Best SSD for £70

[Dark_Prince946]

So, at Christmas I created my rig, 2500k, 560ti and a 1tb hdd.
So I think its time I upgraded to an ssd.
I have £110 but I need some money for the Wickerman Festival.
I think £40 is enough for the Festival but its flexible to about £30 but thats max.
Leaving me with £80

Scan Ebuyer and Amazon are currently selling
Code: LN44087
Sandisk Extreme 120GB SSD - Solid State Drive - SDSSDX-120G-G25

This is what I think is the best choice but I always like to get second opinions.

[HalloweenJack]

what motherboard do you have?

IMO the best 2 options are the crucial M4 and the samsung 830 - whislt neither are the `fastest` in the class - they also dont have the reputation for poor reliability that ocz (and other sandforce) absed products have

[Dark_Prince946]

Asus P8Z68-V/GEN3
It got sata 6gb/s.
The Samsung is within my budget and far faster in write than the crucial M4 is a bit more but I can still get it, both are far slower than the SanDisk in write one though.

[Agent]

Asus P8Z68-V/GEN3
It got sata 6gb/s.
The Samsung is within my budget and far faster in write than the crucial M4 is a bit more but I can still get it, both are far slower than the SanDisk in write one though.

http://forums.hexus.net/storage/2452...ml#post2482505

The OCZ only looks faster at writing due to compressible data being used, it really is a 'headline' advertising speed. When you use non-compressible data it's write speed drops.

http://www.destructoid.com/review-oc...e-213810.phtml
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/sto...ware-face-of/3

Check the write speeds in those reviews between the two drives..

[Dark_Prince946]

So get the M4 for warenty or Samsung for slightly better speed and forget the rest?

[Agent]

So get the M4 for warenty or Samsung for slightly better speed and forget the rest?

It's swings and roundabouts for each, when in use the difference between the two would be negligible to the user.

Go with the one you can get for the best cost:warranty ratio. My personal preference is not to buy a Sandforce based drive, no matter how cheap due to all the issues that have happened. More so when there are other drives out with proven reliability for not much more.

[Hicks12]

Yup samsung 830 or crucial M4, both are the best in the market right now and id say just pick whatever is cheapest between them. Believe the 830 is the cheapest atm, http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-128G...cp_computers_2 £77 at amazon comes with adapter and stuff .

Cant comment on warranties but from the ram side i know crucial is brilliant and i hear respectable things from samsung also, so no difference really. You wont notice the performance between the drives, atleast i havent noticed and ive had 64/128gb M4s and a 256gb 830, non have failed me yet and are brilliantly fast .

Performance between them is swings and round abouts, in the end they both win where it matters and where its noticeable, you couldnt tell the difference between the two unless you were shown bench numbers and saw the physical drive. Write speeds arent that important compared to read, you only write a few times compared to reading, its still fast on both drives though!.

Oh and i have the same motherboard (well the non pci-e 3.0 version) so im confident you wont fall into that very very small % that have compatibility issues, should be plain sailing .

[FatalSaviour]

It's swings and roundabouts for each, when in use the difference between the two would be negligible to the user.

Go with the one you can get for the best cost:warranty ratio. My personal preference is not to buy a Sandforce based drive, no matter how cheap due to all the issues that have happened. More so when there are other drives out with proven reliability for not much more.

This would be my preference too - based on multiple negative personal experiences of Sandforce drives (mainly from Corsair) and consistently positive experiences with Crucial M4s.

[markini6]

Great thread, I was being lured in by the Sandforce's prices, but I think the 830 will be the one I get

[VulgarDisplay88]

I have a 64GB M4 and it's really good. I have been tempted by the sandforces but they have had bad reviews etc. so I have resisted.

Go for either Crucial or Samsung, whichever is cheaper.

