Best SSD out right now?

[jez006]

Sorry to repeat something I said in another thread, I am on the verge of buying a SSD for my system drive. Proabably going to go for a 60gb.

Should I go for intel, ocz, crucial, etc.?

Budget is £100-£150 tops

Please suggest some models!

Thanks everyone,

Jez

 

[Golgatha]

I'd personally get the 80GB Intel.

 

[Voo]

The Intel has the added reliability for it, but isn't in the same league with the C300 or SF based drives from a performance perspective.

Enough information about all those drives around here...

 

[fffblackmage]

I'd go for Sandforce-based SSDs. OCZ Agility 2/Vertex 2, Corsair Force are a few examples.

 

[jez006]

lol a lot of disagreement... is there no single ssd that is best for performance and reliability in my price range?

golgatha do you mean the x25-m?

fffblackmage, can you recommend one in particular?

cheers guys

 

[Cable God]

OWC is my preference. I've installed almost 40 of them so far and ZERO issues. Corsair Force Series: I've used ~10 of them, and had issues with a couple of them. Can't get the firmware to update at all. Remember, you get what you pay for.

 

[jez006]

hmmm i haven;t heard of owc... i don't think that they're available in the UK!

 

[jjmIII]

G.SKILL Phoenix Pro Series FM-25S2S-60GBP2 2.5" 60GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

 

[fffblackmage]

IIRC, OWC was the first to come out with the Sandforce equipped SSD.

If you want Intel, I'd wait for the 3rd gen coming out Q4 2010 - Q1 2011.

Well, since someone seems to have had issues with the Corsair Force, I guess we're left with the Agility 2 and Vertex 2. The two are almost identical, except the Vertex 2 has a higher performance in random 4K writes, due to special firmware or something.

I was looking at some old reviews for the Vertex 2 and Crucial C300 and both the C300 with the controller made by Marvell and the Vertex 2 with Sandforce perform quite well. I'm a bit biased towards OCZ though.

 

[fffblackmage]

G.SKILL Phoenix Pro Series FM-25S2S-60GBP2 2.5" 60GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

@OP
If I were to buy here in the US, that G.Skill Phoenix Pro (also uses Sandforce controller) is better without having to deal with a rebate like with this Vertex 2. I'm not sure where you'll be buying from or what the prices look like over in the UK though.

 

[jez006]

IIRC, OWC was the first to come out with the Sandforce equipped SSD.

If you want Intel, I'd wait for the 3rd gen coming out Q4 2010 - Q1 2011.

Well, since someone seems to have had issues with the Corsair Force, I guess we're left with the Agility 2 and Vertex 2. The two are almost identical, except the Vertex 2 has a higher performance in random 4K writes, due to special firmware or something.

I was looking at some old reviews for the Vertex 2 and Crucial C300 and both the C300 with the controller made by Marvell and the Vertex 2 with Sandforce perform quite well. I'm a bit biased towards OCZ though.

I don't have any preference to manufacturer (maybe slightly towrads ocz since i have ocz reaper ram and it's never given me any problems. But then that has nothing to do with SSDs!). I just want whichever ssd is best for my budget.

I'm not bothered about rebates or anything, since I'm in the UK and that doesn't apply here. It sounds like the vertex 2 is the one to go for then.. Any idea why the Agility 2 60gb is more expensive than the vertex 2 60gb? (on newegg as well as uk sites)

I was just looking at reviews on newegg and it the agility 2 has gotten much better reviews than the vertex 2, so maybe that's the one to go for... decisions decisions...

I'm in suspense I just want to order one of the dam things lol

thanks for all your help!

Jez

 

[Nintendesert]

At this point I would wait. Yes people always state if you wait till the next big thing you'll always be waiting, however if you're making a purchase and the next generation products are this close to release, simply wait a little longer and enjoy either a superior product or much lower prices on the current products as companies move to clear stock of the old stuff.

 

[KILLER_K]

The intel ssds are showing their ages now. You either wait for the ssd refresh at the end of the year or early next year. Or pick up a crucial, etc for the speed as in now.

I just sold my X25-M Mainstream. As 2 samsung f3's in raid 0 works out to be a little better on space and speed. But not in the io range though. So you have to give somewhere on it. And no heat from the ssd also was a plus.

