3610qm
RAM: 12 GB
Subjects:
HDD: Toshiba MQ01ABF050 | 465 GB (SATA)
SSD: Kingston HyperX Fury | 120 GB (SATA)

| Updating clean Windows 7 to Windows 10

SSD Total time: ~9 minutes - 188% faster (2.9 times)
HDD Total time: ~26 minutes

The first 4 lines are the process Windows updates 10
The last line is a test to make sure the update process is complete and the PC is ready to go.

| Windows 10 startup time

SSD Time Windows startup and programs in the tray: 0:16 | Total time: 0:23 - 217% faster (3.17 times)
HDD Windows startup time and tray programs: 0:48 | Total time: 1:13
PDF opened immediately after desktop appeared
The countdown ended after loading programs in the tray and fully opening PDF file

| Application launch time

SSD Application launch time | Total time: 1:44 - 274% faster (3.74 times)
HDD Application launch time | Total time: 6:29

| Application task execution time

SSD Performing tasks in applications | Total time: 2:29 - 175% faster (2.75 times)
HDD Performing tasks in applications | Total time: 6:50

results

Judging by the tests and sensations, our experimental HyperX Fury SSD outperformed the HDD in all respects in 100% of cases, solving the headache in all areas requiring high system responsiveness, such as game creation, video / audio processing, particle simulation, post-processing, work with hundreds of GB of data or thousands of OpenEXR.

After switching to an SSD drive, there are no longer noticeable problems with stuttering, whether it is a processing speed issue in AE, due to the fact that your sublime text downloads dependency updates using 100% of the disk at the time, or stopping work from -due to the fact that BVH is being calculated in the background before rendering in blender, or while Maya, for several hours, creates alembic cache files, preventing you from even accessing the Internet without freezing.
Not noticeably larger and no waiting for Audacity to hang after reducing audio track, every 2 minutes and no waiting until all the HDR or EXR in the folder are loaded, 1-3 minutes each time (!). You no longer have to stop one application in order to speed up the responsiveness of others, because... it loaded the disk at 100%. You don’t have to wait a few seconds after each action in Unreal Engine, for any aspect of the work, from importing files to applying and testing assets.
Not to mention the speed of rebooting the system after updates, which happens in seconds instead of minutes, and opening applications, which now happens “relatively” instantly.

Etc., etc., if you have encountered all this, you understand me well and there is no point in continuing to write resolved problems, but if you do not understand what we are talking about, most likely you will become bored reading a couple of hundred more problems resolved with the help SSD, anyway.

By personal experience, I noticed that while you are working on a computer with a HDD, you don’t notice how unproductive and irritating your work is due to constant expectations and the “not responding” status, especially if your work on the computer is not limited to surfing the Internet.

Bottom line - do you need an SSD?

If you need a disk:
  • Operating absolutely silently (unlike HDD, which has moving parts that create noise and vibration)
  • A disk that doesn’t make you nervous because of endless waits and slow work of programs from the stage of opening the program - working in it - to closing it, only because, unlike all other PC components and programs, the speed HDD operation Consumer drives have not evolved in the last 20 years.
  • If you need a disk that has a speed and responsiveness advantage over the HDD several times over in all types of tasks, from Internet browsing to multitasking typical for code / game development, working with 3D graphics, animation, particle simulation / video processing, audio / etc.
In this case, SSD is for you

When a PC gamer wonders what tuning options are the most important, besides compulsory purchase powerful graphics card and processor, we give him the following advice: replace your classic hard drive with an SSD drive. Just buy not a SATA-SSD, but a flash drive that transfers data via PCI-Express and uses the NVMe protocol for this.

Such models achieve five times higher data transfer speeds, and this technology practically knows no upper limit. Currently, the market is more and more filled with similar turbo drives (albeit still quite expensive), so the gamer is faced with the question of whether he is ready to invest a little more Money a significant increase in speed or will give preference to classic, relatively slow SSDs.

New era of turbo SSD

To replace the HDD, you didn’t have to think about anything special - just buy a drive of the size you need. Over time, everything became somewhat more complicated, since the SATA interface was originally designed to work with the AHCI (Advanced Host Controller Protokol) protocol and the corresponding driver for slow classic drives with spinning magnetic disks.
An unpleasant side effect: the SATA-600 interface allows maximum speed data transfer rate of 600 MB/s.

