So I ran CrystalDiskMark and this is what I got these number seem way too high for a SATA2 drive! What is going on here?
Caching. I havent used a Crucial drive so dont know what software they come with. My Samsung drive does exactly the same but even faster! Disable the installed software before testing.
For small transfers within the boundary of the cache size, yes. Beyond that no. Not to be sniffed at though, it makes your OS snappier. But it defeats many benchmarks.
Write is much faster than read with caching because when you're writing to the SSD, you can store the written data in memory (before it gets gradually written to the SSD in a slower fashion), but when you're reading from the SSD, you have to pay the penalty of reading at least once from the SSD, at which point you can then cache what was read if it were to be requested again (then you'd get the same speed as writes). So, everything written benefits from caching, and everything read not for the first time can benefit from caching if it stays in the cache by the time it is read again (large cache size helps).
I get what you're saying..... Only problem here is that SATA3 can't read/write at the rates indicated by his benchmark results. 600MB/s is the limit of SATA3.
Yea that's the Momentum Cache at play with those numbers, you can disable it from Crucial Storage Executive for proper benchmarking. It can speed things up though when lots of data is being cached from/to drive for example. The biggest gain I've seen is the loading time of 64-bit RAGE. Without caching it was half a minute or so, with cache a few seconds only. I have it disabled though atm as I got some audio skipping and crackling issues in some games before in Win 10. Haven't tried out with the latest version of Storage Exec. though.
Keeping so called "Rapid mode" Turned Off on my Samsung 850 Pro. I've looked through this feature when I got the ssd, and decided against using it. Hmm... I could have at least tried it c1:
Momentum Cache makes a huge difference on the Crucial MX300 drives. My 525GB MX300 M.2 drive was insanely slow until Momentum Cache was enabled. Obviously there are drawbacks to these caching systems, such as data loss in the event of a power outage, but if your power is stable and blackouts are exceptionally rare, it's worth enabling caching features.
I guess the main principle is same (Momentum Cache, Rapid mode), but there are differences with inner working/controller and with the intelligence of particular caching implementation. The two are not necessarily the same is what i am saying
I get that but the risk of data loss in the event of a power failure is the same with any caching tech. At any rate, whether it's Crucial's Momentum Cache, Samsung's Rapid Mode, or whatever any other manufacturer calls their caching system, it's worth at least a trial run if your power is stable.
My take on data loss is the risk is more or less the same either way. Should a power loss occur mid transfer the target data is lost or corrupted. If the transfer completes the data is written on the disk and safe.
I haven't been able to lose any data worth remembering because of file system corruption since... windows 98(?) Let alone lose an entire disk or partition worth of data. And that's while using RAID 0 on messed up ABIT NF7-s controller during the period of two years. NTFS has been proven indestructible for me.
NTFS isn't quite indestructible, but it's pretty damn close. It usually takes a major malware infection or hardware failure of some sort to take out an NTFS partition. FAT32 was quite fragile in comparison.
Me neither, actually don't think ever had a data loss from HDD or SSD *knocks on wood*. All important data should be backed up anyhow, imo recordable CDs/DVDs are a safest bet as data is "physically" stored on them, not magnetically or electronically. A disc in its case tucked away somewhere safe is almost foolproof. Almost.
Even CDs and DVDs degrade over time. Expected life span of CD, DVD and Blu-ray is only 5-200 years....lol Still the longest life expectancy of any media type other than stone tablet or paper. Just make sure you buy quality discs and not the cheap ones and check them every couple years.
^ yea nothing lasts forever Plus a stone tablet can be easily broken by dropping it and paper can be easily destroyed by either fire or water. Discs withstand all of these better. Well, sure fire will melt them but they don't catch fire like paper. What was this thread about again?
Clearly tapes are the superior media /s http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16840998078 I believe these tapes have a life time warranty lmao.