SSD main OS Hard Drive Option

[Professor Frink]

I have been keeping my eye on prices and such and think I am ready to tip my toe into SSD and get a 60GB one for my OS.

I am currently confused between the real difference between the 60GB OCZ Vertex and Agility. Both mention up to Read 230MB/s, Write 135MB/s and look very similar and both are around the £160-170 mark. Also I have seen some good write ups about the the GSkill Falcon. I just can't decide what to get.

Also I have read some information that it's best to get a 120GB version as they perform better in comparison to the lower GB ones. Should I try a 60GB one now with the option of raiding in 6-12 months time when the price drops again or wait another 3-6 months to see if the 120GB ones drop to sub £200?

Thanks for any help or advise.

[jim]

From memory, G Skill Falcon is the same as the Vertex, and the Agility isn't much difference to either of them.

They're all fairly similar - I would check how well the manufacturers are providing firmware updates and TRIM support, as that's likely to be the most distinct selling point rather than marginal differences in transfer speeds.

[dirky]

The agility apparently had a few different types of NAND so the speeds varied a little. Mostly you wont see any difference between them, most important thing to check is the random 4k speeds. Not often you will need to be doing large seq read or writes.

[Professor Frink]

Thanks, I will look into the support and how often there has been firmware updates.

[dirky]

OCZ support is apparently very good, check on their forums directly for more information. SSD basically comes down to budget really, the OCZ Solid 2 seem to be pretty good for their price but intel G2's are still king

[Professor Frink]

Was looking around today and it looks like OCZ just released v1.5 of their firmware and getting some good write ups on performance increases.

Does anyone know of any future releases within the next 2 months in the SSD range?

[dirky]

The vertex2 is out soon, although will be expensive I think. The Intel Gen3's are also due out later in the year

[Professor Frink]

The vertex2 is out soon, although will be expensive I think. The Intel Gen3's are also due out later in the year

Soon equals how long is a piece of string?

[MadduckUK]

Soon equals how long is a piece of string?

yup exactly, if it doesn't have a date attached pretend it doesn't exist

[dirky]

Apparently sometime in march, but its going not going to be cheap. performance rather than budget..

[Queelis]

As someone said, probably the most important thing is TRIM support.
Read about it here

[Professor Frink]

With the new performance range coming out, will that drive down the price of the others or is that just wishful thinking?

[jim]

Wishful I'd say, haven't really seen that happen to a large extent. And there's always major lag anyway.

When the Intel G2 drives were released the Vertex was more expensive than them for quite a while on Scan I think.