If you look at ours, you can see that many models achieve an average data transfer speed (when reading) already above 550 MB/s, and when writing, you can often see 540 MB/s on their “speedometer”. Thus, it becomes obvious that the potential for growth in indicators this technology today it no longer has.

In other words, the SATA interface can become a so-called “bottleneck” for flash drives, which are becoming faster and faster. Good that new SSDs they bypass this speed limit if they use PCIe connectors for connection instead of red SATA cables - that is, use the type of connection that was traditionally used for graphics cards. A single PCIe 3.0 lane can theoretically transfer up to 1 GB/s.

Tiny NVMe-SSDs like the new Samsung PM971 are also suitable for ultrabooks or tablets - they measure only two centimeters

In this test, four such lines were used to connect SSD drives. So this gives a maximum of 4 GB/s - at least in theory. In practice, this indicator is not achieved: the highest data transfer rate to date was demonstrated by newest samsung 960 Pro with a result of 2702 MB/s when reading.

This is significantly faster than any SATA-SSD, and the interface has not yet exhausted its potential: data transfer speeds are currently limited by the type of flash memory used and the storage media controllers.

This might be interesting:

Two different types of connectors

Unlike SATA drives, when buying a turbo SSD you should pay attention to right choice its form factor. Fast data storage devices can be produced both in the form of expansion cards inserted into a PCIe connector, and in the form of memory strips that are installed in so-called M.2 slots.

Thus, before purchasing the model you like, we recommend that you take a look at the motherboard and check whether the appropriate type of interface is presented there.

Many SSD manufacturers are developing software, which analyzes the state of the NVMe-SSD. Intel calls it Solid-State Drive Toolbox

This advice is especially relevant for older motherboards, since their M.2 slot can only output the SATA bus for data transfer. The one who collects for himself new computer, may not bother too much with this issue: motherboards for new processors they have M.2 connectors with a PCIe connection and support the new Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) data exchange protocol - this provokes a second turbo leap.

Unlike models for M.2, SSDs in the form of a card for a PCIe connector may also be interesting for upgrading older systems. However, you should definitely pay attention to ensure that there is one more free PCIe slot on the motherboard in addition to the occupied one. graphics card.

And one more small detail may turn out to be very important: of the six SSD drives taken for this test, four have an expansion card form factor, but only three of them support the PCIe 3.0 standard. Kingston HyperX Predator is limited only by PCIe 2.0, which is capable of passing only 500 MB/s through the line.

And while your read and write speeds of 1400 and 1010 MB/s, respectively, will be significantly better than SATA competitors, they won't match the performance of the fastest SSDs. In this case, media that support PCIe 3.0 will also work in the PCIe 2.0 slot, but their speed will be significantly reduced.

Overheated SSDs become slower

The Angelbird Wings PX1 PCIe card adapter with its own cooling radiator prevents overheating of the Samsung 950 Pro

We can now expect data transfer speeds in excess of 2.5 GB/s from PCIe SSDs. SSD drives with M.2 interface produced by OCZ are usually supplied with a PCIe adapter. Based on our measurement results, we see it as more than rational to leave the device there. We measured the characteristics of these devices for M.2 and without an adapter, registering slightly worse values: for example, when reading, a speed of only 2382 MB/s was achieved, which is approximately 130 MB/s less than with an adapter.

Very short reaction time

High data transfer speeds are good for speeding up loading, but the reason why Windows and games run noticeably faster with an SSD drive on a computer is primarily due to the low latency. During testing, we study it during I/O measurements (Input/Output), that is, counting the number of read or write operations performed per second when processing sequential memory blocks. This parameter, the so-called IOPS (Input/Output Operations Per Second), is the missing “ingredient” for a fast PC, which is often heavily loaded.

In this test discipline, the OCZ RD400 drive has an advantage with 43,974 IOPS when writing. When reading, on the contrary, the result of 18,428 IOPS is not even half of the previous one. Our rating leader, Samsung 960, has the same heterogeneity of characteristics: when writing, it reaches 42,175 IOPS, and when reading - only 29,233.

