Previewing Maxiotek's MK8115 SSD Controller: Can DRAM-less Drives Make The Cut?
by Billy Tallis on May 9, 2017 8:00 AM ESTAnandTech Storage Bench - Heavy
Our Heavy storage benchmark is proportionally more write-heavy than The Destroyer, but much shorter overall. The total writes in the Heavy test aren't enough to fill the drive, so performance never drops down to steady state. This test is far more representative of a power user's day to day usage, and is heavily influenced by the drive's peak performance. The Heavy workload test details can be found here.
The average data rates of the two MK8115 drives on the Heavy test are almost exactly the same when the test is run on an empty drive. Unfortunately that puts both of them quite near the bottom of the charts, behind the older JMicron drives and the other SATA SSDs using Micron 3D NAND.
When the test is run on a full drive, the MK8115 drives' performance suffers greatly, which has also been true of the other two SATA SSDs with Micron 3D NAND that we've tested. Most other SSDs show a far smaller degradation in performance from a full drive.
As on The Destroyer, average service times from the MK8115 drives aren't bad at all, if the test is run on an empty SSD. When the drive starts out full, average service time more than doubles, putting the MLC drive only slightly ahead of the OCZ VX500 and the TLC drive a little ahead of the Crucial MX300.
Both MK8115 drives have good control over high latency outliers when the Heavy test is run on an empty drive. The TLC sample surprisingly scores a bit better than the MLC sample. However, when the test is run on a full drive, the MLC sample's performance degradation is moderate while the TLC drive falls apart, though not quite to the extent of the Crucial MX300 or ADATA SU800.
The energy usage scores of the MK8115 drives on the Heavy test are good. The Crucial MX300 is still a bit better overall, but the Micron 3D NAND drives in general are all fairly efficient. They also all suffer noticeably when the test is run on a full drive, but it's not enough to make them worse than the slowest planar TLC SSDs or the fastest MLC SSDs that prioritize performance over power efficiency.
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MajGenRelativity - Tuesday, May 9, 2017 - link
That might be a long way awayvladx - Tuesday, May 9, 2017 - link
You're gonna have to wait till mid-2019 for that.CheapSushi - Wednesday, May 10, 2017 - link
You'll get that most likely when QLC drives come out. But consider they'll be for bulk storage rather than general use.MajGenRelativity - Thursday, May 11, 2017 - link
YepHomeworldFound - Tuesday, May 9, 2017 - link
There's definitely some kind of manipulation occurring in the memory industry, it's happening with both DRAM and NAND.FH123 - Tuesday, May 9, 2017 - link
Let's see. JMicron SSD drives stalled (I had one). Two different USB drive enclosures, featuring JMicron chipsets, caused random data corruption for me and my colleague. The DVD / Blueray drives on my desktop randomly fail to show after boot. The chip they're hanging off of? JMicron. Will I consciously buy anything from this company or their offshoots? Nope. Their chips are ubiquitous and hard to avoid, but what trash they are.romrunning - Tuesday, May 9, 2017 - link
Don't forget the infamous JMicron "stutter" problem!vladx - Tuesday, May 9, 2017 - link
I have an ADATA SP600NS34 with JMicron JMF670H and it's a solid drive with 100% life remaining after 3TB written. No slowdowns or drive timeouts either.jabber - Tuesday, May 9, 2017 - link
I'm trying to hold off buying in any SSD drives at the moment. Prices have got silly compared to what I was paying a year ago for essentially a better product.romrunning - Tuesday, May 9, 2017 - link
So true on the pricing woes - I'm hoping there is more MLC capacity coming on soon.