Best SSDs For The Money: August 2012 (Archive)

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Luay

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Well I for one give two thumbs up to the Crucial M2. M550 512GB for being the only M2 drive that isn't priced far from its 2.5" siblings. It's perfect for those extra small mini-itx builds.
 

dennphill

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I am still asking, where's the M.2 drives? They don't exist? You don't review them? I've asked before an nobody will answer - is there any performance difference between (just to take an example that's seemingly the same drive and in multiple form factors) a Crucial 550 512MB M.2 card (on the MB) and just installing a Crucial 550 512MB SATA3 6GB/s SSD as boot drive. Thanksany for the monthly updates for these basic components. I'd just like to know if there are benefits to going for a M.2 SSD (or a mSATA or PCIe card SSD) for my next build.
 

cynic77

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@dennphill, you make an excellent point, especially now that so many desktop motherboards have M.2 slots and... you won't find any enthusiast laptops being released at CES without them! M.2 PCIe SSDs like the Samsung X4981 will beat even the vaunted 850 Pro SATA SSD at about the same cost. As an exercise, you can build a new laptop (e.g., the Eurocom M5 Pro, Sager NP8652, and Origin PC EON15-X) on the site of your boutique integrator of choice to see the price/performance options.
 

cynic77

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By X4981, I meant the XP941. :p

And yes, I see that current prices on Amazon or Newegg show a 50% premium on the 512 GB XP941 over the 512 GB 850 Pro. But you're getting over 100% improvement on peak read speeds and over 80% improvement on peak write speeds. Wow!
 

masna22

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I see that a Crucial MX100 has a 3 years warranty, while a Samsung 850 pro has a 10 years warranty.
Does it mean that a 850 pro is supposed to last more than three times of a crucial MX100?
Considering that it also has better performances, I don't see how an MX100 wound be a good choice.
 

maxbls16

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Why no adata sp900? They have killer read and write speeds for a bargain. And I'm with everyone else on the lack of m.2 drives, they're available and fast, why aren't they present in this test?
 

Because0789

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"I see that a Crucial MX100 has a 3 years warranty, while a Samsung 850 pro has a 10 years warranty.
Does it mean that a 850 pro is supposed to last more than three times of a crucial MX100?
Considering that it also has better performances, I don't see how an MX100 wound be a good choice."

Probably something to do with the $120 difference in price at 512gigs
 

akula2

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I will not buy any Samsung SSDs during FY 2015 to 2016. Thank you very much
I'm extremely happy with SanDisk ExtremePro models because of its performance and price factors.
 

chrisg62

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Beware M.2 SSDs - these come in two flavours: SATA and PCIe. Many motherboards will only boot from PCIe SSDs, which are considerably more expensive than SATA SSDs. I made this mistake recently, trying to install a Crucial 550 M.2 SSD as the boot drive onto an ASUS Z97 m/b. It didn't work! The m/b will only boot from a PCIe SSD; that info was buried very deeply on the ASUS web site, and I only discovered this after I'd bought the bits (having been assured by the seller that they would work!). I then had to buy a SATA interface to connect the SSD conventionally. Be aware, too, that you will also lose one of the PCIe lanes if you use the onboard M.2 option (at least, on the Z97 m/b I bought).
 

kapib22

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I have my eye on the Samsung XP941, but I have an old MB (Intel DP55KG with i7-860 - I'm planning to upgrade these later this year). I'm not really sure how backward compatible these M.2 drives are, but my MB has a PCIe 2.0 x16, a PCIe 2.0 x8 and some PCIe x4 and x1 slots (the manual says these are from the PCH). I suppose the x4 and x1 slots are PCIe 1.0. Can I use an M.2 SSD in the x4 slot?
 

chrisg62

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You either need a motherboard with a dedicated M.2 slot, as I don't think these M.2 SSDs plug directly into PCIe sockets, or you can get a PCIe interface board to mount the M.2 on.
 

Adam Catalyst

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I run an all Mac office, and have put SSDs in all our iMacs. For whatever it is worth, the Samsung SSDs have all come in with lower than advertised performance, and thermal issues. The Crucials have all worked perfectly. I have no idea why, but it would seem that if you are upgrading a Mac, they don't play as well with the Sumsung drives. Probably the ghost of Steve Jobs or something.
 

FunkyFisch

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Since Im still a noob for SSDs,what should my first one be?Is it really worth it giving extra $$ for the extra sequential write speeds?What does that mean in practicallity,other than installing or moving files faster?Are there any helpful indirect implications?
 
Even the slowest SSD is incredibly fast compared to a spindle drive. You may notice the difference between the absolute slowest SSDs and the fastest, but not always. Benchmark scores is the only practical space you'll see marked differences.

I'd look for the biggest capacity drive for the lowest price from a reliable manufacturer. We can't all afford Samsung's 850 Pro. But finding a decent 256GB drive for ~$90 is relatively easy. Most anything from the usual suspects of Crucial, Kingston, Mushkin, Patriot, Samsung, or SanDisk should be fine. After that just compare features you want, like drive encryption.
 
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