The enviable similarity of the results is demonstrated by Zotac with its approximately 35,000 IOPS (both reading and writing). However, when comparing products, this parameter often has to be combined with others. At the same time, turbo SSDs should soon “break through” the psychologically important mark of 100,000 IOPS.

The Kingston HyperX Predator performed the worst: about 23,000 IOPS when reading and 17,800 when writing means last place, and by a large margin. The main reason for this is outdated technology, since this SSD still transfers data using the AHCI protocol. The new NVMe access protocol, on the contrary, is optimized for working with SSDs.

The advantages of NVMe manifest themselves primarily when parallelizing processes: the data transfer protocol allows you to work with I/O queues of up to 65,536 commands. The AHCI protocol is limited to only one queue of 32 commands - and this can cause data accumulation under heavy load.

10 best SSD NVMe drives in terms of price/quality ratio

Even for new ultra-fast drives, prices are gradually decreasing, and the most inexpensive SSD with NVMe support can already be found at the price of SATA drives, and this is good news. We have selected for you the 10 best SSD flash drives with NVMe support in terms of price/quality ratio.

Greetings!
The speed and performance of everything depends on the performance of the disk (HDD, SSD) personal computer generally! However, to my surprise, quite a large number of users do not give due importance to this aspect. And this despite the fact that the loading speed directly depends on the storage medium operating system, launching programs, copying files and data from disk and back, etc. In other words, a fairly large number of typical operations on a PC are tied to the memory subsystem.

Nowadays, computers and laptops are equipped with either traditional HDD (hard disk drive) or the latest trend - SSD (solid-state drive). Often, SSD drives are significantly faster in read/write speed than classic HDD drives. For example, Windows 10 starts in 6..7 seconds, compared to 50 seconds loading from a regular HDD - as you can see, the difference is quite significant!

This material will be devoted to ways to check the speed and performance of an installed HDD or SSD drive.

CrystalDiskMark Review

Quite a popular utility for measuring and testing the speed of an HDD or SSD drive. She works great in Windows environment(XP, Vista, 7, 8.1, 10), is free and supports Russian interface language. Official website of the program: http://crystalmark.info/

For HDD testing or SSD in CrystalDiskMark you need to do the following:

1) Select write/read cycles. By default this figure is equal to 5 , which is the best option.

2) Then you need to select the size of the file to be recorded during the test. 1 GiB(1 Gigabyte) will be optimal.

3) Finally, you need to select the partition that will be used to test the disk. If you have multiple physical disks installed, then select the partition that is located on the disk you are interested in. In the example, there is only one installed hard drive and the partition is selected accordingly C:\.

4) To start the test, click on the green button All. By the way, in the vast majority of cases, what is of interest is the result of what is in the line SeqQ32T1– linear read/write speed. You can start testing only the linear read/write speed by clicking the corresponding button.

Test results will be displayed in the columns:

Read– a parameter showing the speed of reading data from the disk under test.

Write– a similar parameter, but showing the recording speed of the tested hard drive.

On the Kingston UV300 SSD tested in the example, the linear read speed was 546 MB/s - which is a very respectable result. In general, for the best representatives of SSD drives, this parameter varies around 500.. 580 MB/s, taking into account the connection to the SATA3 connector on the motherboard.

If the speed of your SSD drive is significantly lower than that declared by the manufacturer, then it makes sense to check whether it is connected to SATA3.

How to determine the version and operating mode of a SATA port

The developer of CrystalDiskMark has prudently created another diagnostic utility - CrystalDiskInfo. Its task is to display S.M.A.R.T information about the condition of the disk, its temperature conditions and other parameters.

In general, it is a fairly convenient and visual utility that should be in service with users for whom it is important to monitor the condition of the disk (its health) in order to avoid data loss due to its possible failure.

After launching the utility, look at the information that is displayed in the line “ Transfer mode»:

SATA/600– means that the drive operates in SATA3 mode with a maximum throughput of 600 MB/s.

SATA/300– this parameter means that the drive operates in SATA2 mode with a maximum throughput of 300 MB/s.

It may also appear SATA/150(150MB/s) is the first version of the SATA standard and it is considered very outdated and does not meet modern requirements for the throughput of connected media.

Whereas a classic HDD is quite enough SATA2(300MB/s), then the SSD must be connected to the port SATA3, otherwise he will not be able to reveal his full speed potential.

