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SSD recomendations

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  • Jan 30th, 2012 8:18 pm
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Jan 28, 2012
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SSD recomendations

I'm looking at upgrading my current desktop with an SSD and am having a hard time deciding what to get. I've done some reading to try and understand everything but could still use some advice.

My current board is an Asus P7P55D ATX Mainboard, which is only SATA 2 capable.

I'm looking for something in the 128GB range, for windows 7 and my games. I don't need to have ALL my games on it but a few of the bigger ones would be good.

I'm also looking to stay around $200, maybe 300 at the upper limit if there is a very good reason to spend it on something.

a few questions:

1. A friend of mine insists that i should get a PCI-express SSD, and that a SATA 2 would not be worth my effort... I understand they are faster but is it worth the extra cost (well above my price range)?
This friend of mine is notorious for always wanting the best fastest thing or nothing at all, so I always take what he says with a grain of salt...

2. Everything I've read says that SATA 3 is backwards compatible to SATA 2. So I could buy a SATA 3 drive and use it at reduced speed?
I could use that drive later on when I upgrade to a better mother board I guess.

3. Would a SATA 3 drive plugged into a SATA 2 port be faster, slower or the same performance as a SATA 2 drive plugged into a SATA 2 port? I'm reading conflicting things about this.
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Feb 15, 2008
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Rhaegar wrote: 1. A friend of mine insists that i should get a PCI-express SSD, and that a SATA 2 would not be worth my effort... I understand they are faster but is it worth the extra cost (well above my price range)?
Most of the PCI-E designs in the marketplace targetted at 'consumers' (as opposed to the enterprise) are not considered to be as robust as the SATA-based SSDs. Not worth it IMHO, unless you have already tried some SATA based SSD solutions and found them to be unsatisfactory.

2. Everything I've read says that SATA 3 is backwards compatible to SATA 2. So I could buy a SATA 3 drive and use it at reduced speed?
I could use that drive later on when I upgrade to a better mother board I guess.
Yes. The speed reduction wouldn't even be noticeable under all but the heaviest of usage circumstances.
3. Would a SATA 3 drive plugged into a SATA 2 port be faster, slower or the same performance as a SATA 2 drive plugged into a SATA 2 port? I'm reading conflicting things about this.

Depends upon the controller chipset on the SSD itself, and the actual configuration of flash ROM present.

You certainly won't lose anything by going with a SATA 3 versus SATA 2 drive, if you are plugging it into a SATA 2 port. However, the SATA 3 designs, in some cases, are less mature than the SATA 2 devices.

My personal recommendation is that you probably should stick with Intel or Samsung drives, if you place a high value on reliability (which you probably should....). The Intel 320 120gb is approximately $200 right now, but has been on sale for as little as $120 with mail-in-rebates. At $1/gb, the 160gb Intel 320 model is probably the 'sweet spot' in terms of pricing.
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Jul 26, 2006
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TigerDirect has the OCZ Vertex 2 on sale for $120, I bought it for a college course, and installed Win Server 2008 Enterprise in 12min (from first press of enter, to first desktop.)
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Mar 18, 2007
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Stay away from OCZ especially and any SSD using a sandforce controller if you want superior reliability. Only possible options are the Intel 320 or the Crucial M4 since they use their own seperate controllers and are very reliable. I personally have a 128gb Crucial M4 that I picked up for 200 (no sale). The price for this comes down to 185 at times which is a nice price plus these things never has MASSIVE mail in rebates unlike the intels which was a real deal killer for me. I hate having to fork over 120 extra bucks plus tax and chase around to get that money back 6 months later.
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Once the ssd firmware is updated, OCZ are good drive.
Maybe you had a bad experience with it, but it dont mean all drive are bad.
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ekashyap wrote: Stay away from OCZ especially and any SSD using a sandforce controller if you want superior reliability. Only possible options are the Intel 320 or the Crucial M4 since they use their own seperate controllers and are very reliable. I personally have a 128gb Crucial M4 that I picked up for 200 (no sale). The price for this comes down to 185 at times which is a nice price plus these things never has MASSIVE mail in rebates unlike the intels which was a real deal killer for me. I hate having to fork over 120 extra bucks plus tax and chase around to get that money back 6 months later.

