HDD Upgrade Time: Acard ANS-9010 vs Gigabyte I-RAM vs SSD

Storage/SSD by massman @ 2009-04-13

As an alternative to the slow platter-based hard drives there already a few ram disk-based solutions on the market. Acard recently designed their ram disk product, which allows users to use DDR2 memory as storage method. Today, we have a look at the performance of the Acard ANS-9010 and compare it with normal hard disk drives, SSD technology and other ram disks.

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The Acard ANS-9010

Madshrimps (c)

ACARD Technology Corp., a global leading provider of storage solutions, was founded on September 19, 1996. Since establishment, ACARD has been engaging in IC design and Storage solutions. In the fields of IDE and SCSI, ACARD has its core technologies, and enjoys a high reputation.

ACARD devotes its energies to the development of leading edge technology.ACARD's R&D capabilities include IC Design (Analog, Digital and Mix Mode design), BIOS/Driver/AP design, and system integration. Since 1999 it has been developing critical technologies.
Based on the IC development, ACARD has owned key technologies and know-how of IC design, software, hardware application and integration. SCSIDE technology (SCSI-to-IDE Bridge) is the best proof of ACARD's innovation. The core chip, SCSIDE engine, is created with an advanced technology, which integrates a SCSI core, an IDE core and a CPU core on one chip. Through this innovation, a user can convert a low-cost device of IDE interface to that of high-performance SCSI interface;therefore, the system operation will be enhanced.

Previous reviews containing Acard products:

  • None (time for a change!)




    Pictures

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    Specifications of the Acard ANS-9010 DDR2 Ram disk.

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    Not that much is included in the package, however everything you need to get started is included, except for the DDR2 memory, of course.

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    Top of the ANS-9010. To open the box, you need to remove the screws in the four corners.

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    The front of the ram disk offers users to see what memory banks are available (P0 and P1), the capacity of the battery (important if you turn of your system) and the possibility to backup the drive to a CF-card. Obviously, the CF card has to be equal to or bigger than the total amount of memory.

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    On the back, we find the SATA power connector, two SATA connections and a set of jumpers. If you connect one SATA cable, the ANS-9010 will run in single disk mode, which means that you won't be able to benefit from any raid performance boosts. In dual mode (add a second SATA cable and a jumper), the drive will be split up in two separate hard disk drives, thus making it possible to be configured in an Raid configuration.

    Madshrimps (c)


    Inside of the box. As you can see, there are 8 memory banks to be filled.

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    The specifications of the battery, which allows storage to be refreshed even if the system is shut down.

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    This reset button is to be pressed in when anything changes in the memory size configuration. Notice that you will lose all data stored on the disk drive.

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    Comment from Bosw8er @ 2009/04/15
    Been a while since i read an entire article.
    hattip to you!

    Don't know if it's still possible, but including a small vid might be more .. euh ... illustrative (opposed to graphs)

    ref:
    Comment from jmke @ 2009/04/15
    Comment from Bosw8er @ 2009/04/15
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by jmke View Post
    top!
    missed that because of hollidays
    Comment from jmke @ 2009/04/15
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Bosw8er View Post
    top!
    missed that because of hollidays
    shame on you!
    Comment from Diegis0n @ 2009/04/20
    Grreat review! I just love what the Acard can do

    Vertex vs hdd is amazing we've all known for long that hdd is a serious bottleneck and this illustration is just makes me want to order 1
    Comment from leeghoofd @ 2009/04/21
    I can lend you my Vertex mate if you wish ( 60Gb ) will arrive this week
    Comment from Diegis0n @ 2009/04/21
    talking to me?
    Comment from leeghoofd @ 2009/04/21
    ze one and only

    Ik heb weinig tijd nu om te benchen : I7 roundup afwerken, volgende week heel de week weg met het werk, dan Lanparty met Blindje, dus ik kan ze wel even missen.
    Comment from Diegis0n @ 2009/04/21
    Ik zou ze pas na mijn examens kunnen "benutten" wat 05/05 wordt dus juist na de lan als je er dan nog geen tijd voor hebt, i'd love to
    Comment from jmke @ 2009/05/09
    Windows 7 on the ACARD


    only downside... can only have 1 game/app installed at a time; this is Win7 and Crysis 1.2 installed; no hibernation file, page file 200mb. Disk is made up of 8x2Gb sticks (€160)



    you read that right
    1.78Mb free

     

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