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SSD recommendations?

alostpacket

alostpacket

Over Macho Grande?
I'm thinking about spending around $300 for an SSD and was curious is anyone had recommendations.

Seems a few have some decent reviews for the 240GB/256GB range but it's frustratingly little storage. But it seem to go to the 512 more than double the price to closer to $800.

So I guess the 240/256 for $300 range is the best bet.

Also, would I run into any bottle necks anywhere else? I *think* my mobo does SATAII 3.0 Gbps But I could be wrong, is that just a cable thing?

Any advice appreciated!
 
alostpacket said:
I'm thinking about spending around $300 for an SSD and was curious is anyone had recommendations.

Seems a few have some decent reviews for the 240GB/256GB range but it's frustratingly little storage. But it seem to go to the 512 more than double the price to closer to $800.

So I guess the 240/256 for $300 range is the best bet.

Also, would I run into any bottle necks anywhere else? I *think* my mobo does SATAII 3.0 Gbps But I could be wrong, is that just a cable thing?

Any advice appreciated!
Click to expand...

If it were my machine, I'd go smaller on the ssd, and add a 1TB standard hdd for storage. You don't use an SSD for storage, you use it for speed. Load the OS and programs on the SSD, and save your files on the standard drive.

As for a brand, can't go wrong with an Intel SSD drive. Intels aren't the fastest SSD's out there, but they're rock solid stable and reliable. Even the slowest SSD drive will crush ANY mechanical HDD. Even the 10,000 RPM drives pail in comparison to an SSD.

As for the sata port, just check the specs on your board. It will say what speed your sata ports are.
 
Yeah I already have 3 1TB drives :) 1 is OS/Apps and the other two are just data/music/movies/work/whatever.

But even my OS/Apps drive is still at 500 GB used at the moment I think.

I looked at a few intel, they definitely look nice but a bit more $$. A Crucial and a Samsung drive also get some nice reviews on newegg for a bit less $$.
 
NYCHitman1 said:
OCZ Agility III or Crucial M4 - can't go wrong there with either brand.
Click to expand...


I've seen some bad reviews of OCZ brand drives. I'm not sure if they've improved much since I last saw them.



I bought a 160 GB Intel back in Nov as Intel was offering a $120 AMex giftcard rebate. I think I spent a total of $140 for the SSD. I found this at slickdeals.net Newegg has 256GB Samsung 830 Series 2.5" SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (MZ-7PC256B/WW) on sale for $329.99 - $30 Off Promo code EMCYTZT1302 = $299.99


My current setup is a laptop with dual drive. My primary is the 160 GB SSD and a 500 GB secondary drive. If your device can do a dual drive setup, as someone else has stated, get a decently sized primary drive for the O/S and a larger secondary drive for your programs and media. I have a few large programs on my secondary drive and I don't notice any lag (Microsoft Office, iTunes, etc).



If you only have a single drive on a laptop then I would look at getting a dual-drive setup before worrying about an SSD drive. Here's why, using an external HD will be ok for media, but will be somewhat laggy for programs, and even a little buggy, even with a fast data transfer cable. Then there's cost, by the time you get a decent sized SSD, you could buy a setup with dual drive capabilities for maybe $300-$400 more.

The only things you're gaining with an SSD is a little speed during bootup, shutdown, and launching/running programs. Those benefits are offset if you don't have the capacity (unless you're a hard-core gamer and don't mind being a miser with your harddrive space). If you don't want to skimp on storage size or go with a dual-drive setup, then you might look at some of the faster harddrives out there as a decent compromise. Sure they're not solid state, but they won't cost as much and will be cheaper per GB.

Here's a 500 GB 7200 RPM drive for under $100 Western Digital Scorpio Black wd5000bpkt 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache 2.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Internal Notebook Hard Drive -Bare Drive
 
Both myself and a guy I game with have OCZ Vertex3 drives, neither of us has any issues (both are less than 2 months old though). Definite boot time improvement, consistent map load times in MW3.

If you already have an OS/Apps drive, space isn't a HUGE concern. What I did was install my apps back to that drive and moved ONLY what I wanted on the SSD to the SSD. I installed Steam to the spinning drive even and then moved the MW3 files to the SSD, creating a symbolic link to make it look like the files are on the spinning drive when they're actually on the SSD.
 
Thanks all,

Yeah I have other drives for storage -- but i like to have a lot of app on the SSD because they would be a bit pointless if they weren't used to load apps/games

Let's see if this link works:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100008120&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&ActiveSearchResult=True&CompareItemList=636|20-147-135^20-147-135-04%23%2C20-233-227^20-233-227-TS%2C20-233-208^20-233-208-TS

I was looking at these 4-5:

$342
Corsair Force Series GT CSSD-F240GBGT-BK 2.5" MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)


$340
SAMSUNG 830 Series MZ-7PC256D/AM 2.5" MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) Desktop Upgrade Kit


$350
Corsair Performance Pro Series CSSD-P256GBP-BK 2.5" MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)


$370
Intel 520 Series Cherryville SSDSC2CW240A3K5 2.5" 240GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)


$315
Crucial M4 CT256M4SSD2 2.5" 256GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
 
Seems StorageReview likes the Samsung drive.