I keep reading reviews and websites that say the sandforce controller is good, but then there are forum posts everywhere of people screaming not to use it... whats the deal? lots of reliablility issues?

It's my understanding that a lot of brands use sandforce other than intel and a few others?

I did read a lot about the vertex 2 having some bad issues when they changed something from 35nm to 25nm in the manufacturing, and that it isnt worth getting unless you can find the older model number around somewhere.

I have read good things about intel and crucial M4.
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Maybe OCZ and sandforce are getting their act together but I prefer to go with something that is time tested i.e. Intel or Crucial, but that's just me.
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I agree with the sentiments and say the Crucial M4 or Intel SSDs are top choices if you value reliability. If you decide to go Sandforce, I would try to stay with from the OCZ drives and choose another Sandforce based brand. Another good drive that was recently posted in Hot Deals is the Plextor M3 series.
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It seems to me that Vertex 2 had some major issues and a lot of people are attacking sandforce as a whole because of it...

Ive been looking on newegg and the vertex 2 has some very mixed reviews but there are plenty of other brands using sandforce that have solid 5 star ratings there.

I think I'll stay away from vertex for now just in case.
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Rhaegar wrote: I'm looking at upgrading my current desktop with an SSD and am having a hard time deciding what to get. I've done some reading to try and understand everything but could still use some advice.
my advice is to buy an Intel SSD. It's not the fastest, but they're generally reliable and have good support.
1. A friend of mine insists that i should get a PCI-express SSD, and that a SATA 2 would not be worth my effort... I understand they are faster but is it worth the extra cost (well above my price range)?
Well yes you can get a board based SSD (i.e. http://ncix.com/products/?sku=60773&vpn ... omoid=1141) but really for the money I would just get a normal sata 2 or 3 drive. Keep this in perspective - even the slowest SSD will make your system fly compared to a HD.
2. Everything I've read says that SATA 3 is backwards compatible to SATA 2.
Yes it's backwards compatible.
3. Would a SATA 3 drive plugged into a SATA 2 port be faster, slower or the same performance as a SATA 2 drive plugged into a SATA 2 port? I'm reading conflicting things about this.

Depends on the drive. Again I'm going to point out that the slowest drive will still bring a smile to your face. These are meant for your OS and apps which don't change much, not to put your docs on.

No matter what you get i strongly advise installing from scratch and following the ssd setup guides that exist on the net. i'll post one that i used (when i can find it) and i'm really happy with the performance.
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Yes I really do just want reliability and I realize now any SSD will be fast to me, I dont need to nitpick about the fastest one.

I'll keep an eye out for deals on the intel or crucial M4.

If you can post that guide I'd appreciate it, though I've looked at that one from the OP of that big SSD thread.
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Feb 29, 2008
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I own 3 OCZ drives. Other than getting screwed on the rebate I have no complaints:

1. OCZ vertex 128gb, Indlinx controller, FW 1.6, no issues. Had it for almost 2 years.
2. Ocz Agility 2 120gb, Sandforce (previous gen) controller, firmware 2.15, have it for 18 months in a laptop. No issues
3. OCZ agility 3 240gb, sandforce controller. Have it for 1 month. No issues.
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Rhaegar wrote: If you can post that guide I'd appreciate it, though I've looked at that one from the OP of that big SSD thread.

yeah for sure. i also did the extra step of remapping my desktop, My docs, My pics etc to my HD to save on the writes to the SSD.
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MrDisco wrote: yeah for sure. i also did the extra step of remapping my desktop, My docs, My pics etc to my HD to save on the writes to the SSD.

A complete waste of time, and a sacrifice in reliability. Unless you keep your SSD for 20 years, running out of writes for most users is nearly impossible.
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