My new SSD! Transcend 4Gb IDE Flash Module

[Mrs Beanbag]

Just managed to get this installed today. It's really neat. Partitioned and formatted with HDInstTools, and restored from LHA archives stored on my PC via ethernet card and boot floppy.

The little bit of PCB sticking out of the RF modulator unfortunately stuck out a bit too much and I had to file about 1mm off the corner, which was a pain because I already tried it for size in an A600 where it fits without modification. Oh well. It gave me a reason to take the shield off so I inspected all the caps while I was there (no visible leakage). The keyboard is a little forwards here so you can see it. It fits straight onto the 44 pin header on the motherboard. No cables.

Here it is from the other side so you can see the logo. The keyboard is in its proper place here. It nestles in there nice and snug.

[squidbass]

Have you noticed any ssd related speed improvements?

Rgds,

[Mrs Beanbag]

I only finished installing it an hour ago so I haven't had much chance to try it out yet, but it seems a lot faster. Although boot time doesn't seem to be affected much (but then I had quite an efficient boot sequence anyway, I'm a bit of a minimalist). And of course no waiting for it to spin up!

The weirdest thing is the total silence. Well obviously I was expecting that but it's still kind of spooky to see it load up without making any noise.

[Amiga1992]

You should get rid of both the RF shield and the rf modulator
How much did it cost, if I may ask? I been looking at these modules for a while, as they are much more reliable than a CF-IDE solution. I don't think speed will increase much but reliability regarding reads and writes will.

[Mrs Beanbag]

Yes reliability was my main concern. These are industrial grade and SLC so it should last.
It was £55.90 from Amazon.

[Amiga1992]

And Transcend is a brand I already trust. I don't think I have the money for this now but at some point I will definitely take the plunge. As I am not using the Amigas much nowadays, I am not worried about reading and writing. I have all my data in external SD cards anyway, just to be sure (and for ease of back up )

[Retrofan]

Originally Posted by Mrs Beanbag

I only finished installing it an hour ago so I haven't had much chance to try it out yet, but it seems a lot faster...

That's interesting. Can you make a try with SysInfo with that Hd and with another Cf HD to see if there is any difference about the speed?

[fitzsteve]

I'm using a 20gb IDE SSD in my AmigaOne, it's faster than the IDE HDD I took out, it was about £35 and made by Kingspec and I've been running it for about a year now, it works great & seems to be reliable. My A1 hasn't had heavy use although it did a full weekend at Amimeet earlier in the year!

Here's a similar one on eBay:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/KingSpec-2...item4605d162a9

[lukassid]

Group buy in UK anyone?
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/5-five-TRA...item1e75495df6

[lukassid]

aha
he's selling single ones too.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Transcend-...item1e751057c4

Just got one. Cheap as chips. I wonder if LED will flash on A600, but no reason why not.

[Mrs Beanbag]

Originally Posted by lukassid

Group buy in UK anyone?
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/5-five-TRA...item1e75495df6

Careful, we need 44 pin modules for A600/A1200, not 40 pin.

[Retrofan]

Curiosity has killed me. I've bought this: http://www.ebay.es/itm/310438770478?...ht_5522wt_1245

Edit: Yes, it's half your price and twice your Gb's.

I already have a lateral Cf Hd that I can swap externally. So my idea is to use it internally connected to the Fast Ata (with a ribbon male-female, just 'cause it won't fit) to Slave, and it has an switch to change that. If not, I will use it in my other miggy without Fast Ata or lateral slot.

[lukassid]

Originally Posted by Mrs Beanbag

Careful, we need 44 pin modules for A600/A1200, not 40 pin.

ups
too late, greed got better of me again
I'll find use for it

[Retrofan]

Any SysInfo report comparing with a Cf, please?

[Mrs Beanbag]

I don't have a CF so I can't compare it, I've downloaded Sysinfo anyway but I won't be doing anything tonight, I need sleep.

[Retrofan]

Thanks and goodnight Mrs. Beanbag.

Perhaps someone else can make the test and compare, to be on the same system.

[lukassid]

I always wondered if setting maxtransfer to 0x1fe00 will make them perform the same?

[thomas]

Originally Posted by lukassid

I always wondered if setting maxtransfer to 0x1fe00 will make them perform the same?

Maxtransfer does not influence speed. Transfers must be split into 128k packets anyway. It does not matter which software layer it does. With setting maxtransfer you only tell the file system to do the split because the device driver doesn't do it right.

[Mrs Beanbag]

Originally Posted by Retrofan

Curiosity has killed me. I've bought this: http://www.ebay.es/itm/310438770478?...ht_5522wt_1245

Edit: Yes, it's half your price and twice your Gb's.

I saw the Kingspec ones (and others) when I was looking, but I've never heard of Kingspec and I couldn't find anything out about them so I opted for the well-known brand. I'm a little wary of these cheap Chinese goods, "Kingspec" is clearly a play on Kingston (who were licensed to rebadge Intel SSDs). I'm sure they are fine really, but I literally have nightmares about my Amiga refusing to boot so I don't mind paying a bit more for peace of mind.

Let us know how you get on with that. Oh and make sure you only do a Quick Format, not a full format, SSDs have their own internal awareness of which blocks are used, so writing to all of them messes with it and can impact on performance.

[NovaCoder]

Nice I've got exactly the same card (16GB), mines been running fine for over a year now