Samsung 256GB SSD Benchmark Results **UPDATED**

[jtibbitt]

Performance is set to high but I'm just doing the disk test and not a graphics test.

What do you mean by performance and how is it set?

BTW, I'm running the 256GB Samsung in my Macbook 2.4 GHz with 4GB ram. 10+ benchmark runs show that my drive is getting about the same numbers as both tests results listed in this thread (except for that 209 MB/s Uncached Read - Sequential, from poppap). The best I got at that was about 193 MB/s.

 

[poppap]

What do you mean by performance and how is it set?

BTW, I'm running the 256GB Samsung in my Macbook 2.4 GHz with 4GB ram. 10+ benchmark runs show that my drive is getting about the same numbers as both tests results listed in this thread (except for that 209 MB/s Uncached Read - Sequential, from poppap). The best I got at that was about 193 MB/s.

In the System Preferences/Energy Saver of the MacBook Pro Unibody models, there is an option for either "Better battery life" or "Higher performance" but I think it's only for selecting the graphics chipset between 9400M and 9600M GT

My number maybe because I booted from the HDD and run test on SSD, instead of booting from SSD and run tests on itself.. Don't know if that affects the results in anyway...

 

[bbadalucco]

I've heard its bad to defrag SSD's...I've also heard that OSX automatically defrags...what is everyone who has a Samsung SSD doing about this?

Also, is there anything in particular you do different when setting up a SSD vs a HDD?

 

[poppap]

I've heard its bad to defrag SSD's...I've also heard that OSX automatically defrags...what is everyone who has a Samsung SSD doing about this?

Also, is there anything in particular you do different when setting up a SSD vs a HDD?

More information on fragmentation in the OSX: http://osxbook.com/software/hfsdebug/fragmentation.html

OSX does a great job in "avoiding" fragmentation in the first place. Since all the automatic defragmentation is all OSX file system function, nothing you can do about it.

 

[stylinexpat]

So there is no way to turn off fragmentation in OS?

 

[poppap]

To my knowledge, I don't think there is one.
It's not full "defragment" in a way that is done in windows file system.

 

[poppap]

The results are in!!
2x Samsung 256GB SSD in RAID0 32K Stripe set...

Sadly.. can't do any benchmarks in windows since it doesn't support Apple software RAID

 

[Chase R]

The results are in!!
2x Samsung 256GB SSD in RAID0 32K Stripe set...

Sadly.. can't do any benchmarks in windows since it doesn't support Apple software RAID

Damn... that's fast... ridiculously really fast.

 

[sascha h-k]

today i spoke to mr. bae (samsung germany), he told me that ALL samsung 256gb ssd's before april '09 are pre-models and therefore not "real" available ..
(and are not on the release standards as they will be from april '09 on ...)

 

[sascha h-k]

p.s. datasheet:

 

[Astronut]

By the way, about samsung ssd in RAID:
http://digg.com/hardware/24_SSD_Drives_in_One_PC_Awesome

 

[jb56]

I just bought one of the Samsung 256 ssd on eBay. Before putting in my laptop I wanted to confirm it was the real deal. Hooked up via an Ultra Dock and ran xBench. Do these numbers look right? I'm new to this so please bear with me if I don't know what I'm talking about. Thanks for any input. These numbers don't seem close to some of the first one's posted. Would this be because I'm running xBench over Firewire 800 to the ssd?

System Info
Xbench Version 1.3
System Version 10.5.6 (9G55)
Physical RAM 4096 MB
Model MacBookPro5,1
Drive Type Ext Hard Disk
Disk Test 79.09
Sequential 75.23
Uncached Write 58.10 35.67 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 98.66 55.82 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 52.96 15.50 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 144.12 72.43 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 83.37
Uncached Write 25.59 2.71 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 182.80 58.52 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 1505.89 10.67 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 361.44 67.07 MB/sec [256K blocks]

 

[Essjay]

I just bought one of the Samsung 256 ssd on eBay. Before putting in my laptop I wanted to confirm it was the real deal. Hooked up via an Ultra Dock and ran xBench. Do these numbers look right? I'm new to this so please bear with me if I don't know what I'm talking about. Thanks for any input. These numbers don't seem close to some of the first one's posted. Would this be because I'm running xBench over Firewire 800 to the ssd?

