Which SSD would you recommend?

[railven]

I'm heading to Microcenter with a friend and figured time to buy an SSD.

Here are my options:

OCZ Agility 4, uses the new Everest 2 controller - read the AT article for the Vertex 4, same controller it seems with some downgrades, I'd assume:
$100
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0393061

Or the Crucial M4 drive (two listed, not sure on the difference except $5)
$115
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0364545
$120
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0385188

At the $120 point the M4 would compete with the Vertex 4 in terms of cost:
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0387745

Will be buying in about 2 hours, will check the post as often as I can. I couldn't find much info on the Agility since they are still new, but the price seems great and it is a slight performance decrease to the Vertex 4 (assuming based on Agi 3 vs Vert 3 series.)

I missed the Samsung 830 for $90 at Newegg week or two ago and am kicking myself.

Thanks for the feedback.

EDIT: Just for comparison at the $120 price point:
Corsair Force 3 series:
$120 with $30 rebate
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0372641

I remember when originally reading, the Corsair's weren't that great, but I don't recall reading if it had stability issues.

 

[Batmeat]

I'll go first. I'm going to be flamed but oh well. Vertex 4 for faster read/write speeds, and more IOPS. I only buy there SSD's. I've never had issues over the 4 years I've owned them. IMO they are the leader in SSD technology and looking for ways to always increase performance/sustainability. That's imo. There will be those who claim they fail and don't last long....blah blah blah. I say garbage. What do you honestly expect from a company constantly looking to improve their product? For that matter, go to Newegg and look at EVERY ssd manufacturer reviews. There are bad ones with ALL of them.

Last thing, if you want all out performance, the Vertex 3 is faster read/write than the Vertex 4

 

[railven]

I'll go first. I'm going to be flamed but oh well. Vertex 4 for faster read/write speeds, and more IOPS. I only buy there SSD's. I've never had issues over the 4 years I've owned them. IMO they are the leader in SSD technology and looking for ways to always increase performance/sustainability. That's imo.

How do you think the Agi4 would compare to the Vert? Just less IOPs and a 4/5 the read/write speeds? That was the status quo for the Agi3/Vert3 if I recall.

 

[Batmeat]

How do you think the Agi4 would compare to the Vert? Just less IOPs and a 4/5 the read/write speeds? That was the status quo for the Agi3/Vert3 if I recall.

You nailed it. Most likely a bit more stable but slower and less IOPS. Only stable cause it's not operating as fast, firmwares are the same

 

[=Wendy=]

The Agility 4 has async NAND, while the Vertex 4 has the faster ssync NAND.
if you can afford the extra, go for the Vertex 4.

 

[railven]

I set $120 for my max, so I can definitely afford it.

The drive will be mostly for general use and only game I'd install on it would be WoW, why I'm debating if the extra performance boost is worth the $20 if I were to go with the OCZ flavor drives.

For the same price of the Vert4 I could get the Agi4 and a warranty, which I'd get just out of the bad rep the Vert3/Agi3 carried (even though majority seemed to have great experiences.)

Gonna see if I can find some benchmarks of the two. With the new controller maybe the perf difference isn't that much.

 

[Batmeat]

I set $120 for my max, so I can definitely afford it.

The drive will be mostly for general use and only game I'd install on it would be WoW, why I'm debating if the extra performance boost is worth the $20 if I were to go with the OCZ flavor drives.

For the same price of the Vert4 I could get the Agi4 and a warranty, which I'd get just out of the bad rep the Vert3/Agi3 carried (even though majority seemed to have great experiences.)

Gonna see if I can find some benchmarks of the two. With the new controller maybe the perf difference isn't that much.

it comes with a 3yr warranty already (parts/labor). Your choice though.

 

[cmdrdredd]

I'd go Crucial. Reliability is #1 importance above all else. The fastest speed is no good when you have to RMA. Just look up the number of OCZ drives that have been returned. It's above 12%! That's higher than any other electronics out there! Probably even higher than the number of Xbox360s that got RROD lol.