I'm kinda torn between the Samsung ($330) and the Crucial ($315).


It seems the performance of the Samsung is pretty good though, and might easily be worth the $15
 
Shane2943 said:
Interesting. I wonder if hybrid drives will gain popularity in light of the future of SSD tech.
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Just looking at the latest SSD prices, the way the storage is increasing and the price is dropping, SSD are here to stay. A 480GB SSD is $900 Canadian, last year I didn't even see a 480GB SSD, maybe they were around but over a certain price point I just don't pay attention ;-) Hybrids, as nice as that Seagate Momentus XT is, too me, a "transition product". Besides that model, I haven't seen many other hybrids.

To add, maybe that is Seagates plan. A lot of people say get a small SSD for OS/Apps/Games and the rest for data/files/etc. So Seagate might be on the way to including all that in 1 unit. Instead of having a SSD and HDD in one system, have 2 drives in one. Of course, the 8MB SSD cache would have to be more like 80GB but for a desktop, with current tech I'm sure it's doable.
 
alostpacket said:
Seems StorageReview likes the Samsung drive.

I'm kinda torn between the Samsung ($330) and the Crucial ($315).


It seems the performance of the Samsung is pretty good though, and might easily be worth the $15
Click to expand...


Try the $30 off promo code on my 1st post for the Samsung.
 
Thanks. Unfortunately I'm waiting on some cash from a freelance gig I did awhile back. So for now I'm mostly just window shopping. I think the Samsung is what I'm gonna get when the time comes.
 
ALP - for future proofing, be sure to pick a drive with the SandForce controller. Intel last month unveiled a new set of drives that are SandForce based, with their own modified firmware. Intel makes drives that are pretty much regarded (almost, though not quite) universally as enterprise ready, meaning MTBFs are high and reliability is second to none. In fact, that Intel drive you linked to is one of these new drives.

Granted, I own one of the original X25-M (Gen2) 80 GB HDs, but it just blazes. Also, If you're planning on gaming, you might consider a cheap velociraptor for games and keep the OS on a smaller SSD, or else split the difference and buy two smaller SSDs, one for OS only and one for games (just change the installation location when installing).

For more info about the Intel-SandForce deal, see Intel launches SandForce-based SSD 520 family | bit-tech.net - It says it all in a nutshell.

A lot of games may not take a lot of time when installing, but having the OS and major programs that you want / need / use every day (besides the games of course) on the main OS drive (separated) keeps things simpler and a sh*tton faster. I also tend to move my games around - I'll install the game I'm playing most to my SSD and all others to a slower 1 TB mech drive - my video card is more than fast enough to accommodate most of the modern games, and I'm having no issues with lag whatsoever now that I've got my settings correctly dialed in.

I just bought ME3 on drop day, so now it is the game installed on the SSD, and NFS: Shift 2: Unleashed got moved to the mech drive. I just played Shift 2 and these was absolutely no change in frame rate, response, or anything.

Moreover, see AnandTech - Bench - SSD - check out the almost negligible differences in the SSDs when looked at from a gaming perspective - my drive, the Intel X25-M en2 80 GB gets a 314 rating, versus the top of the line Crucial which gets a 325...a modest 3.5% increase.

The Intel drive is, superficially, a winner - but, it is Intel's first foray into using a SandForce controller, so you need to keep that in mind. It's entirely possible (and not all that improbable) that it may need a few firmware revisions to get rolling correctly.

However, I'm partial to Intel - when my drive got fried I created and RMA, sent the drive to them and in 7 days flat (including the weekend) I had my drive back. I've had issues with OCZ RMAs once, but never with Intel nor eVGA, so you can understand why I keep going back to them.

FWIW: Leaderboard - Best Hard Drive, SSD and Storage Solutions | StorageReview.com - Storage Reviews - Vertex 3 and Intel 520

Charts, benchmarks SSD Charts 2011, AS-SSD Overall Total Score - overall score puts the Sammy and the Intel at the top, besides those two funky drives.

There ya go. HTH.
 
So why SandForce? And yeah I see intel is having a few growing pains.

I went back and looked at my list and most use a Marvell controller, except the Corsair GT (uses Sandforce), Intel (Sandforce), and Samsung (uses a Samsung controller).
 
SandForce-based SSDs have consistently come in the lead in terms of performance. Since you want to be playing games, but also running your OS (and possibly even coding?) I recommend that you go with a SF-based SSD.

These brand new Intel drives look hot - I might drop the cash on them in June to replace my 80GB drive for speed and reliability. And to be able to install more than one game on it :P
 
Yeah mostly looking for a drive to handle apps, games, and the OS. Just for speed of loading.

Right now I have a Samsung spin point f1 1TB c drive about half full. I'm pretty sure most of that is Steam games I hardly play. I think I have over 20-30 games on there so could easily cut that down. A lot of save games I could move to an archive too. It's a bit surprising how much room they take up.

Anyways thanks for the advice all. Just killing time atm. Still kinda leaning towards the Sammy drive but we'll see.
 
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