Packaging:

Specifications:

Next: Speed Tests, Conclusion

Established in 1989, G. Skill is synonymous with memory modules that deliver great performance and have very impressive overclocking capabilities. What stands out with G.Skill memory is that for modules that can overclock the way they can, the price of their memory is often lower then similar modules offered by their competitors which don’t nearly have as good overclocking potential. G.Skill’s latest memory entries – the RipJaws and Ripjaws X series – have been praised by many memory enthusiasts.

Today we are fortunate enough to bring to you a review of the Ripjaws X series’ latest DDR3 8GB (2×4GB) kit. Let’s take a closer look.

Packaging & Aesthetics

The packaging is the normal hard plastic packaging used by most RAM manufacturers. The default speed of 1866MHz, timings 9-10-9-28, command rate of T2, and recommended DRAM voltage of 1.5v are all shown on the sticks themselves.

The Ripjaws X kit we received is a 2 x 4GB kit with red and black aluminum heat spreaders, which protect the black PCBs. The look of the RAM as a whole is something we feel would look especially great in a board like the Asus Rampage IV.

As with many high end memory modules, the heat spreaders themselves can be removed and replaced with third party heat spreaders of your liking.

Next Page: Stock & Overclock Tests

The SST-TS07B is an aluminum HDD enclosure that utilizes the speed and compatibility of the USB bus to make external 3.5” SATA 6G storage solutions blazing fast, yet simple to use with almost any system.

The full-color packaging includes a picture of the actual product as well as information about it. Heavy duty cardboard helps protect the unit during shipping, and certainly is capable of supporting the additional weight of a hard drive tossed in there as well.

Opening it up, we have the enclosure itself, AC adapter, USB 3.0 cable, and a clear plastic stand for those that wish to perch the drive upright to maximize surface area for better heat dissipation or to conserve desktop space.

The enclosure opens easily with just a flip of the latch on back and a small shake. The covers slide off and the tool-free mounting mechanism becomes visible. Pop open the orange mounts, insert the drive and slide it down into the SATA points, then simply lock the orange holders in place. There is a slight angle to the SATA data and power connectors, this appears to be designed in to prevent damage when sliding the drive into place. The mounting holds very well.

A Look Inside

Today, we look one of their peripheral offerings – a PCI Express expansion card that provides a internal 19 pin USB 3.0 header. The SST-EC03, or simply EC03, is a small PCI Express 1x lane device that adds USB 3.0 connectivity to an older PC, or expands the number of USB 3.0 ports for newer systems that have it already. It also includes a mounting panel that will fit in a 3.5” external front bay.

The Product

The EC03 uses the new Renesas D720200AF1 controller. Similar in most ways to the D720200F controller found on many motherboards with NEC USB 3.0, the new version of the chip provides improved idle mode power saving features, and consumes only 20% of the power required by the older chip.

Unlike many other PCI-E devices, the EC03 uses a 4 pin peripheral connector for power. This allows the elimination of power rectifiers, thus decreasing cost and increasing efficiency. However, it also means running one more wire across the interior of one’s case, something many enthusiasts may not be keen on doing.

Next: A Closer Look at the EC03

Crucial.com. The Memory Experts.

At Crucial.com, we know memory. We research it. Test it. Stock it. And we’ll even replace it. We’re among the first ones to get a new platform, OS, motherboard, or killer game and we waste no time putting it to the test. We sit in dark rooms reading benchmark scores. We spend hours installing and uninstalling memory modules into motherboard after motherboard… We don’t get tired. We never cut corners. We break our backs to get your upgrade out the door in a flash. And we support our products—and customers—every step of the way.

The M4 series is the consumer version of the C400 SSD produced by Micron Technology, and should function equally as well.

Specifications

The M4 series hits maximum performance at the 256GB density; smaller SSDs will not come close to the write performance of the 256GB/512GB numbers, and the larger model does not change specifications at all.

