SSD through an IDE?

[TheGreatSatan]

If I use an SSD drive with an adapter to IDE will I see a performance drop? The motherboard only has an IDE option and I have to use it. Don't ask why, you'll just have to wait till the Mod comes.

[TheGreatSatan]

Ah, Nevermind! I found another board option with SATA!:banana:

[artoodeeto]

good call - I'm not sure an SSD would work correctly on an IDE connection, the drives are WAY too fast for IDE. I remember seeing something about that when I researched them about a year ago prior to buying one, there was some debate even for SATA as to the cable quality adversely affecting drive performance (ie, cables bundled with the m/b not being good enough). I'm running mine on SATA cables that came with my ASUS Crosshair II Formula m/b, and the drive works beautifully...

[x88x]

If I use an SSD drive with an adapter to IDE will I see a performance drop?

Short answer? Yes.
Long answer? If the drive has read/write speeds over 133MBps, then yes.

Good news about finding the other board though.


there was some debate even for SATA as to the cable quality adversely affecting drive performance (ie, cables bundled with the m/b not being good enough).

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that's a load of crap (the argument, not that it existed). Unless maybe if you're running SATA cables longer than 6-12' (and I challenge you to find someone who has done that...no seriously, if it's been done I want to see it, that would be awesome), I very highly doubt there would be any measurable difference in the signal.

[simon275]

SSD drives have huge throughput they can saturate a SATA6 connection. Go and check out the PCI-E based SSD drives they can fly.

[Diamon]

Well, pretty much all computer cables are the same inside. Just solid copper. Go find some solid silver SATA cables and you might get a performance increase that's almost measurable.

[artoodeeto]

naaaah....you don't need cables. Just aim the two devices at each other and they'll communicate wirelessly? Right? That's how it works isn't it? Isn't it....? :whistler:

[Airbozo]

SSD drives have huge throughput they can saturate a SATA6 connection. Go and check out the PCI-E based SSD drives they can fly.

The PCI-e based ssd's are a different beast altogether and only _simulate_ a sata connection. One of our customers wants us to test multiple pci-e based storage devices on the ASUS gpu supercomputer board to find out where the saturation point is. So far we can not afford to do this test. We are working with TMS (Texas Memory Systems), to see if they will collaborate on this project. If I remember right, it would only take 3 of those boards to saturate the PCI-E bus.

As a matter of fact, TMS is here right now. They are one of the sponsors of our customer appreciation BBQ being held as I type. Intel is here, Overland Storage and a couple others I can't recall. Let me go ask TMS how many of their boards it takes to saturate the bus. BRB

EDIT: The correct answer would be 3.

[artoodeeto]

If I remember right, it would only take 3 of those boards to saturate the PCI-E bus.

Good lord...only 3. Wow. I went to SIGGRAPH this year in Los Angeles, and one of the companies was demo-ing one of the PCI-E SSD's. They were streaming...I think about a thousand DVD-quality movies from it simultaneously. Needless to say, I would LOVE to get one of those things in my system, although their cost is just a wee tad prohibitive. :dead: Especially since I don't really *need* that kind of speed. It'd just be nice to have the drive on a card rather than a separate piece in the case...and the speed would be good too.

Airbozo, if anyone accidentally leaves one sitting around, can you accidentally ship it to me? :P

[Airbozo]

....

Airbozo, if anyone accidentally leaves one sitting around, can you accidentally ship it to me? :P

Hehe, If that happens I might as well deliver it as I am looking for a new job...

I spent some time talking to our rep, and told him why I asked. They probably would not send one of their boards to TBCS for testing, but he did offer 2 things;

One option would be for them to setup a system and give us remote access to it and we could load whatever we wanted for benchmarks. I could justify time on that system for TBCS IF we (my company) got access to the testing data which we could publish on our site.

Second, they would also be willing to send one of the low end model cards to my facility for our in house testing. We would not be able to send this card to TBCS, but we could have someone here do the testing/benchmarks. Depending on the timing of this, they would allow us to keep the demo board for up to 3 weeks.

And TGS, sorry for bumping your thread off topic.
I have used regular sata drives in an ide adapter sled (and a fiber channel adapter sled) with no issues. I have not tried one of the SSD's in that same sled yet.

[x88x]

Now you just need to find a manufacturer who's working on a PCIe v3 board, get TI to make a PCIe v3 compatible version, and you can run 6! :twisted:

[artoodeeto]

Now you just need to find a manufacturer who's working on a PCIe v3 board, get TI to make a PCIe v3 compatible version, and you can run 6! :twisted:

I think at that point I'd rather have the bazillion dollars in cash than have the drives :D

[x88x]

But....but...96GBps read/write speeds!

[mDust]

But....but...96GBps read/write speeds!

This. This is what everyone wants whether they realize it or not.


The ATA-7 standard defines Ultra DMA/133 (also called Ultra DMA mode 6 or Ultra-ATA133), which allows drives to theoretically reach throughputs of 133 Mb/s.
http://en.kioskea.net/contents/pc/ide-ata.php3This is the fastest IDE standard to date. A fairly meager SSD will read/write about 100MB/s, most are much faster. With 8 bits in a byte that's 800Mb/s minimum that meager SSDs need to not be bottle-necked...IDE falls far, far short. Especially since that 133Mb/s is theoretical and not practical...:facepalm:

Nobody should ever be using SSDs on IDE. I will punch you if you do!:)