SSDs are known for their reliability...

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supermacro

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Aug 31, 2012
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Here is the last two paragraph jac mentions:

Makes sense to me and I would say that SSDs are very reliable. I especially like Intel SSDs. I've sold quite a few of them and none has been returned for RMA :)



SSDs are known for their reliability and performance. The LSI SSD Guard technology, that is unique to MegaRAID controllers, increases the reliability of SSDs by automatically copying data from a drive with potential to fail to a designated hot spare or newly inserted drive. A predictive failure event notification, or S.M.A.R.T command, automatically initiates this rebuild to preserve the data on an SSD whose health or performance
falls below par. If a hot spare is not present or not assigned, MegaRAID Storage Manager (MSM) will recommend that the user insert a hot spare
drive into an available slot.

Because SSDs are very reliable, non-redundant RAID 0 configurations are much more common than in the past. SSD Guard technology offers
added data protection for RAID 0 configurations by actively monitoring the status of the SSDs. SSD Guard, together with MegaRAID FastPath
software, allows users to take full advantage of the reliability and performance attributes of SSDs.
 

mobilenvidia

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Sep 25, 2011
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Funnily enough, one of my 4x OCZ Solid3's just died last night.
No warning, the M1015 just lost the RAID0 boot array.

Closer look there is a red LED glowing from the rear of the SSD, and also the normal Green LED (I take it power LED)
No life from it at all, other than the LEDs.
I bought 2x of them a year ago, so reliability I'm not so sure about now.
I may have to relook at my other RAID0 CacheCade array (also 2x OCZ Solid3's), may need to look at making it RAID1.
No use loosing data on the RAID6 array their caching.
 

Patrick

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Dec 21, 2010
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I was actually looking at picking up a pair of 160GB Intel 320 SSDs for the future colocation box. I really like the Intel 710 SSD also, but was thinking that if I did a 25%+ OP on the 320's that may be good also. Still nothing like the 710's but less expensive.
 

odditory

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Dec 23, 2010
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Last two paragraphs of page 3....

http://www.lsi.com/downloads/Public...torage Common Files/MR_FastPath_PB_083110.pdf

Do you agree?

Are SSD's reliable to a point you are happily installing them in non-RAID configurations for production data?

No. LSI's marketing brochure tells us about LSI's marketing interests, thats it. Never assume any storage device is more reliable than any other - if it dies in the next 60 seconds and you're unprepared with a physically separate duplicate copy of the data then it hardly matters whether it was an SSD or spinner or holographic for that matter. Things die by their electronic/electrical nature.

If the question was wheter SSD's are now to be considered more reliable than spinners, I'm not so sure. I hear just as many reports about SSD's suddenly dying if not moreso than spinners- granted, anecdotal. But if you tossed out vendor fictionalized MTBF's (there's no industry standard for coming to an MTBF value) and simply pitted 10000 SSD's against say 10000 Hitachi spinners for a period of 12-36 months to see which had the most deaths, I'm not sure I'd be rushing to bet on the SSD's. Maybe in time that changes and SSD's do gain greater realworld MTBF's that can live up to vendor claims.

Bottom line, assume SSD's just as volatile as spinners.
 
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Metaluna

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Dec 30, 2010
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4 drive RAID 0 makes me nervous. Looking at the RAID reliability calculator with more than 2 years and a 750K MTBF spec even.
OCZ-based anything makes me nervous, whether RAID or not. Though I've had very good luck with Intel, Crucial, and Samsung SSDs, there still appears to be wide variability between manufacturers, particularly the second-tier ones like OCZ, Kingston, etc. that don't manufacture their own flash.
 

mobilenvidia

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Sep 25, 2011
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I completely pulled the Solid3 apart to see what makes them tick.
This morning I plugged it back in and it's working again, now a Green LED greets me.

All very strange, I'll not trust this drive now all the same.
 

Metaluna

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Dec 30, 2010
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It could be a lot of things. In opening the SSD's case, maybe you grounded something, which caused some bit of corrupted NVRAM to clear itself (kind of like resetting the CMOS on a motherboard), which allowed the SSD controller to boot properly again. Or there could be a cold solder joint or broken trace on the circuit board somewhere, and in handling it you flexed it just enough to restore the contact -- for now.
 

mobilenvidia

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Sep 25, 2011
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I did try it the other day when I first pulled it apart, but red LED made me see red, chucked it in corner of office.
Probably dry solder joint, rough treatment sorted it out.

I'm the king of placing my Laptop's video card in the oven at 200degC for 10min to fix the dry solder joints.
works a treat and I've been doing it to that card for a few years now, but it's getting a little tedious.
 

Aluminum

Active Member
Sep 7, 2012
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I did try it the other day when I first pulled it apart, but red LED made me see red, chucked it in corner of office.
Probably dry solder joint, rough treatment sorted it out.

I'm the king of placing my Laptop's video card in the oven at 200degC for 10min to fix the dry solder joints.
works a treat and I've been doing it to that card for a few years now, but it's getting a little tedious.
Should send the bill to nvidia for your time on that, damn bumpgate ate so many laptops from then. Consumers got totally screwed on the settlements.