What to look for when buying a SSD?

Hi All

Am looking to buy a 120GB SSD but wanted to check with you lot first as to what i should be looking for that makes a good SSD as i am a bit confused?:undecided

As been comparing them on read and write speeds alone and feel that im missing some thing as looking at the OCZ have 550 Read and 500 write but still people rave about the Crucial m4 SSD but looks to only do Up to 415Mbps read speed Up to 95Mbps write speed? :undecided

What am i missing and would should i be looking for when trying to find the best SSD? :help:

Cheers

- Random 4K read speed
- uses synchronous memory
- at least 2years warranty
- if at all possible, does not use a Sandforce controller

Drives that come highly recommended are the Crucial M4 (brilliant all round drive) and the Samsung 830 (outperforms the M4 by a small margin, but is also a little more expensive).

I have just RMAed by dead OCZ Vertex 2 (Sandforce based) and am replacing it with another Crucial M4.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SUMMONER

- Random 4K read speed
- uses synchronous memory
- at least 2years warranty
- if at all possible, does not use a Sandforce controller

Drives that come highly recommended are the Crucial M4 (brilliant all round drive) and the Samsung 830 (outperforms the M4 by a small margin, but is also a little more expensive).

I have just RMAed by dead OCZ Vertex 2 (Sandforce based) and am replacing it with another Crucial M4.

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I was looking at the SanDisk Extreme SSD (120GB) but as it is using Sandforce controller i guess i should stay clear? So although Sandforce controller is faster people are going for the Samsung / Crucial M4 as proving more reliable?

Interestingly i wonder how Scan test/rate the drives as Sandisk got 3/3 stars and so did the M4 but the samsung only got 2/3?

Thanks for your time. :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SUMMONER

- Random 4K read speed
- uses synchronous memory
- at least 2years warranty
- if at all possible, does not use a Sandforce controller

Drives that come highly recommended are the Crucial M4 (brilliant all round drive) and the Samsung 830 (outperforms the M4 by a small margin, but is also a little more expensive).

I have just RMAed by dead OCZ Vertex 2 (Sandforce based) and am replacing it with another Crucial M4.

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Useful info, thanks!

Longterm reliabbility is the most important metric you need to be considering. I also would pay more for a drive which uses synchronous NAND than asynchronous NAND due to more consistent real world performance. The M4 and 830 use the former and cheaper SandForce drives tend to use the latter.