Best SSDs For The Money: August 2012 (Archive)

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WINTERLORD

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danwat, when do the 3xxx controllers come out and in the 256gb range will it bring even faster ssd's if anyone can answer this that be great thanks, and thanks again for the article tomshardware
 

achoo2

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This series very badly needs to be reformatted. It's exceedingly difficult to infer the best drive at any given price point.
 

CodeMatias

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"SanDisk's Extreme USB 3.0 Flash Drive is one of the fastest portable storage devices we've had the pleasure of using. Featuring plenty of capacity and decidedly excellent small file performance"

I can vouch for the small file performance. Took only a few min to transfer my uncompressed code repositories (about 2.4GB), of which 99% of the files are under 16kb. Same files on my last PNY drive took about 3 hours, and the 300V 256gb drive I was copying from actually seemed to be the bottleneck in the Sandisk case!
 
I'm starting to feel like this "Best" is unclear. Before there was a buy this..now there are just lists of SSDs. I mean. I want to buy a 256GB SSD. Yet there are 4 choices and prices are from $135-160. Why can't there just be one choice like before, and maybe a runner up?
 

mapesdhs

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What I like about the Samsung models is their incredibly good long term
consistency. Although I have at least two dozen OCZ models and other
brands aswell (everything from Vertex2E, 3, 4 Vector, etc. to Corsair/Crucial,
Sandisk & suchlike), none of them come close to showing the amazing
steady state behaviour of the Samsung units, and that includes the 830, 840
and 840 Pro (not obtained an EVO yet), eg. here's an HDTach of the 840 250GB
in my 3930K setup, done a few months after initial full install:

http://www.sgidepot.co.uk/misc/samsung_840_250GB_HDTach_22-May-2013.gif

Here's a different system I built a few weeks ago using the same model of SSD as
the C-drive (this is after everything has been installed, about 78GB used):

http://www.sgidepot.co.uk/misc/samsung_840_250GB_HDTach_Jun-2014.gif

Ian.

 

brucek2

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I'd love to see a "If you can wait" section added to this and the other Tom's Guides, which would reflect your (quite well informed, I bet!) estimates of what was coming, when it was coming, and how significant or not it was. For example in this category I'm wondering about PCIe and/or NVMe approaches like the Samsung XP941 and Intel P3500 or eventual more mainstream variants thereof.
 

pyro226

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I'm starting to feel like this "Best" is unclear. Before there was a buy this..now there are just lists of SSDs. I mean. I want to buy a 256GB SSD. Yet there are 4 choices and prices are from $135-160. Why can't there just be one choice like before, and maybe a runner up?
The article lists solid performers within a competitive price range sorted by drive size. A sale or mid-month price changes on any of these SSDs could easily change the recommendation.

For most people, it will come down to budget, performance, or features. Picking based these categories really isn't difficult.
 

juanjovargas

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The best performance/price ratio is for Crucial, not for Samsung :D
 
If you're looking for a drive to put in a laptop, Samsung with it's .34W idle can make a visible battery life difference. I replaced an AData SSD I had put in my X140E with a Samsung 840 EVO and gained between 30 and 60 minutes (closer to the full hour if I'm just doing a little surfing and streaming).
 

brucek2

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Shoppers valuing performance over cost might want to check out the SanDisk Extreme Pro, which is probably too new to have made this month's guide edition but it is in stock at Amazon as I write this.
 

TripleXbeatz

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This article does a nice job covering speed, and price.. but not so much actual user experience, failure rate, and longevity. Take a look at reviews on newegg between Samsung, Crucial and Sandisk, and you will clearly see who the real winner is.

All of these manufacturers make a nice SSD. But Samsung takes the prize for best overall user experience when it comes to the drives just working, not having a ridiculously high DOA rate(like OCZ has been known for in the past) and sheer ingenuity with their controllers and software. They may cost a tad more, but its worth it alone just for the peace of mind. If you are pinching pennies, the Evo series is TOUGH to beat.
 

mapesdhs

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logainofhades writes:
> The Crucial MX100, 256gb is an attractive option at $110, imo.