 

[zachary1g]

crucial c300 and if you got the sata 3 revision on your motherboard you can put use the 6gbps sata 3 is capable of.

 

[jez006]

I would wait a while but i have i'm getting some serious freezes and i've tried everything to fix it, so i'm going to reload windows. i thought i would upgrade my hard drive as i was doing a clean install. is something significantly different expected with ssds soon?

my mobo is an asus rampage formula, no sata 3 but thanks for the thought

 

[FishAk]

is something significantly different expected with ssds soon?

Soon is a relative term. Jesus said he would return soon, 2000 years ago. Have you looked at the G3 Sandforce article Anand put up a couple days ago?

You don't need a SATA III connection to take advantage of the new drives because, as Nintendesert points out, the new stuff will suppress prices on the current stuff.

 

[blastingcap]

i thought i would upgrade my hard drive as i was doing a clean install. is something significantly different expected with ssds soon?

Intel is transitioning to a smaller process and this may drive down prices for all SSDs soon. More info here: http://www.anandtech.com/show/3965/intels-3rd-generation-x25m-ssd-specs-revealed

 

[Emulex]

you'll get twice as much storage for (Above msrp) prices as demand soars for larger ssd

just like intel did the initial G2 release.

 

[jez006]

I've read the articles titled "SandForce Announces Next-Gen SSDs, SF-2000 Capable of 500MB/s and 60K IOPS", and "Intel's 3rd Generation X25-M SSD Specs Revealed". I just can't imagine these drives being in my price range when they first hit the market...Surely they're gonna be at least $300 for 60gb...

And these things are always delayed. Probably March next year at the earliest. Not that I have anything to base this on, just that when manufacturers give a range for a release date it usually comes out at the end or even later.

But whilst we're on the subject, how will such an increase in IOPS affect tasks on the computer? Is there a specific area affected, or there will be a huge performance increase across the whole system?

 

[Voo]

I've read the articles titled "SandForce Announces Next-Gen SSDs, SF-2000 Capable of 500MB/s and 60K IOPS", and "Intel's 3rd Generation X25-M SSD Specs Revealed". I just can't imagine these drives being in my price range when they first hit the market...Surely they're gonna be at least $300 for 60gb...

Actually no. The transition from 34nm->25nm actually should reduce the prices quite a lot. The question is how much the vendors will pocket in and how much they'll give on to the costumers.

And if Intel's controller really is only a minor improvement over the G2, they'll have to compete based on price with their competitors, because the new SF drives look extremely nice.
Obviously that also depends on the market - if they can't produce enough 25nm flash, the situation may be different, but since smaller flash has no inherent advantages (but some disadvantages) it doesn't make much sense to sell those drives for more.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

this Vertex 2 feels snappier than my Vertex LE

 

[jez006]

thanks for all your help guys i think im gonna bite the bullet and get a vertex 2. i'll let you know how it goes.

 

[Golgatha]

lol a lot of disagreement... is there no single ssd that is best for performance and reliability in my price range?

golgatha do you mean the x25-m?

fffblackmage, can you recommend one in particular?

cheers guys

Yes, the X25-M. I personally own a C300 256GB drive for my gaming desktop, but the overall specs for the 64GB C300 are pretty comparable with the X25-M and you get proven reliability with the Intel SSD. That said, I've had no problems with my C300 (well, after the firmware upgrade to 0002 anyway). The increases in random R/W and seq read were worth it for me to take a chance on the C300.

In your price range I really do think the Intel X25-M 80GB is the way to go though. I have one in my laptop and HTPC. They are great drives and in real world usage, you'd be hard pressed to tell a difference in the X25-M vs a C300 drive.

 

[jez006]

thanks i haven't ordered yet. i thought the vertex 2 beats the intel on specs tho?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...NE&N=100008120 600038510&IsNodeId=1&srchInDesc=ocz 60gb&page=1&bop=And&CompareItemList=636|20-167-031^20-167-031-TS,20-227-550^20-227-550-TS

mainly write speed and IOPS..

 

[jez006]

sorry bad link:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100008120%20600038510&IsNodeId=1&srchInDesc=ocz%2060gb&page=1&bop=And&CompareItemList=636|20-167-031^20-167-031-TS,20-227-550^20-227-550-TS