So... Summit or Vertex?

[daztehaggro]

I've searched far and wide and had a read of many comparisons of the 120GB Summit and Vertex but both have their cons and pros and it's out-right confusing!
My actual question, I plan to RAID0 2 of my choice, I heavily game and like too multi-task. I want the fastest loading times and best in-game performance. Less stutters, the better.

What one is best for me? Thanks alot for any advice!

[techspec6]

Neither drive will stutter. Even without any tweaks at all. That was a Gen1 SSD problem. Not a Gen2 problem.

Jason

[daztehaggro]

What one is best in general for gaming though?

[techspec6]

Vertex has higher performance, though the Summit has the autotrim feature built in. Until W7 is released and TRIM is automatic on the Vertex, I would say the Summit is probably the best. In a couple months when Vertex is working with W7 TRIM natively, then the vertex will again be the best... imo.

If I was buying today, I'd still get the vertex. I don't see any reason to purchase a summit unless it's price is relative to the vertex's performance. I have seen a few on the forum stating lower prices on Summit, so you might get a good deal on one.

Jason

[daztehaggro]

I'm buying from scan.co.uk and plan to hit the 'Purchase' when I know the best out of the two! The Summit is slightly cheaper than the Vertex but I'm not concerned about £74.10 (for two of them) when I'm spending thousands.

I guess Vertex it is then? Out of curiosity, why is the Vertex faster/on-par with the Summit when the Summit has double the cache and slightly faster speeds?

[techspec6]

http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/fo...ad.php?t=57558

That thread contains benchmarks on the summit. Find some Vertex benchmarks and compare. Don't forget that 120gb drives are slightly faster than 60gb drives so make sure you're comparing apples to apples.

The autotrim, autoreset, garbage collector feature is really nice. Though samsung's never been very forthcoming on firmware updates on their products for end users.

Jason

[lwang23]

Seems that Vertex is faster in read and Summit is faster in write. At least on paper.
(I have only one summit 60G. Don't have Vertex for apple-to-apple compare)

Anyway, I believe both will be faster enough to feel any difference in gaming.

[m.oreilly]

hey, enjoy your drive. i believe you have made a wise decision :thumbs:

[RobbieTT]

I've had a few goes at ordering a Vertex, but I now have a Summit on order (expected soon). The Summit vs Vertex is a strange fight, but as it is one I have recently adjudicated with my own cash I will offer my own thoughts.

The overall performance results for the Summit and Vertex are comparable but they seem to achieve them in different ways. I doubt that the small difference in read/write speeds will ever be noticed, as the differences between the two drives seems to be within the error budget of the benchmarking tools given the various OS, setups and other such variables.

I like that the Summit (because of Samsung's rigid OEM commitments) will probably have had more detailed testing before release than the Vertex; but this is balanced against Indilinx's desire to make a serious impact on the new SSD market – they are a new company with something to prove. Indeed, they have been more than willing to pass on new FW to customers, not only with bug-fixes but with new features. No doubt the Vertex drives will improve further via firmware whilst I will not hold my breath for one from Samsung.

Of course, another way of looking at the Samsung approach is that the Summit will be more 'fit & forget' than the Indilinx's flexible approach. Until the RAID pass-through trim is sorted the Summit's 'auto-trim' is a good feature to hide behind a RAID system too. It would appear that left unattended the Summit will retain its speed for longer – well at least until the Vertex gains an OS driven trim function.

The impact of operating systems on future SSD performance and associated firmware is another unknown. No doubt Win7 will have a native trim function, once a standard is set, but what about Vista? Like many I do not have full control on what OS I use (currently Vista 64) so unless MS brings in a package to enable native trim under Vista (no signs yet) I will not gain the advantage of a proper OS driven trim function. So for me the inbuilt tool on the Summit drive looks to have another advantage.

Ordering a Summit also saves around £30 too, so the piggy bank for a matching drive for RAID use has already taken its first deposit. But the beauty in all this is that both the Vertex and Summit are good products – if a Vertex arrives in the post tomorrow I would still be a happy chap.

[smitterson]

I like that the Summit (because of Samsung's rigid OEM commitments) will probably have had more detailed testing before release than the Vertex;

Of course, another way of looking at the Samsung approach is that the Summit will be more 'fit & forget' than the Indilinx's flexible approach. Until the RAID pass-through trim is sorted the Summit's 'auto-trim' is a good feature to hide behind a RAID system too. It would appear that left unattended the Summit will retain its speed for longer – well at least until the Vertex gains an OS driven trim function.

Those were the same two things that led me to choosing the Summit over the Vertex. I am definitely happy with the drive so far.

As for TRIM, I believe Tony said the Summit should be getting native TRIM support sometime before the release of Win7.

[Sukrim]

Garbage collection/reblocking/static wear levelling has nothing to do with TRIM! Please don't call such features "auto-TRIM" as this would only confuse people.

[RobbieTT]

Garbage collection/reblocking/static wear levelling has nothing to do with TRIM! Please don't call such features "auto-TRIM" as this would only confuse people.

Sorry Sukrim - clearly I meant the 'auto-make-itself-better feature'.

Do we even have a name yet that pleases everyone?

[Sukrim]

I already said all 3 idioms that I know for such features...

Garbage collection (though I'm not sure if this is a correct term for SSDs)
Reblocking (Read this in the description of the HAMMER filesystem for DragonflyBSD and really liked it)
Static Wear Levelling (essentially this is what the drive does, when it's recovering it's performance, so I'd say this would be the most correct term)

Maybe also "autohealing" could be a simplified term, but it sounds too roleplayish imho...