Best SSD choice now for Win XP boot drive?

[Arbie]

I'm looking for something to replace a failing WD 300GB Velociraptor as my single non-RAID boot drive under WinXP Pro 32-bit. BTW this is the second of these Velos to fail under quite moderate home use. So I won't go there again.

I need at least 80GB capacity but am willing to spend more (up to about $400) especially if the newest hardware is all larger than this. I figure I can wait a month or two if necessary.

One of my primary concerns is XP compatibility since I don't want to change OS at the same time. I know Intel supports TRIM under XP, but other makers seem to be very spotty on this. Maybe they have something else? Or maybe it doesn't matter so much with the newer controllers?

I've read a lot of articles but most now focus on Win 7. Any comments / experience with the SSDs and XP will be appreciated.

 

[Ataristic]

I like the Adata 599 series with the new sandforce chipset, which are able to compete with much more expensive SSD from competitors. I use a Microcenter branded 64gb for a Vista os drive with no problems, specially after upgrading the firmware to 3.4.6

 

[IanWorthington]

The f90 seems to come well recommended. You'll have to check though the xp issues.

 

[Zap]

There are some recommendations in the sticky!

 

[Arbie]

Yes, I did look in the sticky, and followed mcgreen's post. However, these all boil down to a few things to watch out for with XP, and how to install a drive once it's selected.

What I'm looking for is input on what current SSD will be a good fit for XP. Maybe someone has recently researched this, or bought and installed one and can say how it turned out.

Thanks for the reply

Arbie

 

[Emulex]

intel x25-v.

I've got a bunch of them at work - solid. stable. reliable. if intel wasn't around i'd start looking at samsung/toshiba/indilinx/sandforce in that order probably.

 

[Zap]

Yes, I did look in the sticky, and followed mcgreen's post. However, these all boil down to a few things to watch out for with XP, and how to install a drive once it's selected.

Reading comprehension fail. Sticky: Which SSD to buy

Best SSDs to buy for operating systems that do not have Trim support
(Trim currently requires Windows 7 and a SATA controller that supports AHCI mode)
Kingston SSDNow V+100 (Toshiba T6UG1XBG, same as Macbook Air)
Intel SSDs
Sandforce controller SSDs

Maybe "OS not Win7" wasn't obvious enough. I'll edit it.

 

[Arbie]

Reading comprehension fail. Sticky: Which SSD to buy
Maybe "OS not Win7" wasn't obvious enough. I'll edit it.

OK, the "Which SSD to Buy" sticky still has a couple of confusing points:

"Best SSDs to buy for operating systems that do not have Trim support -
...
Kingston SSDNow V+100 (Toshiba T6UG1XBG, same as Macbook Air)
Intel SSDs
Sandforce controller SSDs

Not as good SSDs to buy
...
Toshiba T6UG1XBG controller (maybe a rebranded "new" Jmicron)
Kingston SSDNow V+ series


Does this mean the Kingston SSDNow V+100 is good, but others in that series may not be? And as for the Sandforce controllers, are they listed as good because they will do well even without TRIM (maybe their garbage collection or equiv is very good)?

 

[COPOHawk]

I have installed a number of the Intel G2 80GB SSDs in XP Pro boxes...works great.

In fact, one of them I even restored a Ghost 15.0 image that I had created from the HDD it was replacing. That was 7 months ago...with no problems.

Good luck.

 

[Emulex]

until the newest firmware for the microcenter G2 sandforce has had alot of sleep issues. Not worth it since the crash isn't good for the filesystem (aka corruption).