Crucial M4 vs Samsung 830?

[Hicks12]

Right i currently have a 64gb M4 for boot and a 128gb M4 for games and software, after finding games like Arma2 it seems my 128gb is far to small and ive realised ive been sitting on some old 'junk' around my house and Cex will give me the pleasure of handing me £125 for it , planning on taking it all in the next week and getting that cash so i thought id look at upgrading my storage.

I am struggling to decide between the two, they both are ~£140 for 256gb but benches seem all over the place, is anandtech still reliable? http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/532?vs=355
the benches seem to go from the 830 dominating to the m4 destroying it in small files etc. Not really sure what benchmarks are relevant and what are simply e-peen (not real world). Any ideas?

Also has anyone seen some benches for the new Corsair LAMD? they said the pricing would be similar to the current stuff (force gt etc) and since they are only ~ £20 more expensive than the M4 /830 it seems like they could a solid unit?.

The only issue i have atm is that my board only has 2x sata6 ports so im going to sacrifce a drive, my 64gb will be going in my dads laptop i believe but the 128gb will take its place.

[SUMMONER]

Subscribed, interested in seeing what others (who may have used both) are saying in regards to their real world experience with the drives.

I have replaced all my Kingston and OCZ drives with Crucial M4s and am very happy with them.

The Samsung with it's Toggle Mode NAND is the superior drive, however I don't think you can actually see that difference other than on benchmarks.

I would say that it is not so much important which SSD you buy. The important part is that ones does make the effort of moving away from a HDD as a boot drive (slow slow slow...!!!) and of course buy a SSD that has a reputation for being reliable. I have had both a OCZ Vertex 2 (no longer detected) and a Crucial M4 (reported 1000s of bad blocks) die on me.

[Hicks12]

Well i moved away from HDD based system last year, all i have is the 2 drives listed, but then i have 2 TB in an external drive for actual backups etc, the noise and speed of the HDD were the most annoying things i could hear it over everything in my system which forced my hand . The M4 havent faulted me its just that they are the same price and if im getting a 256gb drive id rather pick the best now .

[snootyjim]

I'm going to say that based on info Agent has posted, I'd steer clear of SandForce, so Samsung vs Crucial is the logical option.

Between them? I doubt you're going to find a whole lot of difference. I would wager that those benchmarks would make next to no difference in a desktop PC environment. If an SSD is 10 times quicker than an HDD, then load times go from 7 seconds to 0.7 seconds. You'll notice that. If one SSD is 10 times faster than that one, you'll go from 0.7 seconds to 0.63 seconds... and I doubt you'll notice that. But of course SSDs aren't 10 times faster than each other, in fact they're probably not going to be twice as fast as another.

I'd go with warranty, price, and your heart. I lean towards Crucial because for some unknown reason I trust them... and that's why I have one.

[Phage]

The Register plumps for the Kingston Hyper X or Plextor PX.
http://www.reghardware.com/2012/06/0...n_sata_3_ssds/
Me ? I'd be happy with either an M4 or a 830 given the price wars lately.

[teppic]

Personally I'd be happy with either. I've got a Crucial M4 in my Macbook Pro and I've never had to worry about whether it can give 400mb/sec or 450mb/sec in large sequential transfers. I think the two drives perform so well and so similarly in average day to day environments it'd be best just to go on price and warranty. Certainly all reports seem to say Crucial are brilliant for aftersales care.

[GeorgeStorm]

I'm going to say that based on info Agent has posted, I'd steer clear of SandForce, so Samsung vs Crucial is the logical option.

Between them? I doubt you're going to find a whole lot of difference. I would wager that those benchmarks would make next to no difference in a desktop PC environment. If an SSD is 10 times quicker than an HDD, then load times go from 7 seconds to 0.7 seconds. You'll notice that. If one SSD is 10 times faster than that one, you'll go from 0.7 seconds to 0.63 seconds... and I doubt you'll notice that. But of course SSDs aren't 10 times faster than each other, in fact they're probably not going to be twice as fast as another.

I'd go with warranty, price, and your heart. I lean towards Crucial because for some unknown reason I trust them... and that's why I have one.

If the SSD was 10 times faster it would be 0.07 vs 0.7
But I get your point, and I'd have to agree. If I were to buy a new SSD, it would be one of those, with me personally leaning slightly towards the M4 just because of it's reputation as such a solid drive really

[Hicks12]

Yeah im on the same lines as all of you, only reason im asking between the two i know they're both reliable and strong performing drives hence its hard to decide . Theres not much performance difference but again it would be nice if something really does do better in real life not that id notice it as they are both great and compared to old HDD its stupid .

Hmm guess looking for the bargain prices now then .

[Agent]

As above - there is only a little difference to you as an end user with two drives like this. Both are considered reliable and both are very fast.

Crucial does have excellent UK RMA services though, which for me is enough of a reason to stick with them currently.

[snootyjim]

If the SSD was 10 times faster it would be 0.07 vs 0.7

Ouch, maths fail

But I get your point, and I'd have to agree. If I were to buy a new SSD, it would be one of those, with me personally leaning slightly towards the M4 just because of it's reputation as such a solid drive really

But thanks for changing the topic

[Hicks12]

Does their RMA differ from their RAM? All ive had todo was fill in a form (serial number etc) and post it to them but that still means i have to send to them at my cost, not that it isnt standard practice but compared to samsung i have no idea .

Current pricing is looking like Samsung : £142.98 / Crucial : £143.99
£1.01 in it, not a clue may just flip a coin .

[Hicks12]

Well i just found it for £140 at novatech (the samsung), seems they both have good RMA and samsung even says around 2-3 days after they receive it so should be good.
£3 saved think sways my decision , now to just double check all these different version laptop/desktop kits im not sure what the bloody difference is!.

[marshalex]

Well i just found it for £140 at novatech (the samsung), seems they both have good RMA and samsung even says around 2-3 days after they receive it so should be good.
£3 saved think sways my decision , now to just double check all these different version laptop/desktop kits im not sure what the bloody difference is!.

desktop kit comes with a bracket and the laptop kit comes with a usb to sata adaptor and a spacer (for 9.5mm laptop drive bays). both come with norton ghost (which is pretty poor IMO). I paid that for my samsung from amazon a week ago and ita an amazing (and quite good looking!) piece of kit

[Hicks12]

Thanks for clarifying, assumed it would be something like that and i really did need the space just because my dads laptop may not be 7mm(might be standard 9.5) and so my M4 will be moved to his and should fit . Brilliant stuff after looking at more reviews it seems the 256gb is pretty much neck and neck they trade blows its not difference really but the write speed is bit better on the samsung compared to the m4 and its cheaper, with quidco it should come to £136! Bargain from novatech now to see how fast free delivery is as i aint used them in a long time .