First SSD purchase: Intel 320 vs Crucial M4 vs Corsair Performance Pro?

[DingDingDao]

I'm sure this question has been beaten to death, but searching for direct comparisons of these drives is like trying to drink from a fire hose.

First SSD, going into SATA2 (3GB/s) system. 120-128GB.

Intel 320 (G3), Crucial M4, or Corsair Performance Pro? I'm primarily looking for reliability here. Thoughts? Comments?

Thanks all.

 

[Jman13]

Hard to go wrong with any of those. The Intel 320 is slower than the M4...not sure about the Corsair. All three are reliable brands. Intel tends to have the absolute fewest issues overall, but both Crucial and Corsair have extremely low failure rates as well.

I'm very pleased with my M4, and the price was right (I paid $149 for my 128 GB).

 

[Jocelyn84]

If your using Sata II, I wouldn't pay the premium for the Corsair unless you find a deal. That being said, I'd buy whichever is cheapest price/GB

Sent from my Samsung Epic 4G Touch using Tapatalk

 

[Coup27]

I would through the Samsung 830 into the mix. SATA 6Gbps (which the 320 isn't) and top class reliability. Last time I checked there wasn't much in the price either.

Either way, I wouldn't get the 320. It's not a bad drive, but it's based on a controller from 2008 and is limited to 3Gbps and simply doesn't cut it when up against the latest generation 6Gbps drives.

 

[F1shF4t]

Corsair Performance Pro if you can find it for a similar price as the M4. It’s the same controller with faster 32nm Toshiba NAND.

I agree with Coup27, the 320 is a great SSD, its just getting a bit slow now days. (Although if I was building a machine for people without any computer experience and wanted it to just work, the 320 would still be my SSD of choice)

 

[WaTaGuMp]

M4 gets my vote.

 

[Bonka]

Any of the 3 will work just fine though my preference would be Intel>Crucial>Corsair based on that list. Unless you're benching the difference in sequential read speed is negligible in day to day tasks but given the price drops on SSDs lately you may want to consider the Intel 520s as well if you can live with it being a new and mostly unproven drive.

A SATA3 SSD will futureproof you if you will be transfering the SSD over to a new motherboard, however.

 

[stylez777]

I'd go with the Crosair Performance pro out of that list. now as a previous poster said day-to-day you won't notice a difference between most sata 3 drives. Personally I'd buy a Mushkin Chronos Deluxe 240gb 32nm Toshiba synchronous Toggle NAND and they are $1 per GB now and the best price to performance drive on the market and rock solid reliable! (if you can find it in stock anywhere)

 

[zod96]

I have the Intel 520 myself. Its smoking fast and reliable and it has a 5 year warranty

 

[Seven]

You might want to get this while it's hot.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820147163

 

[bradley]

You might want to get this while it's hot.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820147163

Pretty darn smoking. Most important feature of this drive is stability. You can actually use it without any restrictions, like a real drive : hibernate, sleep, overclock etc.

 

[Jman13]

Wow, that's a great deal...$140 out the door. Nice.

 

[slpnshot]

Regarding the Samsung 830, has anyone noticed the slowness when it comes to random write times?

I usually don't care about the speed difference between SSDs because the difference is so small that it feels like counting pennies, but it's pretty discouraging when I see a review showing that it performs at the speed of a HDD at times.

Samsung 830

 

[bradley]

Regarding the Samsung 830, has anyone noticed the slowness when it comes to random write times?

I usually don't care about the speed difference between SSDs because the difference is so small that it feels like counting pennies, but it's pretty discouraging when I see a review showing that it performs at the speed of a HDD at times.

Samsung 830

I just tested my Samsung 830 256GB and am getting an average write access of 17ms. Maybe someone here has a 128GB to test and can post their results. I almost question those numbers. In fact, I'm seeing some really poorly benched reviews in general, including the latest Plextor M3 and Sandisk Extreme.

 

[bradley]

In fact, another glaring mistake in that Tweaktown review, the Samsung 830 contains 27nm Toggle NAND. It's actually the Samsung PM830 *Data Center Edition* that uses 20nm Toggle NAND.

 

[Coup27]

Bradley I have a 128GB 830 and if you let me what program to use, I'll also test my write access time.

 

[nanaki333]

you should check out the intel 520. it's the only SF based drive that appears to be bulletbroof. i can't remember which review i read (anand maybe?), but someone said even after updates from ocz, they could still reliably get their vertex 3 to crash with BF3 i believe. the crash could be repeated with other SF drives, but not the intel variant.

intel drives are also backed by a 5 year warranty.

 

[ccbadd]

And doesn't the Intel 320 still have the 8mb bug? Amazes me how Intel die-hards keep recommending this drive just because it can be fixed with a destructive flash rather than an rma. I would go with what stylez777 said and get a Mushkin Chronos Deluxe as they are very good drives at a great price right now.

 

[nanaki333]

And doesn't the Intel 320 still have the 8mb bug? Amazes me how Intel die-hards keep recommending this drive just because it can be fixed with a destructive flash rather than an rma. I would go with what stylez777 said and get a Mushkin Chronos Deluxe as they are very good drives at a great price right now.

i thought that was fixed with a firmware update awhile ago

 

[bradley]

Bradley I have a 128GB 830 and if you let me what program to use, I'll also test my write access time.

Aida64
http://download.aida64.com/aida64extreme_build_1849_h5q0sfmjpt.zip

From the top menu, under Tools choose "Disk Benchmark." On the top menu of the Disk Benchmark, under Options check "write tests." Then on the bottom left hand side choose "average write access."

Just make sure (if the write benches are run) you have a data backup, as unfortunately the test is destructive.

 

[lehtv]

+1 to Samsung 830!

 

[Puddle Jumper]

i thought that was fixed with a firmware update awhile ago

It was.

 

[Coup27]

The Intel 320 8MB bug was fixed a while back but there are still many reports of users getting hit with it after the firmware update. To date, Intel has been silent on this and users on their forum have been ignored. But to be honest thats largely how Intel operates their SSD forum.

Aida64
http://download.aida64.com/aida64extreme_build_1849_h5q0sfmjpt.zip

From the top menu, under Tools choose "Disk Benchmark." On the top menu of the Disk Benchmark, under Options check "write tests." Then on the bottom left hand side choose "average write access."

Just make sure (if the write benches are run) you have a data backup, as unfortunately the test is destructive.

My 830 is my primary drive which my OS and everything else installed on it. Does this test have to be done with the SSD as a secondary drive? If so, thats far too much hassle tbh.

 

[ccbadd]

It was.

No it was not. http://communities.intel.com/thread/24339
SOME of the causes were fixed, but not all.

 

[kbp]

Been running four of these drives since release. Have had NO problems what-so-ever. Three are in a RAID array and one in a laptop.
Now lets talk about the Vertex 3 they replaced.............