Best SSDs For The Money: August 2012 (Archive)

[blazorthon]

And where are Smasund 840s ?

That information is on the first page of the article.

 

[blazorthon]

Performance differences on benchmarks, certainly, and I'm sure on certain types of workloads. In "typical" uses, not really, especially when compared to a mechanical HDD. A double-digit performance difference that amounts to a fraction of a second simply doesn't matter. I do agree that for those certain workloads where it matters, where time is money, a professional will need to focus more on those benchmarks.

OCZ has lost my trust for a pattern of decisions, from PSUs that review well on day 1 but fail early due to substandard caps, to the way they handled the change to 25nm, and more recently the fact that a lot of their [Sandforce] drives had major firmware issues that were bricking drives. What else do they have that might fail, and how? When I can buy a Seasonic, or a Crucial, or a Mushkin, or a Samsung, or ... and be certain it is going to work (given that anyone can have an occasional DOA), I just don't see a need to risk OCZ.

Please don't misunderstand, I'm not lumping them with Crappermaster and others guilty of willful dishonesty; OCZ might earn my trust again someday, it's just that they've been relying on their premium name but have stopped delivering premium products.

I'll agree on the PSUs and their older SSD lines, but Vertex 4 is a premium product as far as I'm concerned. My own Vertex 4 128GB has proven to be an excellent purchase and I've noticed how much OCZ had improved their customer support (it's incredible with Vertex 4 unlike with Vertex 3 where OCZ basically wasn't of much more help than Apple is, at least in my experience).

 

[giovanni86]

I only have experience with a samsung 830 which from what i can tell from it caching my HDD makes a significant difference from my other drive without caching. I also have a OCZ vertex 4 as my main boot drive and for other games such as BF3, SC2, WoW. Performance wise I'm usually way ahead of everyone loading, the only thing that slows me down is usually all server side from being able to keep up in such cases like BF3. I enjoy the SSD so much I've recommend it to several of my friends. Been a month now and no issues at all(knock on wood) As prices decrease I'm sure to pick up more drives.

 

[mapesdhs]

[citation][nom]littleleo[/nom]I just bought a SanDisk 120GB Extreme 2.5" SSD SATA III Drive, 550 Read/510 Write. I paid $90 with free shipping and no tax. It installed Windows 7 Ultimate super fast and I now turn on my computer and I'm in Windows in 7 seconds, it wold be faster but I have to type my password in.[/citation]

Something odd has happened to SanDisk models here (UK). In the space of a week, prices shot up and the usual suppliers
suddenly had no stock. I was going to get a 240GB from Scan when it was listed there and elsewhere for 129 UKP, but
now the same model is listed at 153 UKP but not in stock (best price from 'reliable' sources is about 148 UKP total); that's
more than the Vertex3 and the Vertex4. In the end on Monday I bought a Samsung 830 256GB for 130 UKP from ebuyer
with free shipping, which is easily a better buy than the SanDisk. ebuyer started with 250 units available on Monday, more
than a 100 sold in one day. 😀 They must have landed some kind of sourcing deal as they now show 504 in stock. Blimey...

Ian.

 

[mapesdhs]

I agree with Blazorthon about OCZ SSDs. So many people complained about their purchase, but I expect many didn't bother
updating the fw before use. I have quite a few of them now, no problems so far.

Btw, if you have an older system that lacks SATA3, the 120GB Vertex2E is an excellent choice, only 52 UKP in the UK atm,
eg. Novatech with free shipping. I replaced a normal HDD on an EVGA P55 FTW last week with a V2E/120 and by heck what
a difference! 8)

Meanwhile, Amazon was doing the Vertex3 120GB MAX IOPS for 80 UKP with free shipping, so I bagged a few of those
for SAS RAID testing.

Hunt around! As the article opener says, there are some good deals to be found. Who knows how long it'll last.

Ian.

 

[BlueCat57]

I'm hoping for a $50 128GB Vertex 4 on Black Friday. I'll keep my options open and look for a Samsung 840 at maybe $70. Don't really need the latest and greatest right now but try to stay near the leading edge. I may have to "settle" for a Vertex 3 or Samsung 830 (or some other "last" generation model) to hit my price point, but I've seen th Vertex 4 for around $75 so $50 isn't a stretch.