Plus you cannot tell the drive is faster or slower in usage. Both load up the OS fast, both load programs near instant, and the only way to tell them apart is to benchmark them which means nothing. Synthetic scores don't equate to real world performance because if I put together two identical systems one with a Crucial M4 and one with a Vertex 4 and didn't tell you which was which, you would never know the difference unless I showed you the benchmark.

As for the model numbers on the crucial drives. SSD1 is the 7mm version, while SSD2 is the 9.5mm.

 

[railven]

Just saw that the vert4 has 120k iops to the agi4s 72k. That pretty much settles that question for me.

As for I know the older ocz had lots of issues but I know more people that have used them without issue then I do with issues. Why I never closed the door on them.

I'd also get the MC warranty so any issues I can just go over and get full credit. MC is very good with that least the one here.

 

[Pr0d1gy]

That's higher than any other electronics out there! Probably even higher than the number of Xbox360s that got RROD lol.

I don't know about you but my Xbox failure rate is 80% after 5 Xboxes. I don't have a dog in this fight but I'm pretty sure Xbox's actual failure rate is higher than any singular computer hardware component would ever be.

 

[Csx-2011]

How does the Corsair Force GT series compare? Its got fast read and write. Which is important for editing large files.

 

[cmdrdredd]

I don't know about you but my Xbox failure rate is 80% after 5 Xboxes. I don't have a dog in this fight but I'm pretty sure Xbox's actual failure rate is higher than any singular computer hardware component would ever be.

I own 2, one has worked since launch day. *shrug*

 

[tweakboy]

Nice, drdeeedd , Can I ask how much that 128GB M4 gets in WEI . thx

 

[ShintaiDK]

Crucial M4 for sure.

 

[birthdaymonkey]

A single 128GB m4 gets a 7.9. So a RAID would get... a 7.9.

 

[Dark Shroud]

How does the Corsair Force GT series compare? Its got fast read and write. Which is important for editing large files.

Corsair Force use the same standard Sandforce firmware as everyone else. The big difference is the Corsair models use Toshiba Toggle NAND. It's good quality stuff.

I would still go Crucial M4 if you're crazy and don't want to spend another $10 to get either a Samsung 830 or Plextor M3.

Samsung is worth it, they provide SSD management software like Intel that's pretty good.

Plextor are fast & reliable but they don't come with software. You have to tweak the OS manually.

 

[railven]

Thanks for all the feedback, I ended up getting the Vert4 with the warranty just to give me a whirl. More IOPs and faster overall drive (yeah yeah, I won't tell the difference.)

The Samsung drive is $170 at MC for the 128GB drive, and yes I had to buy at MC (store credit.)

I'll be setting it up today after work, after setting up my friend's Agility 3 60GB (he just wanted it for an OS Drive, paid $45 so he can't lose) I was really impressed.

Jackass didn't have a SATA optical drive and his new motherboard didn't have IDE ports so we made a Win 7 USB Install disk on my USB 3.0 thumb drive, his new case has front USB 3.0 ports, and that combined with the SSD installed Windows in under 5 minutes. Blew me away.

 

[fastamdman]

I can tell you from personal experience the crucial m4 64gb and the crucial m4 128gb are both amazing drives. I bought the 64gb about a year ago and my buddy loved it so much I sold it to him and I upgraded to the 128gb. Neither of us have had a single issue with them. Firmware is SO easy to install, it's perfect. Best part nowadays is the price on them. You can get new 128gb ones for less then 125 bucks and if i recall correctly the 64gbs are around 75 bucks. If you go used, you can get them even cheaper obviously and as long as the seller includes a health scan you should be good to go.

Either way, I am a gamer and I do a lot of writes/reads to this drive. I download games constantly, install them, delete them, over and over. Haven't had a single issue and doubt I ever will.

Eventually I will pick up another 128gb and do raid 0 Love the m4s!


- Even though you didn't go with the m4, I am glad you picked up a ssd. Best thing you can buy for a computer these days!

 

[cmdrdredd]

Nice, drdeeedd , Can I ask how much that 128GB M4 gets in WEI . thx

7.9 the max score possible from what I understand. It actually lists my CPU as the weakest link at 7.7 while everything else scores 7.9 lol