Got an SSD?

I wonder how SSD's would perform as a database server, your thread has got me thinking I'll have to have a google on this and see how it would compare to the Raptors powering my MySQL servers.

There are very few SSDs certified for or able to do the job of transactional work of a database. I recommend sticking with those Raptors for now.

Thanks Thrax, I'll SSDs for now then. I had to repair a DB table yesterday (thread on the slowness here) and it completed about twice as fast on the raptors than it did on my own PC (7200RPM SATA 250GB Hitachi drive, 16MB cache). I'm sure the dual Xeons helped, but it was faster than I thought considering it was still serving 10 other sites at the same time.

It would be nice if they were suited to database work, but I can imagine it would burn through them in no time if they degrade slightly (like normal flash drives do).

SSDs are way to pricey for me now.I'll wait till the prices come down a bit.Meanwhile i'm happy with my Sata drives.

Heh, SSD's can be well worth it, but there are only two I'd currently recommend for a consumer level desktop drive for that uber fast system, namely the Intel X25-M or the OCZ Vertex. Both of these commend a price premium because they offer the best, most reliable performance and don't have the stuttering drive controller problem.

This article explains how SSD's differ from hard drives in storing their data, why most current SSDs are not as good an idea as they seem, and some of the few shortcomings of SSDs currently on the market. Anandtech's SSD Anthology

Anyone that has read the above article should read the follow up here, which shows OCZ fixed the issues with the Vertex. The SSD Update PCPR and Anandtech both currently recommend either the Vertex or the X25-M drives.

Sector alignments aren't needed for Windows 7. Vista and Windows 7 are smart enough that they do this automatically for SSD's and will begin writing at sector 0 (as opposed to Windows XP which uses sector 63). For anyone curious, the anthology article above illustrates why XP doing this is bad for performance.

The only SSD I know of designed for server workloads is the Intel X25-E. The results can be quite staggering if your servers have a very heavy workload consisting of random reads, many small random writes, and very high I/O.

If you have not seen it yet, here's one review that should peak your interest. The above links I gave use Raptors, but this one uses 15K RPM SAS Seagate Cheetah's and other drive setups in various configurations. http://it.anandtech.com/IT/showdoc.aspx?i=3532

I've never operated MySQL databases, so I'm curious of your thoughts on their IT-oriented review. I wouldn't know enough to spot any potential issues, enthusiast hardware is more my forté.