 

[foldspace]

I bought a vert 3 at compusa 5-6 months ago and it had the most updated firmware available on it out of the box. Haven't had a problem with it at all.

 

[littleleo]

I'm surprised I don't see SanDisk Extreme 120 listed I bought mine for $90.50 no tax & free shipping. It's faster then the OCZ Vertex 4 SSD, 550/510. I'm on my desktop in less then 15 secs, got to learn how to type my login faster, lol. I see the OCZ VTX3-25SAT3-120G Vertex 3 at Tiger for $69 after MIR and it has better spec then the OCZ Vertex 4 too.

 

[masmotors]

well i just got a 90 ocz vertz 3 good price at microcenter here in Texas usa now i need a hdd for my games and media i blew my old one out witha bad psu i got refurb anyway the vertez 3 seems real fast and on a side not what can i do about the psu killing my hdd i returned for the ssd in topic

 

[masmotors]

the price of the ssd was 59.99 ocz vertwz 3 90gb and its 6.0 the whatever

 

[Guest]

Are my $70 Kingston HyperX 3k's (120gig) really that bad in your guys' eyes?

 

[mapesdhs]

[citation][nom]littleleo[/nom]I'm surprised I don't see SanDisk Extreme 120 listed I bought mine for $90.50 no tax & free shipping. It's faster then the OCZ Vertex 4 SSD, 550/510. I'm on my desktop in less then 15 secs, got to learn how to type my login faster, lol. I see the OCZ VTX3-25SAT3-120G Vertex 3 at Tiger for $69 after MIR and it has better spec then the OCZ Vertex 4 too.[/citation]

You're not comparing like with like. Read the detailed reviews of these products, they each have their own strengths
and weaknesses. Comparing the SanDisk with a Vertex4 based on max sequential rates is just silly (you would never
notice such a narrow difference, and real benchmarks often show different variations; it's also not representative of
typical desktop usage).

I have both V3 and V4 units, been using them for a while. The V4 has much better random I/O than the V3 in some cases,
but is best used when it's not going to be filled up too fast in a single write operation.

Let me put it another way, using the manufacturers' own specs. The SanDisk and V4 both have similar 4K random write
IOPS (83000 vs. 85000 respectively), but they are totally different for 4K random read, the V4 is in a different league
(23000 for the SanDisk, 90000 for the V4). The V3 is closer to the SanDisk for 4K random write. So if you're doing
something that involves a lot of small writes (code compilation?), the V4 is going to be much better. Otherwise, they'll
be similar plus or minus (depends on the task).

Ian.

 

[mapesdhs]

[citation][nom]masmotors[/nom]well i just got a 90 ocz vertz 3 good price at microcenter here in Texas usa now i need a hdd for my games and media i blew my old one out witha bad psu i got refurb anyway the vertez 3 seems real fast and on a side not what can i do about the psu killing my hdd i returned for the ssd in topic[/citation]

Hate to say it but it' s kinda hard to understand what you're trying to say without a proper sentence structure...

Ian.

 

[RichoOssavitor]

Any word on Sandisk Extreme? Kind of sets off alarm bells when I buy products you guys don't mention?

 

[kensiko]

Sandisk here, 480GB version, no issue, but had to update firmware due to the broken TRIM.

Today the best bang for the buck at > 400GB is the mushkin Deluxe. The non deluxe is the lowest price ever seen for a 480GB (newegg).

 

[blazorthon]

[citation][nom]mapesdhs[/nom]You're not comparing like with like. Read the detailed reviews of these products, they each have their own strengthsand weaknesses. Comparing the SanDisk with a Vertex4 based on max sequential rates is just silly (you would nevernotice such a narrow difference, and real benchmarks often show different variations; it's also not representative oftypical desktop usage).I have both V3 and V4 units, been using them for a while. The V4 has much better random I/O than the V3 in some cases,but is best used when it's not going to be filled up too fast in a single write operation.Let me put it another way, using the manufacturers' own specs. The SanDisk and V4 both have similar 4K random writeIOPS (83000 vs. 85000 respectively), but they are totally different for 4K random read, the V4 is in a different league(23000 for the SanDisk, 90000 for the V4). The V3 is closer to the SanDisk for 4K random write. So if you're doingsomething that involves a lot of small writes (code compilation?), the V4 is going to be much better. Otherwise, they'llbe similar plus or minus (depends on the task).Ian.[/citation]

V4 will also take a large lead in data that can't be compressed well if at all, among other workloads.

