Mushkin Reactor 512GB SSD Review

[Guest]

Mushkin's 1TB Reactor is among our Best Picks in SSDs. Today we look at the low-cost 512GB drive powered by Silicon Motion's four-channel SM2246EN.

Mushkin Reactor 512GB SSD Review : Read more

 

[SuperVeloce]

Those 512 and 1TB are made perfectly for my steam folder, cheap and large. Now we need to wait for someone to launch it to EU market

 

[jessterman21]

Been eying this drive and the BX100 500GB for a few months now - waiting to pull the trigger on whichever's cheaper. The extra latency worries me, but in a gaming/media rig should it really matter? Those two drives are literally the same in all other tests.

 

[Eggz]

Cool. This seems like a pretty good option for a gaming computer. I wouldn't use it for a photo editing rig, or any other media-based computer (especially not database oriental computing), but games are pretty easy on drives, and these come in at a decent price while offering plenty of storage space.

 

[agentbb007]

Tough sell considering the 500GB Samsung 850 Evo is $178 on Amazon with free prime shipping and seems to give better performance, unless I'm missing something?

 

[Saberus]

Granted it's not the absolute best, but it's not bad, especially at the price. I think the edge connector is a brilliant idea, and wonder why there aren't more companies using it, it eliminates a point of failure where the solder joints were.

 

[geopirate]

agentbb007 this drive is $88 for 500gb vs your $178 (less than half the cost) that won't be noticeably slower in a typical usage environment. Is that what you're missing?

 

[geopirate]

agentbb007 this drive is $88 for 500gb vs your $178 (less than half the cost) that won't be noticeably slower in a typical usage environment. Is that what you're missing?

 

[SuperVeloce]

nope, $88 is for 256gb

 

[zodiacfml]

I checked, the 850 EVO is cheaper.

 

[shrapnel_indie]

I think the edge connector is a brilliant idea, and wonder why there aren't more companies using it, it eliminates a point of failure where the solder joints were.

I guess because in some ways its so old school. (It saved money back then too.) Back in the "Home Computer" days card-edge connectors were used for expansion connections (on one side of the connection.) Retro consoles used it too with game carts. The PC used it then, and even still today, for expansion AND adding graphics. Back in the day Floppy drives, primarily 5.25" and larger used such a connection for data (and a molex for power.)

If that patent ever gets challenged, I dunno if it will hold-up because of all of that. In Modern storage though, the connector is, currently, unique though.

 

[RedJaron]

If that patent ever gets challenged, I dunno if it will hold-up because of all of that. In Modern storage though, the connector is, currently, unique though.

Depends on how the patent was written, if they included those old drives and devices in existing art, and such. The US patent office is so overwhelmed right now anyway, you could submit a patent for canned tuna and they'd probably grant it to you just to reduce the paperwork on their desks.

 

[Saberus]

I think the edge connector is a brilliant idea, and wonder why there aren't more companies using it, it eliminates a point of failure where the solder joints were.

I guess because in some ways its so old school. (It saved money back then too.) Back in the "Home Computer" days card-edge connectors were used for expansion connections (on one side of the connection.) Retro consoles used it too with game carts. The PC used it then, and even still today, for expansion AND adding graphics. Back in the day Floppy drives, primarily 5.25" and larger used such a connection for data (and a molex for power.)

If that patent ever gets challenged, I dunno if it will hold-up because of all of that. In Modern storage though, the connector is, currently, unique though.

I remember the old game carts and floppy drives. Floppy drive cables always felt a mile long and useless clutter with all them connectors. I've even worked on an ST-506 and ESDI drive just because they had a couple in my training lab. Both were beyond dead, sadly. Old Compaq Proliant servers had SCSI drives mounted on carriers that ended in an edge connector that looked much like an ESDI connection, probably a direct decendant.

 

[soldier44]

Ordered another 850 pro for raid ftw.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

Love this ....

"Entry-level SSDs like Mushkin's 512GB Reactor deliver around 10 times the performance of a hard drive."

In benchmarks, yes.... in day to day real world usage, no. Looking at the "real world tests" in the article, the differences challenge stop watch accuracy.

Ordered another 850 pro for raid ftw.

After 7 or 8 RAID-less years, I gave it another try with two 840 Pros. After 3 months of headaches, broke the array and system speed increased.

Two SSSDs in RAID 0 will get your name on website leader boards for benchmarks, but is useless, even detrimental, on the desktop except in very specialized applications

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-raid-benchmark,3485-13.html

One SSD on its own scores again in the contrived tests we put together. The performance differences when we boot up and shut down Windows 8, then fire up different applications, are marginal at best and not noticeable in practice. Single drives actually manage to outperform the striped arrays some of the time, even.

If you're planning an upgrade and want to know whether to buy a couple of 128 GB drives and put them in RAID 0 or just grab a single 256 GB SSD, for example, the answer still seems clear enough to us: just grab the large drive and use one. Using Samsung's 840 Pros as an example, a pair of 128 GB drives will run you $300 on Newegg right now. The 256 GB model sells for $240 (maybe that's why it's out of stock currently). There's also the issue of reliability. If one drive in a RAID 0 configuration fails, the entire array is lost. At least for a primary system drive, one SSD on its own is safer.

 

[jessterman21]

Love this ....

"Entry-level SSDs like Mushkin's 512GB Reactor deliver around 10 times the performance of a hard drive."