AS SSD Benchmark review

I present to your attention another remarkable utility, the task of which is to test the speed of the installed computer or laptop HDD or SSD drive. Using it, you can just as easily find out the speed characteristics of the connected drive.

The utility is free, does not require installation and works in the Windows environment. Official website of the program: http://www.alex-is.de/

Management is carried out in a similar manner to the CrystalDiskMark program. Linear reading speed is displayed here in the graph Seq.

HD Tune Review

The HD Tune utility completes this review. The capabilities of this program are not limited to reading/writing speed testing. Among other things, it also allows you to monitor the health of the hard drive, its technical specifications and even scan the disk surface for errors.

If we focus on the possibilities of speed testing, here we can note the following:

  • ability to separately set write or read testing
  • convenient visual graph of write/read speed during testing
  • ability to see peak speed and access time

The program runs in a Windows environment and represents convenient tools for monitoring and testing connected media.

Official website of the program: http://www.hdtune.com/

Brief summary

The speed of the connected media directly affects the overall performance of the computer or laptop. You should not neglect monitoring speed characteristics, because the overall comfort of working with a computer depends on this.

Now you know how to check the speed of the connected media, as well as possible nuances of its connection, which ultimately determine throughput connected HDD or SSD.

No matter what speed the manufacturer indicates in the characteristics of their SSDs, the user always wants to check everything in practice. But find out how close the drive speed is to the advertised speed without help third party programs impossible. The most that can be done is to compare how quickly files are copied on a solid-state drive with similar results from a magnetic drive. In order to find out the real speed, you need to use a special utility.

SSD speed test

As a solution, we will choose a simple program called . It has a Russian interface and is very easy to use. So let's get started.

Immediately after launch, the main window will open in front of us, which contains all the necessary settings and information.

Before starting the test, we will set a couple of parameters: the number of checks and the file size. The accuracy of the measurements will depend on the first parameter. By and large, the five checks that are installed by default are quite enough to obtain correct measurements. But if you want to get more accurate information, you can set the maximum value.

The second parameter is the size of the file that will be read and written during tests. The value of this parameter will also affect both the measurement accuracy and the test execution time. However, in order not to reduce the service life of the SSD, you can set the value of this parameter to 100 Megabytes.

After setting all the parameters, we proceed to selecting a disk. Everything is simple here, open the list and select our solid-state drive.

Now you can proceed directly to testing. CrystalDiskMark offers five tests:

  • Seq Q32T1– testing sequential writing/reading of a file with a depth of 32 per thread;
  • 4K Q32T1– testing random writing/reading of blocks of size 4 Kilobytes with a depth of 32 per thread;
  • Seq– testing sequential write/read with depth 1;
  • 4K– testing random write/read with depth 1.

Each of the tests can be run separately; to do this, just click on the green button of the desired test and wait for the result.

You can also do a full test by clicking on the All button.

In order to get more accurate results, it is necessary to close all (if possible) active programs (especially torrents), and it is also desirable that the disk is no more than half full.

Since in everyday use of a personal computer the random method of reading/writing data is most often used (80%), we will be more interested in the results of the second (4K Q32t1) and fourth (4K) tests.

Now let's analyze the results of our test. An ADATA SP900 disk with a capacity of 128 GB was used as an “experimental” disk. As a result, we got the following:

  • With the sequential method, the drive reads data at a speed 210-219 Mbit/s;
  • recording with the same method is slower - only 118 Mbit/s;
  • reading with a random method with a depth of 1 occurs at speed 20 Mbit/s;
  • recording using a similar method - 50 Mbit/s;
  • read and write with depth 32 - 118 Mbit/s and 99 Mbit/s, respectively.

It is worth paying attention to the fact that reading/writing is performed at high speeds only with files whose volume is equal to the buffer size. Those with larger buffers will be read and copied more slowly.

So, with the help of a small program we can easily estimate the speed of the SSD and compare it with what the manufacturers indicate. By the way, this speed is usually overestimated, and using CrystalDiskMark you can find out exactly how much.

Many users dream of their PC responding and launching applications as quickly as, for example, modern smartphones and tablets. And the path to fulfilling this desire lies, as a rule, not through a more powerful CPU or even through RAM larger volume. Best result is the result of replacing a sluggish HDD (or old SSD) with a really fast solid-state drive.

