Now that the 520 is here.. which is the King of consumer SSDs? *Poll*

[Obsoleet]

The forum has been buzzing over the Intel Sandforce drive, and now that it's here.. what is the king, Intel's 520 or does the Samsung 830 retain the throne? You can consider price, reliability, the SSD toolboxes included, concerns.. whatever makes you personally crown one over the other.

My 2sense, the 520 would be king if the prices weren't so much higher than the 830. At a touch over $1,000 at most etailers, I can't justify the 520 over the 830 personally. Do I think the 520 is a better drive?
Time will tell for sure, but I think it is probably the superior piece of drive overall due to it's lower write amplification, for enterprise I think it's the hands-down winner. There's really no need to debate that.

For consumers, Samsung having a good track record, SSD toolbox of their own, all Samsung parts and all of those parts from the NAND to the controller being good.. it was my pick for the market leader and obvious choice, and it still is today. With the ~500GB drive being more than $200 less than the 520, the Intel price difference is no longer justified. When it was Intel vs Crucial for top-dog status, it made more sense as Crucial has no SSD toolkit, and doesn't have quite as strong of track record of reliability as Intel. Samsung can match and surpass Intel's capabilities in all regards, and I feel they have with the all-in-house 830.

Looking forward to your thoughts. If you feel these 2 drives are not even the neck-and-neck choices for the today's best SSD, feel free to let us know why.

 

[exar333]

If you need longevity or absolute reliability, Intel has the edge. Performance is a wash, and probably is pretty much unnoticeable compared to a good SF SSD as well. Can't go wrong with either choice really.

 

[andg]

If you need longevity or absolute reliability, Intel has the edge. Performance is a wash, and probably is pretty much unnoticeable compared to a good SF SSD as well. Can't go wrong with either choice really.

There might still be problems with the SF controller in the 520...

 

[Burner27]

There might still be problems with the SF controller in the 520...

Care to elaborate?

 

[bunnyfubbles]

Cherryville is still just so much more expensive per capacity that I can't help but view it as a tier above "consumer" oriented. IMO the 520 is just as much a "consumer" drive as X79 / s2011 is a "consumer" platform.

I still think its pretty hard to beat the cost effectiveness of the M4 or the average SF2200 drive now that most of the issues have been sorted out and solved with newer revisions and/or firmware updates.

The 830 is closer than the 520 in regards to being more consumer oriented, however its pricing is still a tad high.

 

[wpcoe]

There might still be problems with the SF controller in the 520...

Care to elaborate?

I think he means it is still early in the game to assume the 520's will be problem-free. The drives have only been available to the public for less than a week. Think: the 320's 8MB bug, or M4's 5200-hour bug -- those took a little while to show up.

I don't think he means there WILL be any problem, just that it's kind of early to tell. i.e. There "might" still be problems....

 

[bunnyfubbles]

I think he means it is still early in the game to assume the 520's will be problem-free. The drives have only been available to the public for less than a week. Think: the 320's 8MB bug, or M4's 5200-hour bug -- those took a little while to show up.

I don't think he means there WILL be any problem, just that it's kind of early to tell. i.e. There "might" still be problems....

the main reason there's high confidence in the 520 not to have problems is that Intel took that extra year to put it through the paces to make sure there won't be problems

andg's comment seems to be derived from Sand Force's recent less than stellar reputation, which isn't entirely their fault as other partners rushed their SF2200 products relative to intel. The problems that plagued earlier versions of drives with the controller have largely been satisfactorily addressed, and here is Intel with their version of it, not only with the experiences of others to look at, but with their own extra time in development of it.

Sure, there's always the possibility that something slips through, however unlikely, we just have to look to the SATAII bug with Intel's first Sandy Bridge chipsets

But what it comes down to is confidence - I'd be willing to bet quite a bit of money that the 520s will be relatively problem free.

 

[=Wendy=]

"which is the King of consumer SSDs?" with just two poll options. LOL

 

[groberts101]

I wasn't even going to jump into the love-fest here.. but.. even funnier is the fact that the Intel is not even a week old by now!

