Phoenix Pro Sustained Writes With Large DV Files?

[Savage1701]

What should I expect for sustained write speeds on a Phoenix Pro 60GB drive when writing large ( 6GB - 10GB ) digital video files?

I am running 64-bit Win 7 Pro. My ATTO numbers are at about 98% of what G.Skill claims, AHCI is enabled, Caches enabled, etc., so I think I have the drive correctly installed.

Just wondering what users have experienced writing files that are large and not easily compressed further. I know this type of file can tax SandForce controllers and slow them down under certain conditions.

Thanks for any help or information.

[vaca]

Hi Savage1701,
We haven't done such test yet.
Could you describe how you write your large digital video?
I guess some times there should be bottleneck on the source device or the interface of comunication .
Maybe you could share your experience of the speed thus other users could take it as reference and share their experience too.

[Savage1701]

Sure, typically, to test, I take a 6GB DV file of, say, a SageTV recording, either from an ATSC OTA TV show or an H.264 video file, put it on a 16GB SATA II Acard RAM drive on a 3Ware x8 RAID controller, and copy it back and forth.

Since video files are highly condensed, they should present a tougher test to a SandForce controller, if I am understanding correctly that SandForce drives achieve higher speeds by compression, over-provisioning to a slightly greater degree, and how they allocate writes to reduce write amplification and hence time-intensive flash cell wrting, as compared to previous generation Indilinx, Toshiba, and Samsung controllers that relied on on-board RAM caching to a much greater degree as well as not having the compression methods that SandForce controllers have.

Also, since SATA II is going to reasonably saturate around 260MB/s, I am at the edge of what a SandForce drive can theoretically write. Since I am using an x8 RAID controller, I've got bandwidth to spare (I've paired older SSD's and got over 500MB/s reads). I am also reasonable confident that, since DDR2 sustains reads from the byte level at over 1100MB/s then the RAM in the RAM drive is not a limiting factor either. I've written to that Acard RAM drive at well over 200MB/s from a 4-drive SSD RAID array of older SSD's that could still crank out 400-500MB/s sustained reads.

That being said, I've gotten writes to my Phoenix Pro 60GB under AHCI at around 100-130MB sustained of that sort of file of that size.

Does that sound correct for what a SandForce drive can handle with that sort of file type?

And please understand, in no way am I complaining about my drive. I am 100% satisfied with it. It specs at essentially what G.Skill claims under ATTO and other synthetics, and I can tell my boot times are faster than when I a fast Samsung-based SSD with 128MB RAM cache under the hood of my Win 7 Pro 64-bit OS.

Again, just curious what a SandForce drive can sustain for write speeds on an IHC10R chipset, set to AHCI, with this sort of file. Thanks.

[vaca]

Savage1701,
Thanks for your experience sharing and detail explanation.
Your equipments are really powerful.
I'll try to build a RAID-0 to be the source storage and find some video files to test.
Does any ohter firends have such experience? Your sharing is appreciated.

[Savage1701]

Vaca:

No, I don't know anyone else personally who has my type of setup. Hardware-based RAM drives are not that popular, as you no doubt know.

My system is set up primarily for stability and business use, but since I prefer NOT to overclock, I use things such as RAID controllers and RAM and SSD drives to squeeze the most out of my system.

I'd be interested in what you find for sustained, real-world write speeds of SandForce-based SSD's with multi-gigabyte files that can't be compressed much further, again, digital video or .wav audio files being prime examples.

[iNsuRRecTiON]

Experience is typical

Hi Savage1701,

the maximum speed should be around 140 MB/s, that's what you get from CrystalDiskMark and this test is using random data, i.e. not compressable.

Therefore you won't get any faster as this, with highly compressed video files.

This is a known weak factor of the SandForce SSD Controllers and if you want to use an SSD for video edit/cut, etc. you should using an Indilinx SSD Controller for that purpose.
Indilinx SSD Controller have an higher sustained write rate on compressed files.

SandForce is the best known SSD controller for everyday tasks and as the OS (Win7) drive..

regards,

iNsuRRecTiON

[Savage1701]

Yes, that seems to echo what I thought I read before. And I'm not grousing at all. I really like this drive, 140 sustained is nothing to sneeze at for my type of work, and it's a great drive.

I was more looking for some confirmation of what I thought I had read, and that reads the same at the article did. I know to go hardcore I need to RAID these, irregardless of the controller.

Thanks for the reply.