What cheap SSD?

[Brewster0101]

I am going to go for the Adata S511 60gb drive. If I have any issues, it comes with a 3 year warranty. I will update this thread when I have it and have installed windows on it and let people know how it goes.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The Kingston SSD has now gone down in price to around £83:

http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/king...per-gb/1000103

[Blackmage]

The Kingston SSD has now gone down in price to around £83:

http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/king...per-gb/1000103

This ssd seems to be getting cheaper by the day, I think it's at an excellent price at the moment.

[Antagram]

I assumed your friend had Windows 7. Is that correct?

I'd consider the 96GB Kingston as currently £83 at ebuyer for bare drive. Could also try getting a small cash back too using Topcashback.

[Sputnik]

This ssd seems to be getting cheaper by the day, I think it's at an excellent price at the moment.

but, It'll be cheaper tomorrow!

I saw this today and was thinking of buying one to replace my 60gb Vertex2e.

[onethreehill]

The OCZ Vertex 3 and Agility 3 also had firmware problems too. They also implement DuraClass too. This is only seen on SandForce drives but none of the other drives with different controllers.

The drives are made to bench well but have poor performance with non-compressible data including videos,music and images means real world performance is not as good. The Force GT which uses synchronous NAND is much faster with such data.

Also,if these drives were not branded Corsair then people would not even put up with half the problems(like with their cheaply built lower end PSUs).

Look at the Hexus reviews for the drives.

Even the cheapest version of the Crucial M4 uses synchronous NAND unlike the cheaper asynchronous NAND found on the sub £100 Corsair and OCZ drives.

Instead what do Corsair do?? Bump up the cost by having you pay more for a GT version which should be the same price as the Force series.

I am not sure I understand what you are saying
You expect Corsair to sell both Force Series GT and Force Series 3 at the same price?

A recall is a big deal though. The whole line of OCZ and Corsair SF2281 drives with asynchronous flash have had issues even going back to June and July. QC seems to be terrible. The same goes with OCZ switching on DuraClass too which they use to hype up life(which also means much lower performance after a few years) . This is not the first time there have been issues with someSandForce drives either but the SF2281 seems to have issues affecting nearly every drive its on through multiple implementations.

If they don't have any major problems for the next three to four months I may change my view of them. I am not here to play beta tester for SandForce so I am not going to recommend their newer stuff at all. Intel have not fared better with the 320 series which also has problems(total data loss due to power cycle glitch). The M4 seems to have the least problems of all the recent drive although they are not perfect either. Long term reliability is also a more important factor than outright speed.

On top of this things like videos,images and music are pretty common pieces of data. Like I said the Agility,Solid and Force 3 and made to look good in synthetic benchmarks as opposed to real life situations. Something like the Force 3 GT which use synchronous NAND registers far better performance.

It is also the mis-selling of the NAND type they use. Look at the HardOCP article to see how big a performance difference there is between two seemingly similar drives. Companies like Adata and Kingston are much clearer about the NAND types they use with their drives.

I agree with you that synchronous NAND is faster than asynchronous NAND but more than 90% of PC users will not notice the difference in speed between these two types of NAND.

SSD manufacturers are trying to offer something for everyone
Enthusiast - synchronous NAND and Toggle NAND
Budget - asynchronous NAND
OWC recently upgraded Mercury Extreme Pro 6G to 32nm Toggle NAND. OWC also upgraded their 240GB and 480GB Mercury Extreme Pro 6G to SandForce SF-2282 controller. These SSDs are targeted at the enthusiast market

What do you mean by mis-selling of the NAND type?

Looking at the read performance across the two drives we see that the synchronous flash model is superior in all tests. The amount isn’t that much though and I chose these specific drives since they show the greatest distinction in most of the tests. Other drive pairs were much closer together.

I could have shown a better result in the write test with a different drive that is capable of delivering up to 260MB/s with synchronous flash. I wanted to use the same pair of drives for all the tests though. This particular synchronous flash drive with this firmware only managed to outperform the asynchronous model by 30MB/s but more performance has come from newer models shipping with the latest firmware.

HardOCP could have included results from other SSDs they tested. We do not even know what SSDs were tested.

[onethreehill]

After looking at Hexus' PC Mark Vantage benchmarks, I am going to stick with the Corsair Force 3.

Edited the URL hexus.net/content/item.php?item=31209&page=7

The Crucial M4 looks to be the best value. But the Force 3 is not far behind. It certainly not terrible. And it shown as being better than the Vertex 3 in pretty much everything. The Vertex 3 uses the Synchronous flash too (AFAIK), so if the Force 3 can do better without that it can't be too bad.

As the cheapest of Sata 3 drives, I think it is reasonable.

Am I missing something?

Is easier to compare Force Series GT and Force Series 3

Our benchmarks thus far have shown Patriot's 120GB Wildfire to be a step ahead of Corsair's 120GB Force GT, but how does that theoretical performance translate to real-world scenarios?