Skepticism initially weighed heavy in the air here at TechREACTION Orbital HQ after reviewing a few SATA 6G drives before this unit based on the SF-2200 controller, which were capable of much higher read and write speeds, and seeing the paper specs of the Crucial M4 drive designed on SATA 6G specifications. However, after use of the Intel 320 series SSD last month (which is entirely Micron/Intel designed and based on SATA 3G specifications), hope bubbled to the surface.

The read and write performance is in the 415/260 MBps range, which means the drive is not expected to be a screamer. Much like the C300 drives produced at the onset of SATA 6G, write performance is well below read performance, which is a sticking point when compared to drives using other controllers.

The increase in speed over the C300 series boils down to the new 25nm NAND flash used, and improvements to the Marvell storage controller, which has gotten minor improvements to boost both the transfer speed and its ability to use 25nm NAND chips.

The Drive

The M4 review package is simple in design and uses a bi-fold cardboard box with a band to keep it closed. Crucial and Micron logos are included, and both the blue band and the blue stripe on the box read “Crucial M4 SSD.”

Opening up the package, we find the Crucial M4 SSD is packed bottom-up. Beneath the drive, Crucial was kind enough to include a 2GB flash drive with data sheets and parts specifications included.

The drive itself consists of 2 gunmetal grey aluminum shells separated by a thin black spacer. This increases the height of the drive to the common 9.5 mm and will assist in maximum compatibility for 2.5” drive caddies for both laptops and PCs.

The Guts

Opening the drive reveals the meat and potatoes. As mentioned, the SSD design is built on a bottoms up design, so removing the top of the drive gives us a glimpse at the bottom of the PCB.

Eight 16GB (128Gbit) Micron NAND modules stare back at us, housing half of the drive’s 256GB capacity. MT29F128G08CFAAB-WP12 represents 166 MTs x8 width MLC NAND. The DRAM cache is also located on the bottom of the PCB, showing us Micron D9LGQ which translates into 256MB of 1333 MHz DDR3. Power control circuitry and the pin-out for the storage controller are also viewable. Linear Technology supplies the step-down regulator, while the caps are unremarkable.

Flipping over the PCB, we find the other half of our NAND memory, the storage controller, and more power circuitry devices. The drive controller is the Marvell 88SS9174-BLD2, which is a new revision to the C300 SSD controller, supporting higher IOPS and 25nm NAND memory. The Marvell controller supports TRIM and garbage collection, but AES is not included.

With specifications and assumptions abounding, the drive was installed and tested and run for a week as a desktop OS drive.

]]> http://www.techreaction.net/2011/08/17/review-crucial-m4-sata-6g-256gb-ssd/feed/ 4 http://www.techreaction.net/2011/08/01/review-ocz-vertex-3-240gb-max-iops/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=review-ocz-vertex-3-240gb-max-iops http://www.techreaction.net/2011/08/01/review-ocz-vertex-3-240gb-max-iops/#comments Mon, 01 Aug 2011 12:10:39 +0000 Neuromancer http://www.techreaction.net/?p=23554 OCZ Technology has made enormous strides in the SSD technology field since throwing the company whole-heartedly into NAND flash storage solutions. Their latest SATA 6Gb iteration is the Vertex 3 MAX IOPS edition. We have on the test bench the 240GB model, featuring the super-fast SandForce 2200 storage controller and 256GB of 32nm Toshiba Toggle Mode Double DATA Rate NAND Flash.

The specifications on the drive are very beefy. Sporting a 550 MBps max read speed, as do many of the other OCZ SATA 6G models, and a 500 MBps top write speed, which is actually 20 MBps slower than the “vanilla” Vertex 3 240 GB model, why would consumers want to pay more for the MaxIOPS variant? 340 MBps 4K write speed. The MaxIOPS pushes past the competition on an important file size for PC users. For those running Apple’s OSX, the HFS+ file system also uses a 4K file cluster so the MaxIOPS edition can really improve performance on their boxes as well.

Pay attention, dear reader, as TechREACTION takes the 240GB MAX IOPS Vertex 3 SSD to the bench rig and puts it through its paces.

