SSD time for my PC?

[gshaw]

Currently have an E8400 \ 4GB RAM \ Vista Ultimate at home that needs to be going to Windows 7 asap as Vista really is a dog of an OS, currently only a single 500GB HD.

 

I've never liked having system and data on the same HD so I'm thinking of some upgrades and getting very very tempted by one of these for the system and apps....

 

Kingston V-Series 64GB Solid State Drive (SSD) - Ebuyer

 

Corsair Extreme Series X32 32GB 2.5" Solid State Hard Drive SATA300 64MB Cache - Ebuyer

 

Then move the data onto this...

 

Samsung SpinPoint F1 HD103UJ 1TB Hard Drive SATAII *32MB Cache* - OEM - Ebuyer

 

And keep the 500GB for apps n other crap

 

I'm leaning towards Corsair as Kingston seem to be quite new on the scene with SSD HDs by the looks of it?

[K.C.Leblanc]

Pop over to forums.overclockers.co.uk, there's a lot of disccusion about SSDs over there. It seems the performance is faily variable.

 

EDIT: Just don't post links to ebuyer over there, it's not permitted.

[Arcath]

shiny

 

SSDs are definatley the way forward, im personally gonna wait before i upgrade my PC to them (Currently got a 80gb SATA for Windows 7 RC and a 500GB Sata for data and games) ideally id like to something silly and raid 0 (i think its 0 the one that gives 1TB total) a couple of 500gb drives. for data and games with an SSD for the OS.

[mac_shinobi]

was looking on toms hardware and apparently the samsungs and OCZ ( re branded samsungs ) and I think corsair are the better ones to have. Also there is SLC and MLC ( or something like that ) single cell and multi cell to take into consideration with regards to SLC being faster where as MLC is better for capacity

 

Not sure if thats true but I know I would most likely go with an SLC SSD drive by samsung or corsair as OCZ ones are re branded Samsungs that have been tweaked

Edited September 23, 2009 by mac_shinobi

[Stevenw]

From what i have Read

 

if you want the best performance possible (single ssd and within a decent price)

 

Intel X25-M Mainstream 160GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive

 

if you want a good preforming ssd but at a good price

 

Crucial M225 128GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive

 

These are the most recommended drives the intel comes in an 80gb form aswell also the crucial you can get 64/128/256

 

I am currently saving for two Crucial M225 128GB to go with win7 install in oct

Edited September 23, 2009 by Stevenw

[mac_shinobi]

From what i have Read

 

if you want the best performance possible (single ssd and within a decent price)

 

Intel X25-M Mainstream 160GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive

 

if you want a good preforming ssd but at a good price

 

Crucial M225 128GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive

 

These are the most recommended drives the intel comes in an 80gb form aswell also the crucial you can get 64/128/256

 

I am currently saving for two Crucial M225 128GB to go with win7 install in oct

 

you got crucial part number for that drive ?

 

Also when looking at reviews the crucials tended to be the slowest of the bunch

[dalsoth]

When you get it put it in this case. I will get one next year and fill it with SSD's.

 

Corsair Obsidian Case

[Stevenw]

CT128M225 part number for you

 

the Crucials are not the fastest but they have the best £1perGB

 

ill see if i can find the chart

[Butters]

When you get it put it in this case. I will get one next year and fill it with SSD's.

 

Corsair Obsidian Case

 

I've got one on order! Them babys are massive, switching from a Silverstone Fortress to that very very soon.

[mac_shinobi]

Think I will wait for the prices to drop and get one later on

[Arthur]

StevenW is spot on. The second generation Intel X25-Ms are the best MLC SSDs at the moment. Next best being any SSD based on the Indilinx Barefoot controller e.g. OCZ Vertex, Crucial M225, Corsair X Series, Patriot Torqx etc. Avoid Samsung SSDs like the plague. They are REALLY not that good at all. This article on AnandTech is a must read as it explains pretty everything to do with SSDs and covers the latest models.

 

When comparing SSDs the most important benchmarks to look at are the random write speeds since this is what matters in day to day use and the 'used' performance (when all the cells have been written to at least once, a lot of SSDs slow down quite a lot - the Intel SSDs don't really seem to suffer from this problem though). Manufacturer's almost always only advertise the sequential read/write speeds so the only way to find out whether a SSD is any good is to look at reviews.

 

I recently purchased a 160GB Intel X25-M G2 SSD myself and it's fantastic with Windows 7. Definitely an noticeable improvement over my previous HDD (a 300GB WD Velociraptor). I would second Steven's recommendation for the Crucial M225. It's excellent value for money, has very good read speeds, a 5 year warranty and Crucial will be releasing a firmware update later this year to enable TRIM support for Windows 7.

Edited September 24, 2009 by Arthur