SATA connection 50 cycles max

Anyone using cables on their SATA drives vs direct connection inside the camera?

I am not using that type of connection and that seems kind of impractical. I would avoid doing this solely based on the fact that you're exposing the interior of the camera by leaving the SSD door open.

Not sure exactly what you're getting at with the title of this thread, but if you heard that a SATA port, either on a chipset or drive, can only withstand 50 connection cycles then I'm afraid you've been told an arbitrary and potentially false statistic. I'm sure Mr. Brawley, amongst others, have well surpassed that number. Beyond that, my day job involves working tech support for a large computer manufacturer and I can assure you I have gone well past 50 connection cycles with various computers and have never seen this type of failure.

Not sure exactly what you're getting at with the title of this thread, but if you heard that a SATA port, either on a chipset or drive, can only withstand 50 connection cycles then I'm afraid you've been told an arbitrary and potentially false statistic.

I'm told it's actually in the original SATA spec. but unless you're a SATA-IO member you can't check the current specs for free. eSATA has 5k cycles so that would be the expected connector. I haven't yet found anything officially quoting more than 50 cycles for SATA connectors, other than some dock bay vendors quoting their own connectors cycles.

Whatever the connector spec is, my guess is it's a minimum spec regarding the number of insertions the connector can withstand.

If the manufacturer of the SSD drive connector inside BMD's cameras -- and the manufacturer of the SSD drive you use -- makes connectors able to withstand a number of insertions beyond the minimum "standard" number, I doubt the standards body has a problem with that.

I wonder if any of the connector/SSD makers publish that data, as they do with things like average MTBF hours for spinning HDDs, etc.?

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I did a bit of searching and found it here on Western Digital's website-

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/resources/drivecompatibility/

...eSATA cables and connectors are designed for 5000 insertion and removal cycles while internal SATA cables and connectors are designed for only 50 insertion and removal cycles.

While that is what the spec intends, it's entirely possible to exceed this spec and I have to believe that Blackmagic has done their homework on this and chose a robust SATA connector for their cameras. I also stand by the statement that there has to be someone who has swapped their drive in and out 50 times already with no fail. I've only seen one report of a failed SATA connector on the BMCC and it was one in which the entire connector came dislodged from the SSD chamber.

Furthermore, I'll again cite my experience with the technology- I work on computer hardware every day and have worked with motherboards, drives, and SATA cables that have likely been through hundreds of connection cycles with no fail. I even have an Icy Dock hot swappable housing that has had at least that many swaps and no issue.

This is a good discussion but I don't think this is a concern anyone should have with the camera unless, of course, the ports start to fail.

I have the Sandisk 480gb SSD and between inserting into my BMCC and then into my Seagate thunderbolt GoFlex adapter, I'm well over 50 cycles.

I wonder if any of the connector/SSD makers publish that data, as they do with things like average MTBF hours for spinning HDDs, etc.? -

Some do but most don't unless they're promoting their products. Most products aren't too pricey so it's less of a problem if they fail but the 4k camera isn't cheap, the female SATA connector isn't easily accessible nor user/field replaceable so it would be good to know how many cycles the particular connector Blackmagic are using is good for.

Asking this question after purchase isn't such a good idea.

I've done hundreds of cycles.

No problems so far. All my problems have been with the SSD's themselves failing (certain brands)

jb

Yeah, I'm way beyond 50 cycles - no problem.

Don't take that numbers too serious.

I'm well over 50 cycles as well. No problem here. However, I think that for the next BMCC, Blackmagic Design should consider creating a universal SSD enclosure and changing the connection of that enclosure to something proprietary and harder to break when inserting (there have been some reports of broken S-ATA ports).

I've done hundreds of cycles.

No problems so far. All my problems have been with the SSD's themselves failing (certain brands)

jb

Just curious which brands?

The Atomos Ninja and Samurai both use the same method without any issues.

I've done hundreds of cycles.

No problems so far. All my problems have been with the SSD's themselves failing (certain brands)

jb

Just curious which brands?

OCZ Vertex III Have had many of them fail and won't go near them now.

jb