The only argument against it might be that the XM100 is new, ie. immature firmware. Many people prefer
to wait so that any bugs can be discovered and ironed out with updates before commiting to a new model.
OCZ damaged its rep years ago by releasing certain models too early in this process, so now there are
some who will eagerly comment on forums that they'll never use OCZ again, irony being that such models
are today very reliable because all the updates have been sorted out. One can only hope that Crucial has
put in a decent amount of time to ensure there are no unexpected nasties with the MX100's firmware.
Mind you, I've been winning used 840s and other equivalent models for less than the cost of an MX100,
so I'm not bothered, eg. in May I won an 840 Pro 256GB for 80 UKP, more recently a Vector 512GB for 167.


TripleXbeatz writes:
> ... But Samsung takes the prize for best overall user experience when it comes to the drives just
> working, not having a ridiculously high DOA rate(like OCZ has been known for in the past) and
> sheer ingenuity with their controllers and software.

The only thing which annoys me about Samsung Magician is not being able to do a secure erase
from within the program. Having to boot from a CDR or USB stick, etc., is irritating (and I found on
some systems the display didn't initialise correctly, so I had to use Parted Magic instead). In that
regard I prefer OCZ's Toolbox.

Ian.

 

cryan

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I'd love to see a "If you can wait" section added to this and the other Tom's Guides, which would reflect your (quite well informed, I bet!) estimates of what was coming, when it was coming, and how significant or not it was. For example in this category I'm wondering about PCIe and/or NVMe approaches like the Samsung XP941 and Intel P3500 or eventual more mainstream variants thereof.

So that's tricky. I will say the Samsung XP941 is available in some small quantities, and there are even x4 adapter cards to drop it in desktop systems, sold by intrepid eBay stores of all stripes. It's expensive though, and RAIDing a few SATA SSDs is a better call for most users, IMHO.

I do occasionally talk about what's coming in these monthly columns, but it's really about what I feel are the best options at various capacities. Note, that doesn't automatically mean the newest drive.

Regards,
Christopher Ryan
 

cryan

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http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00APEG8NO/ref=s9_psimh_gw_p147_d0_i3?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=139T903BM72S2KHY2FGW&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1688200382&pf_rd_i=507846

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00A1ZTZNM/ref=s9_psimh_gw_p147_d0_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=139T903BM72S2KHY2FGW&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1688200382&pf_rd_i=507846

Kind of a shame these very competitively priced SSD's aren't also in this article.

The first linky is to one of my favourite consumer drives ever, the SanDisk UltraPlus. It's graced these articles periodically for over a year now, and only recently fell out of the list.

As for the second, well, I haven't used Kingston's latter drives. They plain won't sample me the SF-2281 B02 stepping drives they've released since last summer. So I wouldn't recommend them simply because I haven't used them.

Regards,

Christopher Ryan
 

cryan

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This article does a nice job covering speed, and price.. but not so much actual user experience, failure rate, and longevity. Take a look at reviews on newegg between Samsung, Crucial and Sandisk, and you will clearly see who the real winner is.

All of these manufacturers make a nice SSD. But Samsung takes the prize for best overall user experience when it comes to the drives just working, not having a ridiculously high DOA rate(like OCZ has been known for in the past) and sheer ingenuity with their controllers and software. They may cost a tad more, but its worth it alone just for the peace of mind. If you are pinching pennies, the Evo series is TOUGH to beat.

The EVO was the only SSD ever to garner an award at my behest, and it does not disappoint. But I wouldn't overlook everything else just because the EVO is nice. SSDs aren't one-size-fits-all.

Regards,
Christopher Ryan
 

cryan

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If you're looking for a drive to put in a laptop, Samsung with it's .34W idle can make a visible battery life difference. I replaced an AData SSD I had put in my X140E with a Samsung 840 EVO and gained between 30 and 60 minutes (closer to the full hour if I'm just doing a little surfing and streaming).

Samsung and Intel had this low active idle on lock back in the day. TBH, most laptops have HIPM/DIPM power management states, and that knocks another few tenths/W out of the equation.

Regards,
Christopher Ryan
 
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