OCZ: At a Glance

Founded in 2002, San Jose, California-based OCZ Technology Group, Inc. has built on its expertise in high-speed memory to become a dominant player in the manufacturing and distribution of solid state drives (SSDs), a disruptive, game-changing technology that is replacing traditional rotating magnetic hard disk drives (HDDs). SSDs are faster, more reliable, run cooler, and use significantly less power than the HDDs used in the majority of computers today. In addition to SSD technology, OCZ also offers high performance components for computing devices and systems, including enterprise class power management products and industrial power accessories.

The Package

While there are lovers and haters of any packaging, there are a few things that must be considered. The packaging should have enough protection for the device being handled, the ability to ship large quantities of the unit efficiently and most importantly, from the manufacturer’s POV, the ability to portray the product in a manner that meets their requirements. The last one is a little tricky, as not all manufacturers have the same requirements. Some may want just a model number, some may want enough information to make the product stand out from competitors, and even similar offerings from the same company.

The OCZ Vertex 3 MAX IOPS 240GB drive, like the rest of the Vertex 3 series, has an attractive glossy cardboard package, that holds a velvety cardboard insert. The black and grey theme with white and silver standouts, is a standard of the entire Vertex line. Most of OCZ’s products carry a similar style to the package design, but their lesser products usually are tagged with a gaudy color (like lime green). They stand out (as well as their lower price point) but the Vertex series is always a standout with it’s subtle grandeur.

Removing the insert reveals the 3.5” bracket, inserted into cut outs around the SSD. Removing the bracket from the slots allows the lid to lift easily and reveal the casing the SSD is shrouded in. Bracket mounting screws are also included, so there’s no need to dump a coffee can of PC parts to find a way to mount the drive.

With the drive removed from its ESD sleeve, we saw a recurrence of a minor issue that we encountered with the Vertex Agility 3 we had for testing. The large decal on the top of the drive had bubbles in its applicationl. It’s not a functional issue, and once the drive is installed it will be unseen.

The bottom label contains all of the serious information, such as model number and serial number, as well as specifications for its use, which include the mandated, RoHS and recycling info. Temperature and shock ratings are also included.

The included paraphernalia is a short data sheet and large case badge for those so inclined. Displaying the rather obvious “My SSD is faster than your HDD!” Proper marketing should have changed the label to read “My SSD is faster than your SSD!” just for the Vertex 3 crowd.

]]> http://www.techreaction.net/2011/08/01/review-ocz-vertex-3-240gb-max-iops/feed/ 2 http://www.techreaction.net/2011/07/14/corsairs-vengeance-12gb-2000mhz-memory/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=corsairs-vengeance-12gb-2000mhz-memory http://www.techreaction.net/2011/07/14/corsairs-vengeance-12gb-2000mhz-memory/#comments Thu, 14 Jul 2011 12:35:56 +0000 Trembledust http://www.techreaction.net/?p=22517 Corsair hit a home run in the latter half of 2010 with the release of their Vengeance 12GB 1600mhz kit. Buyers on Newegg raved about the stability of the kit, and the ability to run the Cas9-rated sticks at Cas 8. While this is something that would not impress most RAM overclockers, it did seem to put a smile on a lot of mid- to high-level PC users. Corsair seems to want to follow up their success with the recently released 12GB 2000Mhz version of the Vengeance ram with a slight difference. This kit claims to only need 1.5v to run at their rated 2000Mhz speed. Many other 2000Mhz kits recommend 1.65v to perform this feat. Being able to run high performance RAM at lower voltage settings without giving up performance would pique the interests of almost any PC user. Today, we are going to see how well the new Vengeance kit stacks up against other 2000Mhz kits currently on the market, and if the modules can deliver competitive 2000MHz performance while only requiring less juice than the competition.

Presentation

The kit is composed of three 4GB memory sticks packaged in the familiar box format most RAM manufactures use. Each stick comes in its own hard plastic casing, instead of one large single hard plastic encasement which seems standard for many memory kits. This choice in packaging is a plus in our eyes. It adds a sense of extra care for each stick.

The sticks themselves show the rated timings, which are 10-10-10-27 2T, and the recommended DRAM voltage of 1.5v.