The measure of all things in this regard are modules with an M.2 interface operating according to the NVMe specification. Tire PCI Express and a data transfer protocol specifically designed for SSDs connected over it break through all the limitations that prevent conventional SATA-enabled SSDs from reaching speeds above 550 MB/s and which pose a bottleneck for parallel requests on multi-core systems.

2.5" SATA SSDs
Conventional SSDs in the 2.5-inch drive form factor are in most cases the only option for laptops and older PCs

But such SSDs are usually noticeably more expensive than solid-state drives with a SATA connection and require a modern motherboard. Next, we will tell you which computers this or that type of disk is suitable for and how big the difference in speeds is in practice. Then we present the results of tests of SSDs using the NVMe protocol, and in conclusion we advise the easiest way to migrate the system from an old HDD or SSD to a new one.

Choosing the best technology: NVMe or SATA

The type of drive you choose depends on the system you intend to upgrade. Most laptops (especially older ones) are equipped with only one SATA connector and a bay for hard drive. In this case, the disk can only be replaced with a 2.5-inch SATA SSD (see). The same applies to most PCs up to Intel generation Broadwell, even if some expensive motherboards have an M.2 slot (along with PCIe lines, it can also use SATA with its characteristic limitations). If there is no modern M.2 slot on the board, you can connect an M.2 form factor module to a PCIe slot via an adapter.


M.2 to PCIe adapter
Simple, inexpensive adapters (from 300 rubles) allow you to use M.2 drives in PCIe slots on a PC. To boot from them, the UEFI BIOS must support NVMe

If you are going to use an NVMe SSD as system disk, then UEFI should support booting from NVMe - you should check this on the motherboard manufacturer’s website (NVMe Boot option). Otherwise, you can use the SSD as an additional drive for Windows control, but this will be justified only in individual cases.
The M.2 slot has become widely used in platforms starting with the Skylake generation (LGA 1151 socket) - information can be found in technical specifications fees. But be careful: M.2 is primarily a designation for the card form factor (22x80 mm).

There are two types. The M.2 module with the so-called “B” key supports conventional AHCI technology, which is used to connect drives via the SATA interface. Such drives have the same names as their 2.5-inch SATA counterparts (for example: Crucial MX300 M.2, Samsung SSD 850 Evo M.2) and do not differ from them in speed. Their advantage is that with these drives there are no compatibility or driver problems, and even Windows installation 7 happens without problems.



If your PC or laptop motherboard has an M.2 slot, the optimal solution would be to install a high-speed SSD with support for the NVMe specification into it

A module with an “M” key and support for the NVMe protocol can use up to four PCIe 3.0 lanes. Most modern motherboards and many laptops are equipped with slots with a plug in the “M” position, that is, in principle compatible with NVMe drives. But in any case, before purchasing a drive with NVMe support, you should study the manufacturer's documentation and be sure to take into account the following: it is difficult to initially install Windows 7 on an NVMe drive. If Windows 7 is already installed on the computer you are upgrading, you can transfer the system to an NVMe solid-state drive.

In the early days of solid-state drives, due to their limited capabilities and high cost, it was popular to use one small SSD for the OS and one HDD for files in parallel. Now this option, as before, has a right to exist, but due to falling prices for solid-state drives, it is losing its attractiveness. The best price for one gigabyte currently comes from SATA solid-state drives with a capacity of about 1 TB: these models can be purchased from 17,000 rubles. For desktops and laptops with an M.2 slot and a 2.5-inch bay, a combination of a solid-state drive for the OS and programs and a high-capacity HDD for files is also justified.

NVMe vs SATA: Key Differences
The SATA interface was designed for serial access to the HDD. NVMe protocol enables parallel access to SSDs

On the other hand, the difference in price for a new terabyte hard drive (about 2,500 rubles) and a 256-gigabyte solid-state drive (about 5,500 rubles) on the one hand and a terabyte SSD (from 17,000 rubles) on the other is still quite large, so the option with two disks is still relevant. However, some users find it more convenient when the OS, programs and files are located on the same drive.

