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Re: [Amps] Slightly off topic

Subject: Re: [Amps] Slightly off topic
From: Jim Barber <audioguy@q.com>
Reply-to: audioguy@q.com
Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2012 00:27:58 -0700
List-post: <amps@contesting.com">mailto:amps@contesting.com>
On 4/17/2012 7:28 PM, Roger (K8RI) wrote:
> On 4/17/2012 6:35 PM, Dr. David Kirkby wrote:
>> On 04/14/12 11:34 PM, rick darwicki wrote:
>>> Anyone had any problems with the new solid state computer drives? Blowing 
>>> them away with RF or RFI ???
>>>
>>>
>>> Rick, N6PE
>>      From what I gather, they are pretty unreliable - it does not need any 
>> RF around
>> them! From what I can gather, they are far less reliable than hard disk 
>> drives.
>
> I have 3 machines with them and will probably have a 4th soon.  The 4th
> fails to boot on over 75% of cold boots and comes up with the error
> message to insert the system disk and run repair.  If I just reach up
> and hit "reset" it reboots quickly.   Shutdown and restart also works. I
> don't remember it failing yet.  I have a feeling there is a problem with
> the mechanical C drive spinning up.  As I need to swap out the drive to
> prove it anyway I might as well do it with a good SSD and SSDs are
> available in a wide range  of quality and speed.   They are not a place
> to buy cheap.  You need to find one with good specs and good
> reliability.  If for nothing else go to NewEgg and read the user
> write-ups on them. Some are good and some are not so good. Like on here
> there are those with experience and those with out including those
> writing reports who've never owned one.
>
> The only problem I've had with a machine using a SSD (this one)  has
> been the BSOD a number of times, but the error message is video driver
> failed.  I have a feeling it's actually the video card.
> One of the two in the shop has a field strength meter on top of the
> case.  When on 40 that thing is banging against the peg, but no SSD
> problems yet.  So that machine with an SSD drive is in a very strong HF
> RF field but has given no problems.
>
> I've heard SSDs are not as good with data integrity, but so far I have
> no complaints and am impressed with the speed.  My only complaint is
> price.  I can still purchase two, 2 or 3 Terabyte HDs for the price of a
> single 120 Gig SSDs even at the still elevated mechanical HD prices
> since the floods last fall.
>
> 73
>
> Roger (K8RI)
>
>> Personally, I would not use them.
>>
>> Dave
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[ok, answer under since the other guys did]
Based on a fairly limited sample, I've had one complete failure, (fairly 
expensive array with separate controller) and a number of instances 
where power failures and unexpected hardware resets caused file errors 
when caches weren't written out. In all cases but two, (the outright 
failure and a separate incident involving a corrupted system file) 
running standard utilities recovered the system, at least.

Personally, I believe that another one or two generations of controllers 
will see "cache write on power fail or reset" capabilities like 
better-quality SATA drives have had for years now. Along with advances 
in solid state memory technology, another 2 years should have them much 
more reliable than the current crop, at least. A company I worked with 
up until quite recently is an industry leader in core static/flash 
memory IP and believe me, they are working on it feverishly. (it hasn't 
been commoditized yet, so there is still strong competition)

As for RFI "sensitivity", as long as the machines have relatively decent 
metal cases and the drives are internal, I don't know why they'd be any 
more susceptible to RF than anything else. I haven't seen where they 
make any more RF noise; usually the two go hand in hand. I have one 
machine in my shack with a SSD array, and one machine in the office next 
door with one. Granted, the antennas are at some distance away, but 
"normal" screwups and failures causing QRO RF sprays haven't caused any 
special problems that I'm aware of - at least thus far.

If you can find one that doesn't emit more RF than your transmitter, my 
best advice is to use a UPS. I've given up on them for the moment, but 
things could change.

My .02,
Jim N7CXI
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