Which SSD to choose?

[CDC Mail Guy]

Have it narrowed down to these 2

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820167050

and

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...D=3938566&SID=

BOTH are on sale at NE. Which is better? I know the Intel can use the Intel SSD Toolbox, but will Toolbox work with the Sandisk? I know the Intel one comes with mounting bracket, but I don't need one.

MOD EDIT: Moved to Memory and Storage. - Zap

 

[Ken g6]

Both of those are SATA II drives. Which means they're limited to 300mbps. Get a SATA III drive for $20 more than the Intel, if you can afford it.

 

[CDC Mail Guy]

Both of those are SATA II drives. Which means they're limited to 300mbps. Get a SATA III drive for $20 more than the Intel, if you can afford it.

Wow...thank you for the suggestion, looks great!

Now I guess my question would be, do I need to enable ACHI in BIOS before installing Windows to get all I can out of it?

 

[Vincent]

Now I guess my question would be, do I need to enable ACHI in BIOS before installing Windows to get all I can out of it?

Yes. Enable AHCI.

 

[mfenn]

Wow...thank you for the suggestion, looks great!

Now I guess my question would be, do I need to enable ACHI in BIOS before installing Windows to get all I can out of it?

Agree with Ken on the M4.

You do need to enable AHCI to get the most out of the drive. There is a method of editing the registry so that you can enable AHCI after the fact if you need to.

 

[CDC Mail Guy]

Agree with Ken on the M4.

You do need to enable AHCI to get the most out of the drive. There is a method of editing the registry so that you can enable AHCI after the fact if you need to.

I tried it on the 80GB Intel disk I have now, because AS SSD Benchmark showed pciide as being bad. I googled it, and found out why. In the registry change, it was something about changing the default value of 3 to 0 or something like that. I tried changing the BIOS to AHCI, but Windows wouldn't load. Not too worried about it now, but want to make sure I do for the new drive when I get it. Thank you.

 

[mfenn]

I tried it on the 80GB Intel disk I have now, because AS SSD Benchmark showed pciide as being bad. I googled it, and found out why. In the registry change, it was something about changing the default value of 3 to 0 or something like that. I tried changing the BIOS to AHCI, but Windows wouldn't load. Not too worried about it now, but want to make sure I do for the new drive when I get it. Thank you.

You have to change the AHCI value (link) before you change the BIOS setting. Basically, you are telling Windows that it is OK to load the AHCI driver earlier in the boot process.

 

[CDC Mail Guy]

Before I do anything else as far as this computer goes, I HAVE to figure out why I am getting a CONSTANT loud beep from the internal speaker. Everything is running smooth, I am still getting awesome frames in BF3 and Black Ops, and all temps are ok (low 30's)

after resetting BIOS to load optimized defaults, and back to no overclock, I just unplugged the speaker when it continued.

If all else fails, I will find the CMOS jumper and go that route to see if that fixes it.

Thanks for the link mfenn, I will give that a try.

 

[CDC Mail Guy]

You have to change the AHCI value (link) before you change the BIOS setting. Basically, you are telling Windows that it is OK to load the AHCI driver earlier in the boot process.

Okay....so now I have turned my computer into a BRICK...a very heavy paperweight or doorstop.

I installed the "fix" from the link....checked the registry settings to make sure value was set at 0. Then went into BIOS and changed the setting to ACHI. Now it wont start, says the Operating System is missing

It isn't letting me back into BIOS, and when I Ctrl, Alt, Delete, after starting it just does the same thing....goes to Loading Operating System and then to Missing Operating System.

EDIT: Fixed after having to clear CMOS. Boots now...please disregard.

 

[Old Hippie]

goes to Loading Operating System and then to Missing Operating System.

Time for a fresh install with AHCI enabled this time?

 

[jhansman]

Before you choose, take a moment to read this. Not all SSDs are created equal.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2011/08/07/nand_flash_faces_off_synchronous_vs_asynchronous

 

[GoStumpy]

Instead of starting a new thread, any thoughts on this Kingston SSDNow drive?


[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Kingston SSDNow V200 128GB 2.5IN SATA3[/FONT] $143.99 after $53 discount

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=65531&promoid=1190

3 year warranty

 

[Remobz]

Before you choose, take a moment to read this. Not all SSDs are created equal.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2011/08/07/nand_flash_faces_off_synchronous_vs_asynchronous

Now things got more confusing

I need a 120gb SSD and now what to pick?

 

[ThatsABigOne]

Corsair Force GT.

 

[hachi]

Now things got more confusing

I need a 120gb SSD and now what to pick?

I think after reading that you just want to avoid asynchronus NAND MLC drives, such as the OCZ Agility Series and Corsair Force 3.

The other thing is that many of these drives are also using the SandForce 2200 class controller, which has its own host of reliability problems.

Bottom Line: If you're looking for sandforce powered drives, go with OCZ Vertext 3 or Corsair Force GT series.

