Date: Mon, 18 Aug 2014 11:53:17 -0600 (MDT) From: Warren Block <wblock@wonkity.com> To: Robert Huff <roberthuff@rcn.com> Cc: questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: solid state drives? Message-ID: <alpine.BSF.2.11.1408181138340.81430@wonkity.com> In-Reply-To: <53F22E89.3050005@rcn.com> References: <53F22E89.3050005@rcn.com>
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On Mon, 18 Aug 2014, Robert Huff wrote: > I have been tasked with converting several systems - some unix > (incl. FreeBSD), some Windows, to SSDs. Are these desktops or servers? > What I know about SSDs will fit on the head of a pin. > Can someone recommend a good primer and a trustworthy source for > information on product specs and reliability? Off-hand, I can't think of one. I can offer my article on setting up SSDs for FreeBSD: http://www.wonkity.com/~wblock/docs/html/ssd.html Enable TRIM. Enable AHCI if available. Don't image drives with tools that copy every block, like dd, because the SSD will think every block that has been written is in use. Some people like to leave unpartitioned space or an empty partition to add to the drive's built-in overprovisioning. Internally, SSDs are RAID0, so a 256G drive can sometimes give faster writes than a 128G drive. Don't get hung up on the maximum rated speed, which is mostly a pretend number you will never see. Instead, realize that it's the essentially zero access times that make SSDs fast, and concentrate on reliable drives. I've stuck mostly with Marvell controllers in SSDs from Plextor, Samsung, and Toshiba. Other brands, including Intel, use Sandforce controllers.
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