Best SSDs For The Money: April 2012

[xonic]

All the bad stories I hear about the SandForce controller are keeping away from buying a SSD upgrade. Intel 520 sounds reliable. I'll get one when they come down to $1/gb price range.

 

[phamhlam]

Are these people crazy? You can get a 128GB Crucial m4 for $140.

 

[hellfire24]

^and we need you to go get the hell out of here!

 

[Cyclops21]

The Sandisk extreme ssd made the list for reccomended buys. However I don't see any benchmarks on Tom's for this model. Can you test the performance of this drive and show how it compares? On paper it appears to be a great selection and they cheaper then most ssds.

 

[daysyang]

I have a M4 super reliable... awesome boot, fast read, okay write and cheaper than intel & sammy.

 

[americanherosandwich]

Wait, what? Toggle NAND > Synchronous NAND?

 

[wagonist]

If you care about your data Samsung is about the only way to go.

 

[rohitbaran]

OCZ Petrol 256GB SATA 3 sells for $199 after all rebates at newegg. That is actually lower than $1/GB. Why doesn't Toms mention that?

 

[deanjo]

[citation][nom]grizzlebee[/nom]As Kyuuketsuki said, I'd go with the Mushkin for $1/GB. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820226236[/citation]

Stay away from the non-deluxe versions of the drive like you linked. The R/W speeds are considerably slower on them (although Mushkin advertises them almost as fast as the Deluxe versions.). Real world performance on the none deluxe versions are 1/2 the speed as the deluxe versions.

 

[makasin]

Which vendor would be the best to look at in terms of reliability and data integrity? I would think Intel right? Since they fab the stuff, and get the top-shelf silicon on their boards. Sure they may not be the fastest, but Im looking for a drive that will be consistent and reliably last me over 5 years. I have a Vertex 3 now, and had my fair share of issues with the firmware (so I dont know if I would go with another one of those, or even sandforce for that matter unless the company in question is known for writing good fimware). What do you guys think? Im planning on building an Ivy Bridge setup with my 120GB vertex 3 as a cache drive and a 250 GB SSD for my main install. Then I'll have like 3 or 4 TB worth of storage and backup drives. Which one should I pick for my primary boot (can be 120 or 240. leaning more towards 240 so I can enable windows restore points) if money wasn't much of an object, within reason. Let's say less than 300-350

 

[bigshootr8]

[citation][nom]Slomo4shO[/nom]How is the reliability on the Samsung drives?[/citation]

Very reliable I'm quite happy with my Samsung 830 256GB model. Runs like a Champ when I boot up windows 7 I don't even get a welcome screen thing is lightning fast. And it runs games like a champ.

 

[inflexion]

I just got a chance to read through the entire article.

I really appreciate the updated and simplified 'SSD Performance Hierarchy Chart'. This is very helpful.

For next month do you think that someone could make one that is the reverse? One that states the chip set and flash type for each drive. So it would say 2nd gen Sandforce... then a list of drives and flash types ect ect though all the chip sets. Most newcomers would not know that some drives are exactly the same except for the manufacturer stamp on the outside (and sometimes firmware).

This would probably really help educate the folks looking for an SSD. I know that listing every SSD would be quite an undertaking but including the ones that Tom's has tested would be great!

 

[Hellbound]

Why isnt the Intel 520 mentioned?

 

[Caeric]

[citation][nom]blackbirden[/nom]Does Toms have any idea how well the Plextor M3 Pro series performs compared to the rest of the crowd,it seems a bit intresting. But i cant tell from reviews, some shows very exelent performance others not so good.[/citation]

I'm also interested in seeing how the Plextor M3 Pro compares, especially since I've been going back and forth between it and the Samsung 830. The M3 Pro looks good and paper, and it does have a nice 5 year warranty, but I know that Samsung generally puts out really solid hardware.

