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Power-Loss-Protected SSDs Tested: Only Intel S3500 Passes
lkcl writes "After the reports on SSD reliability and after experiencing a costly 50% failure rate on over 200 remote-deployed OCZ Vertex SSDs, a degree of paranoia set in where I work. I was asked to carry out SSD analysis with some very specific criteria: budget below £100, size greater than 16Gbytes and Power-loss protection mandatory. This was almost an impossible task: after months of searching the shortlist was very short indeed. There was only one drive that survived the torturing: the Intel S3500. After more than 6,500 power-cycles over several days of heavy sustained random writes, not a single byte of data was lost. Crucial M4: failed. Toshiba THNSNH060GCS: failed. Innodisk 3MP SATA Slim: failed. OCZ: failed hard. Only the end-of-lifed Intel 320 and its newer replacement, the S3500, survived unscathed. The conclusion: if you care about data even when power could be unreliable, only buy Intel SSDs."
Relatedly, don't expect SSDs to become cheaper than HDDs any time soon.
Because Intel doesn't make UPS and he is shilling for Intel? Seriously, people actually run WITHOUT a UPS nowadays? There's no excuse. They're not $700 beasts like they used to be.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
A £100 budget was mentioned. I guess Intel was the only vendor that offered enterprise hardware below that.
The Intel 320 apparently delived good results as well, and that's not enterprise grade whatever that means anyway.
I've never found a UPS useful. I used to buy them, but this always happened:
* Power went out
* UPS didn't quite come up in time
* Computer reset
* UPS now was happy to provide power for my computer to boot
I've tried very expensive and very cheap - they just don't work for computers in my experience, and the batteries need replacing every couple of years, and are difficult to dispose of.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
I've had at least two UPSes add injury to insult by simply dropping dead and failing to even act as a power strip, merrily cutting power to everything attached to them despite mains power being available (and every 'unprotected' device not even flickering). Thanks a lot APC...