Talk about lack of data before having it all figured out. lol

 

[philipma1957]

I voted for samsung 830.

I own them I do not have an intel 520 and I am waiting on my crucial m4's. BTW the samsung 470 series was a really nice ssd.

 

[Edrick]

Neither.

Really dumb poll by the way.

 

[ccbadd]

"which is the King of consumer SSDs?" with just two poll options. LOL

My thoughts exactly!

 

[jwilliams4200]

There have already been reports of BSODs with the Intel 520, although it seems in this case a workaround was found:

http://communities.intel.com/message/149481#149481

Still, not very encouraging.

I think the Corsair Performance Pro 256GB (which is nearly identical to the 256GB Plextor M2P) is a better SSD than the Intel 520. The performance is similar, and when they are different, the CPP wins some and the Intel 520 wins some, but overall they are very close in performance. However, the Intel 520 costs at least $100 more than the CPP. So clearly the CPP is the better SSD.

Also, the Plextor M3P (the pro version of the M3S) is due out soon. It will be interesting to see how that compares to the 520, since the Plextor will also have a 5 year warranty, and probably very good reliability and similar performance to the 520.

 

[Edrick]

I just got the Corsair Performance Pro and love it. Great upgrade over my Crucial C300.

 

[exdeath]

A "King of SSDs" poll without Chronos Deluxe, Wildfire, and OCZ MAX IOPS on the list?

 

[groberts101]

reports of BSODs with the Intel 520, although it seems in this case a workaround was foundhttp://

it seems to me that when a user still has to implement a nearly year old LPM workaround to run with RST drivers?.. Intel just might not have all their drivers/520 firmware power mgmt related features sorted out just yet.

As it's always been.. not everything wrong with SF-2281 can be fixed with a simple firmware update and driver/bios issues will still remain for some configs out there.

Pretty isolated incident though in the scheme of things. Only time and more sales/feedback will tell the real story though.

 

[andg]

I'm also a bit concerned about recovering write speeds after torture. It seems like the Samsung 830 handles this much better than the Intel 520? Just my conclusions from comparing the Anand reviews of both SSDs.

I'm about to order a 120gb part soon, and as you guys can hear I'm currently leaning towards Samsung. Been quite happy with Intel so far though, have had zero problems at all with my two x25-m g2. I want to continue to have zero problems, so I've also been considering the Intel 320.

 

[Coup27]

You could say I am an Intel and Samsung fanboy but this poll should really have had a lot more choices, although I do understand why you have singled out these two.

Theres no doubting the speed SF2281 brings to the table but Intels validation aside, it is far too early to comment on whether it will be 100% reliable. As mentioned above one user on their foum has already had to implement a LPM work around.

I personally think Samsung has a better reliability record than Intel. There are still reports of the 8MB in the wild after the firmware fix.

Also the price on the 240GB and 480GB versions of the 520 are a joke. They don't even scale linearly compared to the smaller versions or the competition.

 

[groberts101]

eh hmm.. ther've also been plenty of Samsungs around the net who've had to use that LPM hack as well.

Just sayin'.. life is always nice when we live in our nice little shielded bubbles, is all. For some.. it's only when they get popped.. that we see the real world come flooding in.

 

[Coup27]

I have searched but I've not been able to find users who have an 830 and have been forced to use an LPM hack to ensure stability. Feel free to prove otherwise though.

 

[groberts101]

he drops everything and digs furiously. lol

I'll hit you later with them. But just like the Intel stuff I sent you a while back.. it may take me a bit. Birthday party tomorrow.. auto maintenance on Sunday and a high-end small-block Chevy build(CNC heads too!) coming in next week. Be patient and I won't forget you.

 

[Obsoleet]

Cherryville is still just so much more expensive per capacity that I can't help but view it as a tier above "consumer" oriented. IMO the 520 is just as much a "consumer" drive as X79 / s2011 is a "consumer" platform.
The 830 is closer than the 520 in regards to being more consumer oriented, however its pricing is still a tad high.