System Info
Xbench Version 1.3
System Version 10.5.6 (9G55)
Physical RAM 4096 MB
Model MacBookPro5,1
Drive Type Ext Hard Disk
Disk Test 79.09
Sequential 75.23
Uncached Write 58.10 35.67 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 98.66 55.82 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 52.96 15.50 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 144.12 72.43 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 83.37
Uncached Write 25.59 2.71 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 182.80 58.52 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 1505.89 10.67 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 361.44 67.07 MB/sec [256K blocks]

You guessed it, your results will be much slower because you are using FW 800 to an external case. Pop it in your MBP and you should get higher results.

 

[poppap]

Yup, Like the the name said.. FireWire 800 has max theoretical speed of ~800 Mbit/s (100 MB/s).
While SATA connector inside the MBP has theoretical max speed of 300 MB/s.

 

[sascha h-k]

here is something new, but in german ...

http://www.pcwelt.de/start/computer/festplatte_storage/tests/195290/samsung_mmdoe56g5mxp_0vb/

 

[jb56]

Samsung 256 Installed/Results

Well I got the Samsung 256 SSD installed and to say it was a pain would be an understatement.

I first formatted the SSD and then cloned over my existing hard drive. Well that didn't work at all. Lot's for freezing etc. So I ended up wiping the SSD, installed the GUID partition, did a 0 erase, fresh install of OS 10.5 etc. I then migrated my files to the SSD. Had some initial glitches with some of the programs but after fixing those issue's everything finally seems to be running like it should.

I will say this everything is much faster than ever before. Applications open in a heart beat.

My benchmarks don't match some of the other's I've seen and don't know why for sure. But they beat the hell out of my Hitachi numbers. Here's an Xbench I just ran:
Results 202.08
System Info
Xbench Version 1.3
System Version 10.5.6 (9G55)
Physical RAM 4096 MB
Model MacBookPro5,1
Drive Type SAMSUNG SSD PM800 Series 2.5" 256GB
Disk Test 66.33
Sequential 97.14
Uncached Write 56.23 34.53 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 105.99 59.97 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 90.18 26.39 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 348.39 175.10 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 50.36
Uncached Write 14.60 1.55 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 109.97 35.21 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 1592.74 11.29 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 833.44 154.65 MB/sec [256K blocks]

 

[emt1]

Well I got the Samsung 256 SSD installed and to say it was a pain would be an understatement.

I first formatted the SSD and then cloned over my existing hard drive. Well that didn't work at all. Lot's for freezing etc. So I ended up wiping the SSD, installed the GUID partition, did a 0 erase, fresh install of OS 10.5 etc. I then migrated my files to the SSD. Had some initial glitches with some of the programs but after fixing those issue's everything finally seems to be running like it should.

I will say this everything is much faster than ever before. Applications open in a heart beat.

My benchmarks don't match some of the other's I've seen and don't know why for sure. But they beat the hell out of my Hitachi numbers. Here's an Xbench I just ran:
Results 202.08
System Info
Xbench Version 1.3
System Version 10.5.6 (9G55)
Physical RAM 4096 MB
Model MacBookPro5,1
Drive Type SAMSUNG SSD PM800 Series 2.5" 256GB
Disk Test 66.33
Sequential 97.14
Uncached Write 56.23 34.53 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 105.99 59.97 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 90.18 26.39 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 348.39 175.10 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 50.36
Uncached Write 14.60 1.55 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 109.97 35.21 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 1592.74 11.29 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 833.44 154.65 MB/sec [256K blocks]

Uh those results are actually kind of bad. I'm not sure what the problem is, but something is not right. My vertex got far better write speeds than that. Unless the Vertex is just faster at writing?

http://att.macrumors.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=163230&d=1237505364

 

[jb56]

Uh those results are actually kind of bad. I'm not sure what the problem is, but something is not right. My vertex got far better write speeds than that. Unless the Vertex is just faster at writing?

http://att.macrumors.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=163230&d=1237505364

Yes your write speeds are faster while my read speeds are faster. Like I said my results don't seem to be as good as other's I've seen for the Samsung. One thing I've noticed is that the faster tests on this drive all seem to be on the 17" versus the 15" MB Pro. I'm running the 15" unibody.

