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Deciding between these two SSDs. Thoughts?

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  • Jun 26th, 2013 3:02 am
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Deal Expert
Jun 15, 2011
47027 posts
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Deciding between these two SSDs. Thoughts?

Okay so I am contemplating to get either of the mentioned SSDs that are on sale. So I would like to know your own thoughts and which one is the most reliable in terms of failure rates and a better controller.

1) Staples - The Samsung 840 NON PRO 120GB for $109.96 less $30 coupon so $79.96 OR the Crucial M500 120GB at CC for $99.99 before taxes. I guess I can't PM NCIX's price as its less than $100: $98.98: http://www.ncix.ca/products/?affilia...e&promoid=1065

OR

2) Crucial M500 from CC at $99.99 (I reserved it for that price but have not paid for it yet. It has gone back up to $129.99): http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_ ... _id=059655

T.I.A
Blanka
10 replies
Deal Addict
Oct 31, 2012
4547 posts
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London
I'd take the M500 over the 840, if only because of it's great performance and enterprise-like features (encryption, power protection capacitors), but both are good drives, with good controllers. The M500's MLC is better than the 840's TLC NAND though.
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Mar 20, 2008
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Here's an excellent conclusion for the M500, comparing with the 840 and 840 Pro.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6884/cruc ... b-120gb/10

TL: DR
The 120gb M500 is not worth it for the slower than most competitors' performance. You would only buy this if it's at an excellent price point.

Reliability-wise, the M500 should be much better than the 840
Deal Expert
Jun 15, 2011
47027 posts
9312 upvotes
Hmm so its 50/50 between the two then eh? Is it worth paying $80 for the Samsung 840 though? Or is that still too high? I did read this though on the link posted above:

[QUOTE]120GB version sacrifices a lot of performance as a result of only using a total of 8 NAND die within the drive[/QUOTE]
Blanka
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Oct 31, 2012
4547 posts
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London
If you really want pure performance, you shouldn't get a 120GB drive. Pretty much all 120GB drives suffer from worse performance because of less NAND die. Both drives will seem much faster than a hard disk drive anyway because of the faster access times. $80 is around average sale price for the 840.

I would still go for the M500 because of the better features and probable reliability (hard to say since both drives are relatively new).
Deal Expert
Jun 15, 2011
47027 posts
9312 upvotes
Scycotic wrote: If you really want pure performance, you shouldn't get a 120GB drive. Pretty much all 120GB drives suffer from worse performance because of less NAND die. Both drives will seem much faster than a hard disk drive anyway because of the faster access times. $80 is around average sale price for the 840.

I would still go for the M500 because of the better features and probable reliability (hard to say since both drives are relatively new).
Hmm so if I want pure performance then up it to a 250GB drive then eh? That kind of goes above my budget though lol. So if the M500 is recommended, would $100 be worth it?
Blanka
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Mar 7, 2006
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Either up the budget for a bigger drive or settle for the m500

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Feb 15, 2008
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Calgary
Its a toss-up for most people. Close your eyes and pick one. My inclination would be to go for the MLC instead of the TLC, but that's not based on anything scientific and certainly not on my own experience of only putting about 2Tb of host writes on a drive in 6 months which is well within ease of a TLC drive.

I picked up a Samsung 840 Pro a month ago for $90-something shipped, which was the best of both worlds.

Don't worry about SSD speed. The days of drives pausing and hiccups are thankfully over.
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Deal Addict
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Sep 13, 2008
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"On the other side of the fence, the 120GB version sacrifices a lot of performance as a result of only using a total of 8 NAND die within the drive. Unless its street price is significantly more attractive than its MSRP, I don't see a reason to choose the 120GB M500."

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6884/cruc ... gb-120gb/5

Avoid the 120GB M500.

840 ftw.

Also.. the concerns about longevity are ill-advised since the 840 TLC lasts quite a while. Look here:

http://uk.hardware.info/reviews/4178/10 ... -20-6-2013
Deal Addict
Oct 31, 2012
4547 posts
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London
It's not like the 840 120GB has that great performance either, write speeds are so low some hard drives can meet it.

My main reason for choosing the M500 would be the enterprise-level features like having capacitors in case of power failure (to prevent data loss) and the full-disk encryption feature that pretty much no other SSD has right now (CG Opal 2.0 and IEEE-1667 compliance).
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Mar 1, 2003
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Scarborough
The reviews seem to show that the 840 beats the M500 in real-world performance at any given capacity. Considering the 120GB 840 is $20 cheaper than the 120GB M500, I'd grab the Samsung drive if you don't have an abnormally write-intensive workload.
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