Elliott C. Back » Intel

SSD Stutter / Freeze Problems?

Elliott Back — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 02:37:21 +0000

I love the Intel X25-M SSD, but recently I’ve been having problems with applications stuttering, freezing, locking up, and not responding to input. Mouse cursors will hang, application don’t respond–essentially nothing works. I tried updating to the latest drivers, etc, but no luck. For informational purposes, here’s my system info:

OS Name Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Version 5.1.2600 Service Pack 3 Build 2600
System Model D975XBX_
Processor x86 Family 6 Model 15 Stepping 11 GenuineIntel ~2430 Mhz
BIOS Version/Date Intel Corp. BX97510J.86A.1487.2007.0902.1724, 9/2/2007
Total Physical Memory 4,096.00 MB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys
I/O Port 0×000003C0-0×000003DF NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS 512
Model INTEL SSDSA2MH080G1GC

I think I’ve found two things that helped:

Not running Mozy Backup
Turning off virtual memory page files on non-SSD drives
Move Google Chrome’s profile to a hard disk

If anyone has other tips on getting rid of SSD stutters, let me know.

Intel X25-M Solid State Drive (SSD) Review

Elliott Back — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 18:31:46 +0000

Intel, hands down, makes the best solid-state disk drives you can buy. They offer two products, X25-M and X18-M, which offer up to 80Gb of SATA storage in a 2.5″ form factor–perfect as a notebook drop-in replacement. The drives support Native Command Queuing, and are rated to perform 3.3K writes per second, and 35K reads per second. They use very little power, and generate almost no heat.

Intel X25-M 80GB MLC Solid State Drive (SSD)

This is the result of benchmarking the Intel X-25M SSD with HD Tach. Notice that the sequential read speed is 220 MB/s, and that random reads take just 0.1ms.

This is the result of benchmarking the Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 SATA 3.0Gb/s, an older 7200 rpm drive. It only attains 65MB/s sustained read, and 13.4ms random reads. The Intel SSD can read small bits of data over 100x faster than a spinning hard drive, and sustain a constant read rate over 3x the seagate. It’s those small reads & writes are what typically slow down home computers, as they need to constantly write small file for the operating system, file system, virtual memory, etc. With a hard disk, those writes impact the reading of other files, as the disk heads have to seek back and forth across the surface of the disk. With an SSD, there is no physical movement, and reads and writes don’t interfere in the same way.

If you’re interested in reading more, The SSD Anthology: Understanding SSDs and New Drives from OCZ not just compares all the SSDs on the market, but also goes into some detail about the underlying technology powering SSDs. They conclude that Intel’s SSDs, which offer incredibly low-latency random writes, offer the best value.

You can buy the Intel SSDSA2MH080G1C5 X25-M 80GB MLC 2.5-Inch 9.5mm Solid State Drive on Amazon for just $343!

Update: If you don’t understand how much better the Intel X25-M is than the competition, carefully looking at this just off the press benchmark against the new Corsair model should tell you. Why do you buy SSD? For fast random writes. Something the other SSD manufactors just do not get.

Pretty New Macbook

Elliott Back — Tue, 23 May 2006 05:52:44 +0000

The new macbook is pretty but not as juicy as the macbook pro.

Windows Vista on an Apple 12″ Powerbook

Elliott Back — Sun, 09 Apr 2006 02:19:01 +0000

Ever wondered if you can run Microsoft Windows Vista on, say, a non-intel Apple computer (like the 12″ powerbook)? Well, here’s proof that you can:

This is not a fake screenshot or photo–Microsoft Windows Vista is really on that Apple Mac instead of OSX, and it’s not an Intel x86 chip in there, either, it’s running OSX on a single traditional G4 processor. How did I do it? Simple: I got Windows Vista running in VMware 5 Workstation, which is a major pain, and then used Remote Desktop from the Mac. Did you know there’s a remote desktop client for the Mac? That’s the easiest way to get Vista on your mac.

Installing Vista on a virtual machine is a little more annoying. First, you need a 16GB virtual disk before the Vista beta will let you install it. Second, you need to format this space and then on reboot manually boot from CD again. Third, the virtual shared folder abstraction doesn’t work in Windows Vista for some reason.