[mikeo]

While I can appreciate that everyone has their favourite brand and others will have had "issues" with a particular type/brand etc. Not too sure why people are so quick to trash Sandforce based drives these days. The problems with the earlier drives / controllers should be long gone / sorted. And just to head off anyone saying something like "just look at the posts on the OCZ forum etc.", it's the old story of people only tend to post if they have a problem! I'm quite aware of the early sleep/hibernate issues with Sandforce + the drives vanishing act (though that is/was not just limited to Sandforce based drives!)... but again, this should have been long sorted for most folks. Though you do still see the odd person with some obscure laptop having issues. No issues with either my Vertex 2, or 2E, still running fine after 2+ years of hard use (they've also been Secure Erased and moved to different machines and firmware updated several times). Just bought a Vertex 4 and thinking about a larger capacity drive for another machine.

As a personal example.... I had an early C300 drive. The first one was DOA and then damn me if Crucial did not at a later date release a firmware update for my replacement drive that "bricked it" (along with a lot of other folks as well). That's just life, would not put me off considering another of their SSD's though.

Not trashing either the M4, or the Sammy 830. Both are great drives, just don't dismiss the large number of Sandforce based drives out there (even Intel uses that controller now).

Enjoy whatever you buy

[HalloweenJack]

it is NOT long gone and sorted - there are still on going issues with the vertex / agiity 3 , that even intel couldnt sort when they did a rewrite of the firmware!

[Agent]

Not too sure why people are so quick to trash Sandforce based drives these days. The problems with the earlier drives / controllers should be long gone / sorted.

Not too sure why people can't search either before claiming the problems are gone

They have less problems, but they still have issues. AnAnd has an article on it and I'm sure other places do too. Even a few of the HEXUS lot are having issues with the Intel drives.

There is just no compelling reason to risk going with them.

[dacads]

Possibly the ocz agility 3 series?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004Z0S6S...SIN=B004Z0S6SO

[mikeo]

it is NOT long gone and sorted - there are still on going issues with the vertex / agiity 3 , that even intel couldnt sort when they did a rewrite of the firmware!

Looks like we will just have to agree to disagree here. Of all the people that I know that have Sandforce based drives, including me (and I've got two OCZ Sandforce based drives), I only know of one that still has an issue (problems coming out of sleep... and this issue is not just a Sandforce issue..). Maybe I'm just lucky but this is based on "actual experience", not just what I've read on the Internet (not like I'm doubting the integrity of some of the better sites on the WEB). I think far too many people have just jumped on the "all Sandforce based drives are rubbish" bandwagon, with no real world experience themselves. The Internet has made everyone an expert these days.

As to Intel re-writing the firmware in their Sandforce based drives. That's rubbish, Sandforce still produced the firmware. Intel may well have had a big input into the QA / testing and tailoring but no way have they produced the firmware themselves.

Obviously there are millions of combinations of hardware out there and some folks will always have issues (some of which they make themselves). Not just limited to Sandforce based SSD's.

I'm sure there are many (probably in the 6 figures) that are perfectly happy with their Sandforce based drives (queue one of mine to go t*ts up).

There are ongoing issues on pretty much all the manufacturer forums (including the much praised Crucial drives). In fact on the very first page of the SSD sub-forum at Crucial, I can see people with issues "drive not being recognised / missing", "sleep/hibernate problem" etc. Not all necessarilly the drives fault, for that you need to do a bit of digging. But it's the same with a lot of the issues on say the OCZ sandforce forums. Just life.

[mikeo]

Not too sure why people can't search either before claiming the problems are gone

They have less problems, but they still have issues. AnAnd has an article on it and I'm sure other places do too. Even a few of the HEXUS lot are having issues with the Intel drives.

There is just no compelling reason to risk going with them.

I can perform an Internet search as well as anyone thanks . There are always problems with any PC component, whether it be SSD, motherboard are whatever. At least I have some personal experience of using a Sandforce based drive, do you? or does all your "knowledge" come from an Internet search?

See I can be as cheeky as you