 

[g-unit1111]

[citation][nom]eddieroolz[/nom]I think I'd be going with a Crucial m4 for its superb reliability.[/citation]

I have a Marvell-based M4 and a Sandforce-based Intel 320. The M4 has run like a champ - I've had 0 downtime with it and 0 issues with it. I've had tons of issues and BSODs with it. I'll stick with the M4 as long as I can.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

[citation][nom]hmp_goose[/nom]I'm still lost, after all these months: Why are there drives with higher prices listed after the Chronos Deluxe?Honorable Mentions for laptop use? The price premium surely doesn't cover 16GB of extra capacity …[/citation]

Well put The $300 price point is silly when the $250 unit tops the $300 selection in both longeveity and performance. Toshiba premium mode toggle flash, higher performance and cheaper.



How does the

 

[JackNaylorPE]

[citation][nom]badtaylorx[/nom]mushkin "MX" branded chronos deluxe??? anyone benched one yet???for an ssd with 120gb, sycrons, sf2281, mlc and all the bells and whistles $140seems awfully cheap[/citation]


Ya check the heirarchy chart .... Muskin id in Tier 1 (fatest) with the 240's and Tier 3 (fastest) for the 120's. And ya get Toshiba premium toggle flash for super long life to boot.

http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/4328/mushkin_chronos_deluxe_120gb_solid_state_drive_review/index13.html

To sum it all up with a bow on top, you get amazing performance, extremely long service life and a hassle free low price point on a drive that literally has very little competition in the marketplace.

 

[sinc26]

[citation][nom]Slomo4shO[/nom]How is the reliability on the Samsung drives?[/citation]
Rock solid. Samsung's 830 SSD's use Samsung's own controller and are known to be just as reliable (or even more so) than the Crucial M4, which is already famous for its reliability. As this article mentioned, the 830 is also ahead in performance. Only issue is price, as the Samsung 830 is ~$20 more expensive than the Crucial M4. In the end, both are great SSD's, and it comes down to whether or not you want to pay the price premium for bit better performance.

 

[blueyedsoul]

Agility 3 60GB @ $75 over Crucial M4 64GB? What is this I don't even..

 

[ivanarj]

This kind of comparison is unusable. Lets say, that I know what I need - for example "the cheapest, but still durable SSD 200-400 GB", I cant use this chart. The current chart looks like "Well, I have $300 and I have to spend them, lets get whatever I can, no matter what I need".

We need different categories. For example:
1. Cheapest 240 GB SSD
Honorable mention: Cheapest 240 GB SSD with at least 5 TB write wear

2. Most durable 240 GB SSD
Honorable mention: Which one is also the fastest

3. Fastest 240 GB SSD
Honorable mention: Which one is also relatively cheap

4. Enterprise class 240 GB SSD
Honorable mention: Which one is also relatively cheap

then list it for 300 GB, 600 GB, ..., etc.

 

[starcore]

I own the mushkin one, and i must say, i will never go with out an SSD again. It makes gaming better, i swear it makes my FPS higher

 

[boiler1990]

Within individual apps, you'll hardly notice the difference between a Vertex 2 and Samsung's 830, but if you look at performance over an entire month, you will find the 830 to be a faster performer.

Actually you'll notice a huge difference. The Vertex most likely won't make it a month.

 

[starcore]

[citation][nom]boiler1990[/nom]Actually you'll notice a huge difference. The Vertex most likely won't make it a month.[/citation]


I have had bad luck myself w/ ocz ssd's. But i am a believer in, you get what you pay for.

Mushkin is a High quality product.

So isnt Cougar PSU's. I was nervous at first because HEC made them. But Cougar makes a decent product.

 

[kikiking]

Well this article is having me considering either selling my current OCZ VTX3mi- max iops edition 120gb SSD, or adding another one for a raid array, before doing that i'll make sure to install drivers for all the sata ports on my motherboard during installation. It seems mines needs an update but I never bothered to give it a try because of lack of understanding. (not that I do not understand), having to go through the whole process of hitting f6 etc or what ever to install before windows installation, I need to put the drivers on a floppy/usb flash drive on top of that.

 

[Guest]

So, is it a coincidence that the drives you tested happen to be the "best SSDs"? Or are you really just picking some SSDs and finding "reasons" to recommend them?