SSD's

Well ive seen a couple of thread about SSD recently but havent really come to a conclusion as they all seemed to just discuss about whether to get one or not... Ive got money set for an SSD now which is £100 (less is better ofc but my budget is semi flexible, suggest something above or below and ill look).

I recall news of intels new SSD's soonish or have i remembered incorrectly? I could wait awhile but my pc is terribly slow and after numerous formats and 2 different drives, im beginning to think i need an SSD (i can always hear my drives ticking over reading... annoying lol).

Ill be using this SSD as the boot drive so my OS/ Office/Visual studios/ Firefox/ Odd game, 60gb should be alright id hope?

Im a bit stuck with what to get currently though, so far i have these listed:
Crucial C300
Corsair F60
OCZ Vertex 2E


Now they are all pretty similar in pricing so thats not a problem but its hard to decide between all the different options. The corsair and ocz are pretty similar in design and use the same controllers and so basically what ever is cheapest out of those 2 are best right? Now i remember hearing a fair amount of complaints/problems with these drives after a bit of use, stuttering and just generally quick crap build up making it crawl to a halt. If these are still apparent then i dont think id want one but what experiences have you guys had with these drives (if you had one)?. Now the c300 seems like a solid ssd, yes the write speed is average at best but the read speed seems to make a huge difference and there doesnt seem to be any problems compared to the other 2. Since im using it as a boot drive, would the write speed hinder overall performance much?


Im still looking for reviews but id like some help coming to a decision if you guys could spare a minute!. The crucial 128gb drive looked like the best drive but its a shame its £190 :(.

The Intel X25-M G3 is due out earlyish next year I think.
I believe a rough ballpark is the new manufacturing process will deliver double the current capacities of the G2 drives for about the same price.

For this reason I'm holding off buying any more SSDs until they're out :) I have a bunch of G1s and G2s from them and I can't praise them enough.

mehhhhhhhhh but I want a 120gb vertex2e now!
Ah well, CES2011 is when it's set to launch maybe? 6th January?
Or is that just announced..?

In terms of what's currently available I'd get a C300 for what you want to use it for.

What's your mobo like? IF its the old dog from your sig you might as well skip C300...

From what benches I have seen the C300 64GB is about 50% faster (writes and reads) for small 4k
files than the sandforce stuff. However that was for non compressible data so I am not too sure
how it compares for compressible stuff.

Just how compressible are the windows boot and other program files is the question.

Personally I would go with the C300

I went for a vertex 2e, for the main reasons; ocz are very active with regards to community, support and firmware updates. The vertex 1 drive was a great drive too. It was/is one of the fastest drives and I got it on special

I think that on the whole I prefer the Crucial C300 ssd (this is the one I'll be getting sometime in 2011, unless something else comes along that blows it out of the water), but to get the best out of it you need a sata 6gbps connection.

If your mobo doesn't support 6gbps onboard, then you can buy an adapter card such as the Asus U3S6 2 (http://www.scan.co.uk/products/asus-...oller-with-ncq) for £23.48.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by spoon_

What's your mobo like? IF its the old dog from your sig you might as well skip C300...

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The p5n-d isnt that old, i think your on about the older p5d or p5nd(dash is important haha), this one is the 750i nvidia chipset from january 2008 iirc. Its a poop overclocker but i wont be upgrading till end of 2011 so it seems a bit silly to get a new motherboard for a 775 cpu when ill just be going AMD in 6months :D.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kumagoro

From what benches I have seen the C300 64GB is about 50% faster (writes and reads) for small 4k
files than the sandforce stuff. However that was for non compressible data so I am not too sure
how it compares for compressible stuff.

Just how compressible are the windows boot and other program files is the question.

Personally I would go with the C300

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Yeah thats what i was worried about most, theres no guarantee youll have compressible data so i guess its always a risk where as the c300 doesnt seem to have any problems.

I think so far the c300 is on my top list, gunna spend today looking at more benchmarks and stuff though. Im not in a huge rush so will hang on till CES to see what happens but i think ill be getting one of these 3 unless it can be out by feb or even march :L.

Ill have a look at the new sata expansion cards, thanks so far guys!.

In another thread someone had bought the C300 and a SATA3 card and it was faster on the motherboards SATA2 than using the card, So maybe there is some compatibility issues with certain SATA3 interfaces?

I have the OCZ Vertex 2e 60gb and like it. I chose the OCZ over the corsair as there were some issues with the Corsairs not being recognised in the BIOS and although they maybe ok now I thought I'd rather be safe than sorry but, I did also consider the C300.

I think I just chose the sandforce because it seemed to get good press at the time.

Aside from the performance of the SSD, how would one setup a pc with such a drive - for example, you would install os on the ssd and program files but then use the hdd for games and user profiles - would this be an ideal setup? I am looking at building a new pc but currently can't justify the additional outlay of a ssd.

Thanks.

I'd put program files on the HDD personally?

I bought the wrong SSDs, these things have no TRIM, require imaging, wiping and reimaging to restore performance and so small.
I'd wait for an Intel G3 for the aforementioned advancements. They're going to be expensive.
If you suddenly become flush with spare cash, the OCZ 960GB sandforce 3.5" is a monster.

Search by your price range, then for TRIM support and finally by size.

All mentioned Ssds have trim support. That is why you do research before purchasing

TRIM is overrated and not necessary, doesn't work in RAID, GC is what you want - most of the SSDs already support it.

I am gonna get a 60GB drive for now, seeing as that's most likely all I need for the few games I play + windows + apps. After all, I can always get another.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by spoon_

TRIM is overrated and not necessary, doesn't work in RAID, GC is what you want - most of the SSDs already support it.

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It should start appearing in firmware updates shortly. The standards have only recently been ratified for TRIM over SCSI (most raids work using scsiport protocol).

I bought a ocz vertex2 60gb and wouldnt go back now. As a boot drive its way faster than my old drives and programs especially thunderbird, opens instantly and is ready for use.

I bought a C300 60GB a few months ago. Best upgrade I ever did. W7 boot times and general responsiveness is just miles ahead of my older R0 dual spinning HDD setup.

I did a full reinstall of W7 64bit, and have all my apps on it too. All my games and data is on a 500GB HDD. I moved my desktop and documents folders onto the 500GB but kept the temp files on the SSD. Works a charm.

With all my apps OS, Office, Adobe suite + bits and pieces, it's half full. 60GB is more than enough for a system drive IMO unless you start installing games which take up 10GB at a pop...