The modules are on a green PCB and sport the same type of aluminum heat spreaders their little brother, the Vengeance 12GB 1600mhz kit, comes in. It would have been nice, aesthetically, for the sticks be on black PCBs instead of green ones, if only to match the color scheme of the heat spreaders, but this is purely cosmetic, and has no bearing on performance.

The sticks themselves are light in weight compared to similar modules whose heat spreaders use copper, such as the G-Skill Trident or Patriot Viper. Some would form the opinion that the Vengeance heat spreaders are not sufficient to keep this sort of high performance RAM cool. The truth is, RAM modules, while some would disagree, simply do not generate enough heat during normal usage to warrant extreme heat spreaders. Extreme heat spreaders are usually needed when the RAM is being highly overclocked while being used on hours on end. That said, Corsair’s choice of spreaders with this kit is not a bad one, as these modules are not claiming to be extremely high overclockers; in addition, the lower voltage required for them will generate less heat. However, if the stock heat spreaders aren’t to your liking, rest assured that you can replace them with heat spreaders that are more to your fancy.

Next: Bench Testing & Overclocking

About Intel

Intel started out in 1968 as the Integrated Electronics Company, and invented the x86 architecture in 1978 a 32bit processor still in use in almost every home user machine today. Intel is at or near the top in sales of CPUs, Chipsets, Graphics Processors, Network Interface Chips and much, much more. When Intel decided to produce Solid State Drives, they went at it with open arms, producing some of the highest regarded SSDs made.

So why SATA 3Gbps? Intel’s Answer, “Most computers users today are still limited to SATA 3GBps controllers.” As the top producer of CPUs, GPUs and motherboard chipsets, Intel is in an excellent place to know what computers are using today.

This points out that this drive is meant as an upgrade to existing technology. Various sizes are available ranging from 40GB to 600GB in density. Intel SSD 320 prices, based on 1,000-unit quantities, are as follows: 40GB at $89; 80GB at $159; 120GB at $209; 160GB at $289; 300GB at $529 and 600GB at $1,069. PC users that did not want to spend an extra $400+ dollars a year ago on an SSD that was most likely too small as an upgrade when they purchased directly from the manufacturer, can now do it themselves.

Intel even provides tools to help the end-user to make the move to a Solid State drive. Providing both an SSDTOOLBOX, and a data migration tool, which is based on Acronis True Image Home Edition which will only work with an Intel drive installed in your machine.

The Drive

The Intel 320 series SSD is a third generation SSD produced from Intel. Built using new higher density 25nm NAND flash memory, using the SATA 3Gbps interface it is designed as a more affordable, higher performance and more reliable version of the previous generations X25-M SSD. The 320 series is targeted at all consumer and business options from mobile to server deployments.

As a review sample the product shipped in a large cardboard box, with enough insulation around to ensure, the smaller cardboard box did not get damaged in anyway; Those pictures are not necessary, as they are not retail packaging. The drive itself, is a 7mm design, much thinner than most SSDs of any data density. To make the drive more suitable to all users, they added a small black ring to the top of the drive. This works as a spacer, to increase the height to 9.5mm. For laptop users, this is a “standard” size that is most common and simplifies installation in many hard drive caddies.

Note: The bottom plate is slightly tarnished aluminum, though this should not be indicative of retail sample quality.

Each plate internally, has a thin, clear plastic film to keep the drive from making contact with the aluminum frame. The thinner top portion of the drive is embossed with a arcing line from the back of the drive to one side near the front. This limits flex of the top plate and allows them to use a lighter material.

Opening the drive up, from the top down instead of the bottom up like other drives that use a 9.5mm casing, also designed in, we see the bottom of the PCB. Which holds two NAND flash chips. These 2 chips are 25nm designed in a joint venture with Micron Technologies. The IC number 29F64G08ACME1, is only for the two chips located on the back (top) of the PCB. These are both 25nm 64 Gigabit chips. These chips provide up to 8GB (10%) of extra space for redundancy per chip. This has been seen before on SandForce controllers that usually use 7% over-provisioning cache.