If you aren't, and are looking for one of the more reliable drives, this doesn't change anything with respect to the Intel 320 / 520 or the Crucial M4 (fairly sure the M4 is using Synchronous).

 

[CDC Mail Guy]

Major Update:

so, I got the 128GB Crucial M4 yesterday, installed it this morning, along with Windows 7 64, did the registry change to 0 (I think most ppl will know what I am talking about)

Then, I re-booted, changed BIOS to ACHI instead of IDE. Now it won't boot, but it shows on the screen (after the BIOS version)

ACHI Drive Init...
ID Devise Attached
_______________________________________________________________________

0 M4-CT128M4SSD <S.M.A.R.T. OK>_

There is a "blinking" cursor there, but I cannot do anything with the keyboard at all. I ASSUME that I just hit enter....but it does NOTHING. I just wound up turning offf my computer by the power button and went to work

Okay, smart people...what do I do NOW????

Thanks in advance

 

[Shmee]

try a windows repair with the install disk?

 

[deimos3428]

Before I do anything else as far as this computer goes, I HAVE to figure out why I am getting a CONSTANT loud beep from the internal speaker.

You said your D14 is "silent"; if that's a passive config or using really low rpm fans you might have to set the CPU Fan speed sensor to disabled in the BIOS to get it to stop beeping. (Unplugging the speaker works too, though.)

 

[kevinsbane]

Major Update:

so, I got the 128GB Crucial M4 yesterday, installed it this morning, along with Windows 7 64, did the registry change to 0 (I think most ppl will know what I am talking about)

Then, I re-booted, changed BIOS to ACHI instead of IDE. Now it won't boot, but it shows on the screen (after the BIOS version)

ACHI Drive Init...
ID Devise Attached
_______________________________________________________________________

0 M4-CT128M4SSD <S.M.A.R.T. OK>_

There is a "blinking" cursor there, but I cannot do anything with the keyboard at all. I ASSUME that I just hit enter....but it does NOTHING. I just wound up turning offf my computer by the power button and went to work

Okay, smart people...what do I do NOW????

Thanks in advance

Try switching back to IDE, then doing this?

 

[Old Hippie]

try a windows repair with the install disk?

W7 doesn't have that repair option on the boot disk.

You have to make a repair disk.

 

[CDC Mail Guy]

Try switching back to IDE, then doing this?

Okay, I will try that. I did the steps from the following page

http://www.ithinkdiff.com/how-to-enable-ahci-in-windows-7-rc-after-installation/

Then...."After this you’ll have to restart your computer, go to BIOS and enable AHCI. When you log in to Windows again, you’ll notice the installation of drivers for AHCI."

But although I successfully change the registry value to 0, and re-boot and go into BIOS and change to ACHI...that is when the above mentioned problem happens, and it will not boot

Question though...is ACHI REALLY that much better in performance over IDE??? If not, I will just keep this in IDE mode. It is still way faster than my old SATAII Intel SSD.

 

[CDC Mail Guy]

You said your D14 is "silent"; if that's a passive config or using really low rpm fans you might have to set the CPU Fan speed sensor to disabled in the BIOS to get it to stop beeping. (Unplugging the speaker works too, though.)

Yeah, that was resolved. The fans are SLOW and silent, and somehow am not getting the beeping anymore at least ONE good thing out of all of this

 

[bryanW1995]

Okay, I will try that. I did the steps from the following page

http://www.ithinkdiff.com/how-to-enable-ahci-in-windows-7-rc-after-installation/

Then...."After this you’ll have to restart your computer, go to BIOS and enable AHCI. When you log in to Windows again, you’ll notice the installation of drivers for AHCI."

But although I successfully change the registry value to 0, and re-boot and go into BIOS and change to ACHI...that is when the above mentioned problem happens, and it will not boot

Question though...is ACHI REALLY that much better in performance over IDE??? If not, I will just keep this in IDE mode. It is still way faster than my old SATAII Intel SSD.

AHCI is really that much better. I originally installed my x25m g2 with my i7 920 build 2 years ago in ide mode, and I never bothered to fix it. While I was messing around with overclocking/SRT + OS on ssd/etc with my new 2500k, I accidentally installed windows in ahci mode. It was a lot faster, enough so that I was disappointed when I found out that I had to use raid mode instead of ahci if I wanted cache + os on the same ssd.

 

[code65536]

Question though...is ACHI REALLY that much better in performance over IDE??? If not, I will just keep this in IDE mode. It is still way faster than my old SATAII Intel SSD.

You definitely want AHCI for the TRIM support.

 

[CDC Mail Guy]

AHCI is really that much better. I originally installed my x25m g2 with my i7 920 build 2 years ago in ide mode, and I never bothered to fix it. While I was messing around with overclocking/SRT + OS on ssd/etc with my new 2500k, I accidentally installed windows in ahci mode. It was a lot faster, enough so that I was disappointed when I found out that I had to use raid mode instead of ahci if I wanted cache + os on the same ssd.

I really really really wish you knew how you accidentally did it