Owners of modern systems who want to switch to NVMe SSDs are faced with a choice. On the one hand, there are high-performance and expensive SSD drives (for example, the Samsung 960 line) that fully exploit the potential of NVMe. On the other hand, Intel offers a series of NVMe drives called 600p, which are interesting because the cost per gigabyte of memory is comparable to the price per gigabyte of SATA drives, and their speed, depending on the use case, ranges from “significantly faster than SATA” to "lower than SATA".


NVMe vs SATA: Practical Considerations
The speed benefits of an NVMe (Samsung) drive are also reflected when launching programs. When copied to an SSD, the NVMe standard is noticeably superior to modern (Crucial) and old (Intel) SATA drives

Practical comparison of different types of SSDs

The data transfer speeds and IOPS values ​​of NVMe drives are impressive on paper. But what advantages do these drives actually have? First of all, in a purely external comparison with 2.5-inch SATA drives, the practicality of the form factor attracts attention: the M.2 module is neatly located directly in the motherboard slot, while SATA requires the use of a power cable in the PC case, which is the main way and interferes. In order to clearly show the speed advantages, we compared three solid-state drives: an early generation from the Intel Postville family, a modern Crucial MX300, and an ultra-fast NVMe-capable Samsung 960 Evo 500 GB.


Ten times faster than HDD
NVMe SSDs (here: Toshiba OCZ RD400 256GB) read and write very quickly - this is demonstrated by special test software

The speed advantage should have been evident when the PC booted up, but during practical testing we encountered obstacles. We only had the latest M.2/NVMe platform AMD system Ryzen, whose motherboard spent a full 25 seconds initializing UEFI from the moment it was turned on until the desktop was ready. And this is despite all the parameters optimized for increasing speed: Windows 10 was installed in UEFI mode (that is, both the installation media and the solid-state drive were initialized as supporting the GPT standard), UEFI technology was configured to support Windows 10 and fast loading etc.

The next UEFI updates should reduce the delay. For Samsung NVMe drive, net time Windows boot is 8.6 seconds. A modern SSD with SATA (Crucial) requires 33% more time, and an Intel Postville drive, due to its low data transfer speed, generally takes twice as long. In other words, in everyday use the difference is quite noticeable.

High NVMe copy speed

The differences were especially striking when copying program folders to storage devices. When reading and writing in parallel, the NVMe drive demonstrated its unparalleled multitasking capabilities, achieving speeds three and four times faster than modern and legacy SATA drives, respectively. But all the more surprising was the slight advantage of NVMe when installing LibreOffice.


BIOS/UEFI boot delay
The operating system must be installed in UEFI mode, and the UEFI itself must be properly configured for the system to boot quickly

After calling the installation MSI package with the “/passive” parameter, the installation process immediately begins without prompting, and both modern drives are noticeably ahead of the old Intel in terms of speed - 23 seconds for Crucial and 22.2 seconds for Samsung versus 38.7 seconds for Intel. When scanning with Defender Windows copies In the “Programs” folder, it was generally discovered that the drives are of equal strength - even the low speed of the old SATA drive is used by Defender to a small extent.

The high-performance eight-core Ryzen CPU can be eliminated as a bottleneck. But during further testing, it was revealed that if the SATA drive is completely busy scanning, the system performs other requests (for example, launching programs) with a significant delay. A system with an NVMe drive continues to respond immediately. Because of this perceived smoothness and future-proofing of the technology, we recommend purchasing a drive that runs on the NVMe specification - as long as it's compatible with your system, of course.

That is why in the next part of the article we will talk in detail about the results of testing NVMe drives conducted at the Chip test center. But even if you're looking to save money or your system isn't compatible with NVMe-enabled M.2 drives, a modern SATA SSD will do the trick, especially since they're relatively inexpensive.

At High Speeds: Testing NVMe Drives to Endurance

If the disk is primarily required high speed data transfer, then it must be a solid-state drive operating using the NVMe protocol. If at first there was a very small number of similar models on the market (and not cheap ones), now the choice has become much more diverse. Even small suppliers offer their models. Our testing will show which model is optimal for certain tasks. We decided to limit ourselves to models for the M.2 slot. They are preferable to exotic, expensive PCIe cards because they can be installed on motherboards and laptops either in the M.2 slot or via an adapter in the PCIe slot.