The two NAND devices are 64G in model, which translates to 8 GB single die. These chips are used both for NAND redundancy, to cover for failed locations on the stroage NAND, and additional memory space.

Flipping the board over we can quickly notice the remaining 10 NAND chips. Each of the 10 chips is labeled 29F16B08CCME1. Like the redundancy devices on the back of the PCB, these chips are designed in a joint venture with Micron. These storage chips are 8 GB Dual die NAND memory, for a grand total of 160 GB. Each NAND is based on an 8K page size.

The largest single chip on the PCB is the storage controller itself. PC29AS21BA0 was used in G2 designs of Intel SSDs, and has proven to a be a reliable controller for over 2 years. Changes have been made, such as real-time AES-128 bit encryption and the afore mentioned redundancy feature.

The other 2 main devices embedded are a Hynix Mobile SDRAM controller, and Kemet KO-CAP capacitors. H55S5162BFR-60M identifies the Mobile SDRAM cache, as a 1.8v 512 Mb chip and runs at 166 MHz. The chip is used for caching processes to the controller and does not store the data itself.

The six Kemet Tantalum KO-Caps (T520) are each rated to 6.3V and 470 microfarads +/-10%. In a parallel circuit, total capacitance is the sum of the parts which in this case leads to a .00282 farad rating. The use of heavy duty tantalum polymer caps in parallel over a single larger cap is an earmark towards durability and reliability. A parallel circuit will still maintain some charge in the event that one or more components fail, allowing cached data to be written to the NAND chips. Note: The event of one of the caps failing before a NAND cell is highly unlikely due to the quality of the caps used.

Intel Review recommendation

Intel documents that the 320 series drives will have better performance with larger data transfers (particularly 8GB data sizes or 100 minutes in length). This is due to a command called PAGE READ CACHE MODE. By checking registered pages into a buffer, the next page can be moved into place without waiting for the first page to be sent to storage. While using slower individual cycles, the speed kicks in when multiple requests are handled because of the increased data rate, despite the latency loss. It should be pointed out, that performance in writes improves as much as 33% over single threaded requests. This is not the same as increased queue depth so standard testing does not equal the field like on other drives.

In January of this year the IOMeter project at sourceforge has a new release candidate, and will be monitored as a possible benchmark in the near future when it goes live. At this time there is some speculation on the inconsistency of compressible data rates in random, pseudo random and repetitive data, which would in no way affect the Intel drive, but would affect other controllers.

As a compromise CDM 3 x64 was run at standard settings and again with the largest data test size available to test the benefits of the new command structure for paged data.

If extreme overclocking had a name, it’d be k|ngp|n. Vince Lucido (a/k/a “k|ngp|n”) is arguably the man who got such things started in the United States. Back when most people were still gawking at the extreme ventures of a few folks pushing overclocking to new heights with water cooling, this guy started to bring the truly extreme methods of employing liquid nitrogen (LN2) to achieve even more outrageous performance. While Vince was not the first person to use LN2 too cool a computer system, he was one of the very first to experiment with cooling not only the CPU, but also GPUs and motherboards with the cryogenic liquid. Breaking world records and taking overclocking and benchmarking to the extreme is his passion, and he has done it over and over again.

Here is a brief video introduction to k|ngp|n.

When k|ngp|n got started, one of the major hurdles was how to properly cool his components with LN2. Since devices did not exist with which he could accomplish thos, he started designing and building prototype LN2 containers (“pots”) which he could mount to the computer hardware in order to apply the LN2 to effectively cool the components. He started out doing this for his own adventures, but very quickly became overwhelmed by requests from other enthusiasts seeking to buy copies of the containers he was building. Seeing a golden opportunity, in 2006, k|ngp|n founded his business kingpincooling.com (aka “KPC”) and is now mass-producing his pots for enthusiasts all over the world. And R&D has not stopped, so he has continuously reevaluated and improved his designs to perfect his containers according to user demands and the changes in computer hardware. That brings us to the subject of our review today, the new line of KPC’s LN2 containers.