I'm not sure what else to do at this point. I've done the proper formatting and installation. I was also getting alot of system hangs last night but believe most of that was due to preference issues with the data I migrated from my old drive. After updating most of that last night it seems much better this am. Right now though the jury is still out until I have a day without glitches.

Anyone else experience these issue's with the Samsung SSD or any SSD for that matter?

 

[poppap]

That numbers really doesn't look right.. Maybe you got a defective drive? Where did you bought it from.. eBay or Dell?

You can use this software to see how many hours has it been power on...

http://www.volitans-software.com/products.php

 

[poppap]

You all may already know that the performance will go down once every block on the SSD has been write to once.

This is the comparison of such occurrence on the 2x Samsung 256GB in Software RAID0
"Virgin" and "Used"

 

[jb56]

That numbers really doesn't look right.. Maybe you got a defective drive? Where did you bought it from.. eBay or Dell?

You can use this software to see how many hours has it been power on...

http://www.volitans-software.com/products.php

Pop - I bought the drive off eBay. I downloaded Smart Utility and it says the drive has been on 52 hours. There's no way I've had it on for 52 hours. I would say maybe half of that. The drive was sold as new.

I'm also having all kinds of problems with the system hanging even though I did the GUID and a zero erase then fresh install of system software. It hangs mostly when using mail, the finder and safari.

Any thoughts on that? Problem is how do I ever get my money back now?

 

[poppap]

Well... I'm not sure what's the number supposed to be fresh from the factory since I have not run this with mine.

I believe the one sold on eBay is supposed to be pulled from Dell machine.. No idea how many hours would it take for Dell to do all the preloading but shouldn't be as high as 50 something. Did seller mention anything about the return policy?

I have two Samsung 256GB SSD, One form eBay and another one bought off Dell site. Both seems to be working just fine...

 

[jb56]

Well... I'm not sure what's the number supposed to be fresh from the factory since I have not run this with mine.

I believe the one sold on eBay is supposed to be pulled from Dell machine.. No idea how many hours would it take for Dell to do all the preloading but shouldn't be as high as 50 something. Did seller mention anything about the return policy?

I have two Samsung 256GB SSD, One form eBay and another one bought off Dell site. Both seems to be working just fine...

Pop, thanks for the reply. I plan to do some more checking and talk with the seller some more. One thing I didn't know when I bought the drive was that it had been pulled from another machine. The ad said new. New to me means not previously installed. The seller also told me that he purchased these drives in a tray of a dozen I believe. His ad showed them sitting in a tray. So who knows. All I know right now is that my HDD was more reliable and caused me far less grief than what I've experienced the last couple days.

What does "CRC error count" mean on the Smart Utility report? It shows 1967. It did show no bad sectors and both tests completed without error.

 

[mmendoza27]

I know people are just going for the massive size of the 256GB Samsung and I know the controller is really good, but I'd rather go for the Intel X-25M 80GB or if you were going to do the same price range, just get the X-25M 160GB. There are no latency issues and the performance kills the OCZ Vertex and Summit.

I'd say Intel SSD is the way to go, I'll probably wait until early next year to install one, hopefully it'll be 250GB or so.

 

[jtibbitt]

One thing I didn't know when I bought the drive was that it had been pulled from another machine. The ad said new. New to me means not previously installed. The seller also told me that he purchased these drives in a tray of a dozen I believe. His ad showed them sitting in a tray. So who knows.

Pretty sure I bought one from the same seller you are describing (Vienna, Virginia). The ad showed them all in a tray. And he still has some more left. But when it arrived, there was a tiny little scratch next to one of the screw holes and the drive already had 3 partitions on it. So it definitely didn't come straight from Samsung. I, of course, wanted a perfect condition, brand new drive in the original wrapper. It's possible he ordered them in bulk from someone else who obtained them from various computers. But I'm happy with the buy. I didn't bother with purchasing the warranty. Just a slight gamble, I hope. It's a super drive.