NVMe drives: different controllers
The performance of NVMe SSDs largely depends on the controller used. The greatest potential is offered by Samsung Polaris with five cores on ARM architecture. The Silicon Motion chip of the Intel 600p drive (shown) is economical and affordable, but it is one of the slowest controllers

Technical Issues: Controller and Flash Memory

The tasks of the control element of a solid-state drive - the controller - are to exchange data with the PC processor via the PCIe interface, as well as to write to memory cells and read data from them. Its performance plays a special role when working with large amounts of data and parallel read and write access. Our test covers a wide range of modern drives with five various types controllers.


Software update
provision
In addition to powerful hardware, good drivers and firmware updates, which large manufacturers do better than anyone else

Samsung develops and produces not only memory chips, but also its own controllers with a five-core processor based on ARM microarchitecture - the most powerful of those tested, which constantly produces high results in almost every benchmark. Corsair and Patriot drives with a Phison controller can compete with Samsung in terms of read and data transfer speeds, as well as the number of operations performed per second - but, nevertheless, their write speeds turned out to be much lower. However, this difference when working on a home desktop or gaming PC will be noticeable in extremely rare cases. In this range of devices with performance and the mark “very good” also falls the Toshiba OCZ RD400 with a Toshiba controller, which reveals similarities with the Marvell chip.

In our table below, Toshiba shows a visible and tangible gap in the overall score, which is based primarily on performance: drives with Marvell and Silicon Motion controllers (from Plextor to WD) are a good ten points behind the previous position. But it should be taken into account that at least their price per gigabyte is much lower. However, Plextor is too underpowered for its price per gigabyte.

Therefore, the Intel 600p becomes an advantageous offer, the cost per gigabyte of which is at the level of SATA drives - however, this drive does not provide the performance typical of NVMe drives for very long. The point is this: Intel uses multi-level Triple Level Cell flash memory technology, in which three bits are stored in a cell. Because this technology is more complex than the commonly used two-bit Multi Level Cell memory, the writing process is slower. To correct the situation, the Intel 600p uses a certain part of the cells for the SLC cache (Single Level Cell), which fills up very quickly.


Solid State Drives
for PCIe slots
NVMe drives in the form of PCIe cards,
for example, Zotac Sonix (in the picture)
or Intel 750, are also characterized
high speeds, but cost more than M.2 modules

All incoming data first ends up here, and then is gradually saved into standard TLC memory. While this trick works, Intel reaches the speed of NVMe drives. But as soon as the amount of data increases, the cache can no longer cope. In this case, the cache has to be released (and this is a very labor-intensive process), and only then will it be able to accept new data. And since this overloads the controller, the cache, which in itself is a justifiable solution, becomes a bottleneck, and the speed is reduced to a level below the SATA drive.

Flash memory: MLC, TLC and others

Solid-state drives use flash memory of varying density, which depends on the stage of technology development.

> SLC (Single Level Cell)- the fastest and most reliable flash memory. Each cell stores one bit. Currently, SLC is used either in very expensive drives or as a fast cache.

> MLC (Multi Level Cell)- memory with multiple charge levels, storing two bits per cell.

> TLC (Triple Level Cell) with a large number of charge levels, it stores three bits per cell, which makes it slower and more sensitive than MLC.

> 3D-MLC or 3D-TLC means that the cells are located not only in one plane, but also in layers. The three-dimensional structure provides higher recording density and reliability and a shorter data transmission line, which means higher speed.

Heating problem and memory bottleneck

The last problem does not apply to drives that use MLC technology on an ongoing basis. But they are at risk of trouble due to heating. The long recording process brings the controller to its maximum possible temperature, and on a small module with purely passive cooling, the heat cannot be removed efficiently, and so the controller reduces speed to cool down. But in everyday use this is unlikely to happen often: the Corsair MP500 480 GB shows such a sharp drop after about 50 seconds of continuous recording at the maximum possible speed - and thanks to the high data transfer rate, this period of time corresponds to a 64 GB recording.


Data transfer speed: recording disadvantages
In reading, the Corsair barely pulls ahead, while the affordable Intel barely lags behind. When recording, the picture is completely different

Samsung Company It develops and produces memory and controllers itself, so its products outperform most competitors. Its modules use three-dimensional flash memory technology, which allows cells to be arranged not only in a plane, but also in layers, thereby reducing the length of data transmission lines and increasing its speed. The MLC (two bits per cell) version is designed for the expensive 960 Pro models, which are designed to withstand even high loads on workstations or servers. The 960 Evo models run on a cheaper version of 3D TLC memory (three bits per cell), their speed is noticeably lower, and therefore, like Intel, Samsung resorts to SLC cache.

