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Sandisk 5000 SSD Measurements

These are a couple of old 8GB (7.5GbB). Their specs are like so:


server% sudo smartctl -d atacam -i /dev/ada4
smartctl 6.0 2012-10-10 r3643 [FreeBSD 9.0-RELEASE amd64] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-12, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Device Model: SanDisk SSD SATA 5000 2.5
Serial Number: 00404300490
LU WWN Device Id: 5 001b47 930303334
Firmware Version: 1.22
User Capacity: 8,012,390,400 bytes [8.01 GB]
Sector Size: 512 bytes logical/physical
Rotation Rate: Solid State Device
Device is: Not in smartctl database [for details use: -P showall]
ATA Version is: ATA/ATAPI-7 T13/1532D revision 4a
SATA Version is: SATA 2.6, 1.5 Gb/s
Local Time is: Sat Dec 15 23:45:03 2012 CST
SMART support is: Ambiguous – ATA IDENTIFY DEVICE words 82-83 don’t show if SMART supported.
SMART support is: Available – device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled

Doing sequential read measurements (I have two of these SSD’s, one as tank_zil0 and one as tank_zil1):


server% sudo dd if=/dev/gpt/tank_zil1 of=/dev/null bs=1M count=1000
1000+0 records in
1000+0 records out
1048576000 bytes transferred in 14.487853 secs (72376217 bytes/sec)
server% sudo dd if=/dev/gpt/tank_zil0 of=/dev/null bs=1M count=1000
1000+0 records in
1000+0 records out
1048576000 bytes transferred in 14.557015 secs (72032349 bytes/sec)

Doing sequential write measurements:

server% sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/gpt/tank_zil0 bs=1M count=1000
1000+0 records in
1000+0 records out
1048576000 bytes transferred in 15.465034 secs (67803019 bytes/sec)
server% sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/gpt/tank_zil1 bs=1M count=1000
1000+0 records in
1000+0 records out
1048576000 bytes transferred in 15.584851 secs (67281747 bytes/sec)

I didn’t want to write directly to the raw device, as I didn’t want to delete the GPT partition table. Anyway, it’s roughly 70 MB/s read and 67 MB/s write.

I was wondering if it’s time to upgrade to a USB 3.0 drive. In particular, the Lexar Triton drive seem really fast. However, they aren’t that much faster–roughly around 110 MB/s in smaller capacities (16GB). As of time of writing, they’re available on NewEgg for around $40. That would set me back $80 for 2, albeit at double the capacity of my current ZIL. (I have my ZIL mirrored).

The SanDisk Extreme 16GB comes close; users report around 58 MB/s sequential (1MB block size) writes, and it currently goes for around $25. Similarly, the ADATA S102 in 32GB capacity is around 50 MB/s write (according to manufacturer specs).

My point is that I bought the SanDisk SATA SSD’s years ago, and they are still quite fast. I don’t feel a need to upgrade. I was contemplating upgrading since I am running short on SATA ports. However, I will probably buy a (cheaper) USB 3.0 enclosure and move a hard drive outside. (The additional hard drives are merely for backup.)

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