The new KPC LN2 containers

Note: The CPU and GPU container internals have been blocked out at k|ngp|n’s request. The containers shown in our pictures are pre-production components, and look slightly different than the production models; please see the images on the next page for details.

Next: A closer look…

On the bench today is OCZ’s latest SATA3 offering, the mid-ranged OCZ Agility 3 240GB. OCZ produces low-, mid-, and high-end SandForce SATA3 drives, marketed as the Solid, Agility, and Vertex series.

The Agility 3 drives are designed to be a balance of performance and value, and offer three capacities to choose from: 60, 120, and 240 GB. Sporting an advertised 525MB/s Read and 500MB/s write and a 4K IOPs at 45,000 (180MBps), “mid-range” hardly seems to be a fair adjective for this product. Coming it at over $450 for the 240GB drive definitely earmarks these drives for the performance enthusiast over the mid-range system builder. However, at only $125 for the 60GB model, keeping that particular drive in stock might be a problem retailers enjoy having.

About OCZ

Founded in 2002, San Jose, California-based OCZ Technology Group, Inc. has built on its expertise in high-speed memory to become a dominant player in the manufacturing and distribution of solid state drives (SSDs), a disruptive, game-changing technology that is replacing traditional rotating magnetic hard disk drives (HDDs). SSDs are faster, more reliable, run cooler, and use significantly less power than the HDDs used in the majority of computers today. In addition to SSD technology, OCZ also offers high performance components for computing devices and systems, including enterprise-class power management products as well as leading-edge computer gaming solutions.

The Drive

The packaging for the Agility 3 drive is the same packaging they have used for some time now. Sophisticated and elegant, the drive itself is shipped in an ESD bag and inserted into a cardboard knockout that holds the drive firmly in the center of the poster board thickness packaging. The color scheme used on the external packaging (lime green and black) is carried over to the sticker on the drive itself.

Although the internal knockout packaging contains slots to support a 3.5” mounting bracket, the Agility series do not include any. While this is one way to save money on shipping a product, of not retail cost, the thin metal brackets included with the Vertex series are missed here. This being the case, the drive was not mounted in the test station, but left to sit by itself atop the mechanical storage drives.

The drive itself is a standard 2.5” form factor. This provides compatibility with most laptops in production today, but necessitates the use of an adapter for most conventional cases on the market. Many newer cases are including 2.5” brackets or mounting points for SSDs now, so if you’re building a completely new PC, the lack of the bracket’s inclusion is not as important.

The drive features a black metal upper half and a dark chrome appearance on the bottom SSD plate. The top plate is accented with a generic Agility 3 sticker, with no hint of data density. The color scheme on the packaging is continued here as well, lime green on black. Some bubbling was noticed on the logo sticker. Although it will not effect the performance of the drive, it could cause tear points sliding it in or out a drive cage.

The bottom plate carries labels for the specific model number of the drive, as well as some cautionary advice (“Do not drop!” and “Do not press!”). A separate sticker includes the SN and UPC code.

Opening the drive up reveals an extremely clean setup. The SandForce 2281 controller is the centerpiece here, providing the speed an reliability that DuraWrite technology has brought to the SSD market. A single 2281 controller can support up to 512GB of NAND memory, and 500MBps at 128K size. NCQ is supported up to 32 queue depth, and AES drive encryption of 128 or 256 bits is also on offer.

The memory chips them selves are Micron built 128Gbit chips, a total of 16 are included on the PCB (8 front, 8 back), for a total data density of 256GB. Micron part number 29F128g08cfaaa is labeled on each chip. As this is the largest model of the Agility 3 series, there are no empty NAND spots left on the PCB, and larger drives would require moving to 256Gbit chips.

The last feature to note on the PCB are the dual LED indicators located next to the SATA data port. The one LED indicates power to the drive, and is visible from outside the drive as a soothing green glow. The other LED is labeled FLT, and would indicate a fault or failure of the drive. Once installed inside of a computer case, neither LED will be readily visible, however.

Test System and Applications

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