On the 500GB Evo, it's very noticeable when the SLC cache is full: after 11 seconds, or about 20 GB, of writing (incompressible data), the speed drops from 1800 maximum possible to 630 MB/s. This speed remains fixed, indicating that the data is then stored directly into 3D TLC memory. The 960 Evo with a capacity of 1 TB has a larger SLC cache and twice as many memory modules, which the drive can write to simultaneously.


Disks with TLC memory are noticeably slower
Part of the memory of TLC disks is allocated for fast SLC cache. When it gets full, the speed decreases noticeably

In fact, the drive maintains speeds at 1,800 MB/s for about twice as long (23 seconds) before slowing down to about twice the minimum speed of the 500 GB model. But even then, you need to copy tens of gigabytes of data from a source whose speed matches or exceeds the speed of the NVMe SSD in order to reach the memory bottleneck - something that is unlikely to ever happen in normal use.


Heat stagnation in the M.2 form factor
During intensive recording under long-term load, available M.2 drives heat up and slow down, but this hardly affects the Samsung Pro at all

The Future of SSDs

As demonstrated by released and announced products, new types of memory open up new possibilities for using disks.

>Intel Optane- the name of the technology for M.2 drives running on the new 3D XPoint memory with instant response. Optane modules, however, are not intended to be used as storage devices, but as a fast cache for frequently accessed files stored on an HDD or SSD.

> Samsung Z-NAND- the next stage in the development of flash memory. The 800GB Z-NAND drive promises speeds of up to 3.2GB/s and 750,000 IOPS. However, when it will be released is still unclear.

Service and warranty terms

If you're buying an expensive drive that's built for the future, make sure your device comes with a long warranty. In general, solid-state drives and their flash memory have not caused any particular inconvenience lately, so some manufacturers - for example, Adata, Intel, Plextor and Western Digital- They provide a full five-year warranty.


Maximum performance with the correct driver
Windows 10 has a driver for NVMe, but optimal performance can only be achieved with the manufacturer's drivers

Toshiba OCZ even offers to immediately change the device free of charge during the term: you get new disk before you send the faulty one. On Samsung models The Pro also comes with a five-year warranty, although it ends when the drive exceeds a specified Total Bytes Written threshold. For the 960 Pro 512 GB, the threshold value is as much as 400 TB.

That is, in order to expire the warranty early, you need to write at least 220 GB to the SSD every day for five years. One way or another, the high speed of NVMe SSDs makes them promising for the next few years.

TOP 10 SATA SSDs under 10 thousand rubles.

1.

Overall rating: 95.6

Price/quality ratio: 74

2.

Overall rating: 91.2

Price/quality ratio: 67

3.

Overall rating: 89.8

Price/quality ratio: 48

4.

Overall rating: 91.3

Price/quality ratio: 22

5.

Overall rating: 89.6

Price/quality ratio: 28

6.

Overall rating: 85.5

Price/quality ratio: 19

7.

Overall rating: 87.9

Price/quality ratio: 69

8.

Overall rating: 83.7

Price/quality ratio: 28

9.

Overall rating: 83.3

Price/quality ratio: 15

10.

Data transfer rate (40%)

: 85.5


Access time / IOPS (25%)

: 46.2


Application performance (25%)

: 89.3


Energy consumption (10%)

: 100


Overall rating: 78.1

Price/quality ratio: 53

TOP 15 M.2/NVME SSDs

1.

: 96.1


: 94.5


Overall rating: 95.8

Price/quality ratio: 63

2.

Read data transfer rate (80%)

: 95


Recording data transfer rate (20%)

: 92.9


Overall rating: 94.6

Price/quality ratio: 79

3.

Read data transfer rate (80%)

: 91.4


Recording data transfer rate (20%)

: 89.3


Overall Score: 91

Price/quality ratio: 77

4.

Read data transfer rate (80%)

: 94.1


Recording data transfer rate (20%)

: 80.9


Overall rating: 91.5

Price/quality ratio: 60