The 520 is definitely consumer, regardless of its high price due to lack of capacitors. Enterprise drives have not only capacitors, but ones designed/validated in an enterprise environment such as the Intel 710. Intel does not say it's enterprise ready in the literature either.
Intel certainly would love for you to to believe it's above consumer grade. I'd agree Intel's drives are worth a price premium over other brands, but I don't believe this is an enterprise-ready drive.

he drops everything and digs furiously. lol

I'll hit you later with them. But just like the Intel stuff I sent you a while back.. it may take me a bit. Birthday party tomorrow.. auto maintenance on Sunday and a high-end small-block Chevy build(CNC heads too!) coming in next week. Be patient and I won't forget you.

If and until you can produce evidence, your claim is entirely invalid.
I'd like to see the proof of the 830 issue as well. Though I'm less congenial than he is, and I place the burden of proof on you. That said, I won't WAIT for proof of your earlier claim, but if you do happen to produce it at some point in the future, I'll be pleased to see it.

You could say I am an Intel and Samsung fanboy but this poll should really have had a lot more choices, although I do understand why you have singled out these two.

Theres no doubting the speed SF2281 brings to the table but Intels validation aside, it is far too early to comment on whether it will be 100% reliable. As mentioned above one user on their foum has already had to implement a LPM work around.

I personally think Samsung has a better reliability record than Intel. There are still reports of the 8MB in the wild after the firmware fix.

Also the price on the 240GB and 480GB versions of the 520 are a joke. They don't even scale linearly compared to the smaller versions or the competition.

I wanted to include more options, it wasn't to scorn people who like other choices. I just thought these 2 were clear front-runners for the 'consumer' king. With 20 votes in the poll so far, I feel confident most people understand why I focused on these drives to be the top-dogs for consumers. Most people here are either Sandforce advocates, or not. I figured with Intel using SF, we'd have a rush of supporters for the SF drive.

But the SF cult was more based on cheap prices with great benchmarks, not so much a focus on speed+quality which is what the Intel 520 represents. I have nothing against cheaper alternatives, they are just not going to match the validation/QA of Intel or Samsung, but that doesn't mean they won't work.. but general top-dog status for consumer drives?
Metrics other than speed+price are brought into the mix, with the focus being on speed+QA.

Speed+QA are the most difficult things to come across in a consumer level drive. Only the M4, 830, 510, 520, and back in their day, the Intel G1, G2 are on that short list.

830/520 are the supreme examples of this, with the jury still out on the 520. The 520 is the Sandforce's last hope for redemption in my mind, and I'm not entirely positive Intel pulled it off. We'll see.

 

[zchieply]

the 830 has better random read/write speeds and better access time.

 

[Helicobacter]

I really wish the M4 would be included in this poll. Not only is this one of the reliable drives, it would also be a good representative of the Marvel family. Also, it's SATA3, like the other two. Perhaps, also the Plextor M3S.

 

[Obsoleet]

I really wish the M4 would be included in this poll. Not only is this one of the reliable drives, it would also be a good representative of the Marvel family. Also, it's SATA3, like the other two. Perhaps, also the Plextor M3S.

I agree, I wasn't sure to include the M4 or not. I decided against it because I felt to be the 'king' of consumer SSDs a good SSD toolkit should be included. But I definitely agree the Marvell controller is great and should have been represented either way, I would have chosen the Intel 510 for Marvell since it has a SSD toolbox, but it was too pricey to be considered against the newer drives.

Overall I feel the M4 is one of the best drives on the market, without question. I just felt that most people (outside of M4 owners) would say the 830 has it outclassed so putting it as an option seemed pointless. The M4 was the drive I was recommending until the 830 reached a stability point (recently, basically) that I was comfortable with.

M4 is certainly the outgoing king, and that's no slight but only praise. The 510 would have been, but the limited sizes and unreasonable pricing (maybe not if you consider it's probably the most reliable SSD of all time) made the M4 look like the easy choice for quite some time.