In benchmarks, yes.... in day to day real world usage, no. Looking at the "real world tests" in the article, the differences challenge stop watch accuracy.

Are you referring to the latency? It's the only thing keeping me from buying this vs. the BX100.

Been eying this drive and the BX100 500GB for a few months now - waiting to pull the trigger on whichever's cheaper. The extra latency worries me, but in a gaming/media rig should it really matter? Those two drives are literally the same in all other tests.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

I'm referring to how long it takes to get something done start - finish..... when having this discussion previously I was referred to a youtube video which proved that SSDs significantly speeded up opening applications. In the video, the poster timed booting windows with like 35 applications in his startup folder. I hardly thought that constituted a real world test.

On most builds, I usually create a backup OS install on the HD in a 128GB partition to serve as a backup in case the primary OS gets fudged or HD dies.. Users are hugely disappointed when they try the alternate boot and can discern little observable difference in either boot with boot time, application performance and gaming.

I have done quite a few drives for peeps with budget limitations using SSHDs where they were going to "add a SSD" some time down the line. Some don't ever bother .... many do and the result has been "eh .... no bigga deal".

As a geek, I love SSDs ... as a business Owner, even one whose primary computer usage is for CAD, I can in no way make a case for SSDs from a productivity standpoint. The human factor is far more limiting than the storage subsystem.

 

[Saberus]

I'm referring to how long it takes to get something done start - finish..... when having this discussion previously I was referred to a youtube video which proved that SSDs significantly speeded up opening applications. In the video, the poster timed booting windows with like 35 applications in his startup folder. I hardly thought that constituted a real world test.

On most builds, I usually create a backup OS install on the HD in a 128GB partition to serve as a backup in case the primary OS gets fudged or HD dies.. Users are hugely disappointed when they try the alternate boot and can discern little observable difference in either boot with boot time, application performance and gaming.

I have done quite a few drives for peeps with budget limitations using SSHDs where they were going to "add a SSD" some time down the line. Some don't ever bother .... many do and the result has been "eh .... no bigga deal".

As a geek, I love SSDs ... as a business Owner, even one whose primary computer usage is for CAD, I can in no way make a case for SSDs from a productivity standpoint. The human factor is far more limiting than the storage subsystem.

As a tech, it makes me cringe when the users in my company tend to walk briskly while carrying an open, running laptop that's got an HDD. It doesn't matter how many times they're told otherwise, they insist a hard drive had to be defective from the factory when it inevitably dies. They all make the same excuse, "But it's portable!" At least with an SDD, it's not -quite- as cringe inducing.

 

[jessterman21]

As a tech, it makes me cringe when the users in my company tend to walk briskly while carrying an open, running laptop that's got an HDD. It doesn't matter how many times they're told otherwise, they insist a hard drive had to be defective from the factory when it inevitably dies. They all make the same excuse, "But it's portable!" At least with an SDD, it's not -quite- as cringe inducing.

OMG right? They shut it (which doesn't even induce sleep mode because we use docking stations) put it in their laptop bag and throw it in their passenger seat, and the still-running drive slowly dies from the heat and g-forces...

 

[logainofhades]

Battery life alone makes me want this drive, for my laptop. It will still be worlds faster than my old 5400rpm 640gb.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

As a tech, it makes me cringe when the users in my company tend to walk briskly while carrying an open, running laptop that's got an HDD. It doesn't matter how many times they're told otherwise, they insist a hard drive had to be defective from the factory when it inevitably dies. They all make the same excuse, "But it's portable!" At least with an SDD, it's not -quite- as cringe inducing.

OMG right? They shut it (which doesn't even induce sleep mode because we use docking stations) put it in their laptop bag and throw it in their passenger seat, and the still-running drive slowly dies from the heat and g-forces...

The heads should park themselves when not in active use. Even desktop drives do this. One of the reasons that consumer drives don't do well in server applications is they may burn thru those rated parking cycles in < a year. Of course when open, you may not have initiated active usage but that doesn't mean OS hasn't. Heck someone could be downloading Windows 10 from your lappie as you walk across the room....so no, not recommended and much safer to close the lid.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/8764/seagate-enterprise-nas-hdd-wd-red-pro-gets-a-competitor

Seagate consumer drives since the 7200.10-12 up to the Cuda' XT have very aggressive head parking (called load cycles) and they are rated at 250,000-500,000 load/unloads. I've seen drives rack up 90,000+ load/unloads in months if you use them for heavy access (seeding torrents.) NAS\RAID drives have firmware that often completely disables head parking (smart powersaving parameter 0xC1:255)

But in sleep mode, you are fine.

Desktop HDs are designed for 250 - 350 G ... lappies at 900 G

http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=84&pgno=4

Shaking or moving a computer that has been put into the Hibernate or Sleep mode will damage its hard disk drive.

Truth :

This myth is based on the misconception that a computer that has been put into the Hibernate or Sleep mode (also known as Suspend or Stand By) is able to resume operation so quickly because the hard disk drive is actually still spinning.

The truth is in Hibernate and Suspend modes (as well as the newer Hybrid Sleep mode), the hard disk drive is completely powered down. The difference is in the Hibernate and Hybrid Sleep modes, the computer's entire memory contents are copied to the hard disk drive, which doesn't happen in Sleep mode.

Because the hard disk drive is powered down in all three power saving modes, shaking or moving the computer will not damage the hard disk drive