 

[mapesdhs]

[citation][nom]blazorthon[/nom]V4 will also take a large lead in data that can't be compressed well if at all, among other workloads.[/citation]

Ah yes! I forgot about that. Probably the most imortant difference of all. 😀

Ian.

 

[blazorthon]

Ah yes! I forgot about that. Probably the most imortant difference of all. 😀

Ian.

Even better, for work that can be compressed, you can enable NTFS compression. It's probably not as effective as SandForce's compression, but it'd undoubtedly help with compressible workloads on V4 and other Marvell/Samsung drives whereas it'd probably do nothing for a SandForce drive that already uses compression

 

[masmotors]

[citation][nom]RichoOssavitor[/nom]Any word on Sandisk Extreme? Kind of sets off alarm bells when I buy products you guys don't mention?[/citation] ok sorry for that but its understandable next time ill be slower but its hard to spell right and fast

 

[6wheels]

samsung 830 all the way. reliable and fast plus you can find many deals at 150 to 180 USD for the 256GB version. i was waiting for a chance to buy a good 256GB to replace my 80GB intel 320. i missed many chances to buy the 256GB 830 at $150. when i found it on sale on amazon for $159 with free shipping i didn't hesitate =)

 

[mapesdhs]

The 256GB 830 I ordered should arrive tomorrow; looking forward to seeing how it performs. 8)

Oh, a small datapoint for those with older systems without SATA3 who haven't yet taken the SSD plunge:
yesterday I replaced a typical older 250GB SATA on an Asrock P55 Extreme (3GHz i3 540) with a 60GB
OCZ Vertex2E. With the old HDD, bootup time to login screen was 29s; this was cut to 16s with the OCZ.

HDTach gave min/max/avg/RND/burst for the 250GB HDD as 32, 50.2, 62, 12.2ms and 127 (I/O rates in MB/sec).
For the OCZ this changed to 141.8, 202.3, 252.4, 0.2ms and 268.1. Much snappier system now.

An SSD is clearly a worthwhile upgrade even if one doesn't have the latest SATA3, etc.

Ian.

 

[blazorthon]

[citation][nom]mapesdhs[/nom]The 256GB 830 I ordered should arrive tomorrow; looking forward to seeing how it performs. 8)Oh, a small datapoint for those with older systems without SATA3 who haven't yet taken the SSD plunge:yesterday I replaced a typical older 250GB SATA on an Asrock P55 Extreme (3GHz i3 540) with a 60GBOCZ Vertex2E. With the old HDD, bootup time to login screen was 29s; this was cut to 16s with the OCZ.HDTach gave min/max/avg/RND/burst for the 250GB HDD as 32, 50.2, 62, 12.2ms and 127 (I/O rates in MB/sec).For the OCZ this changed to 141.8, 202.3, 252.4, 0.2ms and 268.1. Much snappier system now.An SSD is clearly a worthwhile upgrade even if one doesn't have the latest SATA3, etc.Ian.[/citation]

Having SATA 150 Mb/s, even low end SSD is often still worth the upgrade so long as it works 😉

 

[blazorthon]

[citation][nom]sunnyday731[/nom]without samsung 830/840 pro, intel 520 and corsair nutron gtx, this article is a piece of junk. the writer of this article is trying to make fool of the readers. Majority of the readers are not convinced by the wrong judgement and justifications made by the writer in recommending ssd in this article.samsung 830 is at 170$ on newegg these days and it is not recommended in any category.[/citation]

Intel's 520 series is SAT 300Mb/s, so of course it's not recommended.

Corsair Neutron GTX and Samsung 840 are too new for the article to have had them.

Samsung 840 is specifically talked about at the start of the article because of this.

The Samsung 830 was not $170 when the article was made.

I could go on about your foolishness and lack of credibility for not checking the date of the article, for not realizing that the article had to have been written one or two weeks before publication, and that the article's writers probably can't see into the future to check future prices, but that'd just be rude.

 

[Guest]

in what tier OCZ Vertex 4 128?

 

[blazorthon]

[citation][nom]Dfirday[/nom]in what tier OCZ Vertex 4 128?[/citation]

Probably in the second tier, but if not, then its in the third tier.