According to PCMark's simulated tests, there's very little in it, and this set of results reiterates a truth that's applicable to a lot of users; during everyday use, you'll find it difficult to distinguish between the £240 Wildfire, the £200 Force GT and the £160 Force Series 3 - they're all suitably fast.

Somewhat surprisingly, Corsair's Force GT doesn't aim for the top - it instead chooses to sit between the aforementioned drives with a £200 asking fee and excellent overall performance. Outfitted with 25nm synchronous NAND, the Force GT can struggle to keep up with rival solutions armed with Toshiba's premium Toggle Mode NAND, but the drive's ability is nonetheless impressive and it's comfortably quicker than the Force Series 3 in almost all of our benchmarks. Put two together in RAID and the results can be staggering.

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[onethreehill]

I think some of the vertex 2 and vertex 2SE are 34nm, but some are also 25nm. They are supposed to be telling you which is which, so ask before you buy if in doubt.

Some info

25nm Part Numbers

80GB - OCZSSD2-2VTX80G.25
160GB - OCZSSD2-2VTX160G.25
200GB - OCZSSD2-2VTX200G.25


34nm Part Numbers

60GB - OCZSSD2-2VTX60G.34
120GB - OCZSSD2-2VTX120G.34
240GB - OCZSSD2-2VTX240G.34

[Saracen]

SARACEN...

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/80gb-...ite-90mb-s-oem

Intel 80gb drive. £113 inc

Might need to use double sided sticky pads to fit it into his case, if it comes with no brackets.. mine had no brackets, my mate's did have brackets. Makes no difference though.. it's tiny.

It's a total experience to have an SSD... it's like lightning.

Do that.. get that drive.. it'll be rock solid.. he'll love it.. it's a great all rounder.. and you'll want one afterwards

especially when you do Windows udates or virus scans.. it's UBER!

Thanks Zak, but it's too expensive. He's looking at more like £70-£90, and £100 is absolutely the top end. Right now, the Kingston 96GB looks like his best bet.

As for me wanting one, not at that price, or anything near it. They're not worth it to me. With a 2TB HD at about £50, I'm simply not paying £113 for 80GB. The capacity is useful to me, and I don't care at all about the speed difference. At, what, 2.5p/GB for HD and £1.41/GB for that Intel SSD, they're some 56 times the price. For me, SSDs are way too small, and way, WAY too expensive.

[onethreehill]

Thanks Zak, but it's too expensive. He's looking at more like £70-£90, and £100 is absolutely the top end. Right now, the Kingston 96GB looks like his best bet.

As for me wanting one, not at that price, or anything near it. They're not worth it to me. With a 2TB HD at about £50, I'm simply not paying £113 for 80GB. The capacity is useful to me, and I don't care at all about the speed difference. At, what, 2.5p/GB for HD and £1.41/GB for that Intel SSD, they're some 56 times the price. For me, SSDs are way too small, and way, WAY too expensive.

Not trying to sell a SSD to you
SSDs have been around since 1989 IIRC.
Capacity has increased and price has decreased
OCZ has a RevoDrive 3 X2 960GB SSD
Prices of Intel SSDs over the years
X25-M Gen 1 - 80GB $345,160GB $600
X25-M Gen 2 - 80GB $225,160GB $440.
SSD 320 - 80GB $159, 160GB $289
Most people use SSD as primary drive and HDD as secondary drive
They have the best of both worlds, speed and capacity
SSDs is a luxury item for most people (including me)

[dangel]

http://www.shop.bt.com/products/king...rive-7G0Z.html

3% Quidco makes it £77.59

(Incidentally, I almost fell off my chair when I saw Saracen posting a thread about a SSD - thankfully it's not for him else I'd know the apocalypse was nigh)

[Rob_B]

Crucial C300 refurbs - http://www.crucial.com/uk/promo/inde...721&PID=582776

64GB £46.08
128GB £92.16

Worth the risk on a 30day warranty?....

[Sputnik]

Crucial C300 refurbs - http://www.crucial.com/uk/promo/inde...721&PID=582776

64GB £46.08
128GB £92.16

Worth the risk on a 30day warranty?....

Interesting but, only about £50 cheaper than a new M4 with full warranty.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Crucial C300 refurbs - http://www.crucial.com/uk/promo/inde...721&PID=582776

64GB £46.08
128GB £92.16

Worth the risk on a 30day warranty?....

It might be worth a punt if it was a six month warranty but 30 days seems too short. OTH,it is still better than buying a secondhand SDD though.

[Rob_B]

..but £42.85 after Quidco

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

..but £42.85 after Quidco

Like I said it is better than secondhand. However,when they mean "refurbished" are these simply returned drives people did not want or are warranty repairs or system pulls??