Help picking a SSD, before my head explodes xD

[klitschk0]

I am in need of some serious help because all these choices of SSD are driving me mad! I have a budget of £100 and i have narrowed it down to these four SSDs. Which one should i buy or should i buy a different one altogether?

Crucial 128GB M4 SSD - 2.5" SATA-III - Read 500MB/s Write 175MB/s - 3 Year Warranty
http://www.ebuyer.com/266526-crucial-128gb-2-5-m4-ssd-sata-iii-6gb-s-read-415mb-s-write-175mb-s-ct128m4ssd2

OCZ 120GB Vertex 3 SSD 2.5" SATA-III 6Gb/s Read 550MB/s Write 500MB/s 85,000 IOPS
http://www.ebuyer.com/259774-ocz-120gb-vertex-3-ssd-2-5-sata-iii-6gb-s-read-550mb-s-write-500mb-s-vtx3-25sat3-120g

Corsair 120GB Force 3 SSD SATA3
http://www.ebuyer.com/268693-corsair-120gb-force-3-ssd-cssd-f120gb3-bk-cssd-f120gb3-bk

OCZ 120GB Agility 3 SSD SATA3
http://www.ebuyer.com/268244-ocz-120gb-agility-3-ssd-agt3-25sat3-120g-agt3-25sat3-120g

 

[RetiredChief]

1) Skip the Agility III. It's a SATAII SSD Masquerading as SATA III SSD.
2) Agility 3 and vertex 3 are more probmatic than other brands (Has some of the Highest level of user dissatisfaction).
3. For get the "advertised Sequencial benchmarks" Mean very little for a OS + program SSD. Could go into it, but take my word.
You will find that the Day-to-day performance of the higher end SSDs is very close, so instead of looking at meaningless benchmarks - look at reliability, or least user problems.
Pich one, then go to newegg and look at the reviews - Only look at if 30 or more reviews, look at the 1/2 egg percentages and if over 15->20 % drop like a hot potatoe.

4) My normal recommendation is the Curcuil M4 (have 2), The Samsung 830 (have one), or the Intel 510/520 - Which of the three, which ever is cheapest!!!

Added: Ok a little info on benchmarks: the only two I look at are first - PCMark vantage (closest to real life) followed by AS SSD which is Much closer than the manufs using ATTO.
Most manuf use ATTO, a benchmark desiigned for HDDs and uses Data that is Highly compressable. Manuf like to quote ATTO Sequencial because the Numbers look GOOD, never mind how realvent they are. Real data on an OS +Program drive does compress some, but NO wheres near the compression used by atto. Also Sequencial performance is the least important parameter for an OS + Program drive, The random 4 K are much more important. Reason is that around half of your files on the SSD are under 16K and only a small percentage would be classed as LARGE files.

 

[tomatthe]

Personally had 5 corsair ssds die in less then a year, 3 force series, 2 performance series.

Samsung 830 would be my suggestion.

 

[klitschk0]

1) Skip the Agility III. It's a SATAII SSD Masquerading as SATA III SSD.
2) Agility 3 and vertex 3 are more probmatic than other brands (Has some of the Highest level of user dissatisfaction).
3. For get the "advertised Sequencial benchmarks" Mean very little for a OS + program SSD. Could go into it, but take my word.
You will find that the Day-to-day performance of the higher end SSDs is very close, so instead of looking at meaningless benchmarks - look at reliability, or least user problems.
Pich one, then go to newegg and look at the reviews - Only look at if 30 or more reviews, look at the 1/2 egg percentages and if over 15->20 % drop like a hot potatoe.

4) My normal recommendation is the Curcuil M4 (have 2), The Samsung 830 (have one), or the Intel 510/520 - Which of the three, which ever is cheapest!!!

Added: Ok a little info on benchmarks: the only two I look at are first - PCMark vantage (closest to real life) followed by AS SSD which is Much closer than the manufs using ATTO.
Most manuf use ATTO, a benchmark desiigned for HDDs and uses Data that is Highly compressable. Manuf like to quote ATTO Sequencial because the Numbers look GOOD, never mind how realvent they are. Real data on an OS +Program drive does compress some, but NO wheres near the compression used by atto. Also Sequencial performance is the least important parameter for an OS + Program drive, The random 4 K are much more important. Reason is that around half of your files on the SSD are under 16K and only a small percentage would be classed as LARGE files.

Thank you for replying quickly i really do appreciate it!

 

[Proximon]

The Crucial M4 has been around for a long time now, but it's still the most recommended.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

Normally I recommend Samsung, Crucial, and Intel. They're all good drives. I would suggest purchasing whichever of those three is priced lowest.

Here is a link to today's best ssd deals:

http://www.logicbuy.com/categorydeals/computers/hard-drives-ssd

 

[Proximon]

Gah, that 256GB Samsung is magnetically drawing my CC to the screen. He's in England though JL

 

[JohnnyLucky]

OOPS! Forgot an International member was posting.

Proximon - Got one for my wife last time price dropped down to $225.00. She wanted a pc that was as fast as mine.

 

[RetiredChief]

LOL, just Got my wife a sansung 830 128 Gig ($120).
Will have to try the migration route as Installing all here programs would be a nightmare.
Initial got her a HP (cheapy) as she needed in a hurry. Bought software to mifrate here programs to Vista. That didn't last long as I built her a low end i3. And again had to migrate programs from vista to Win 7.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

Retired Chief - ROFLMAO! Same problem here. My wife has lots of "stuff" she hasn't used or looked at in in a long time. Since it was a new build I plan on doing a clean install tomorrow. BuyDig is a little slow with processing and shipping so new ssd wasn't delivered until today.

 

[RetiredChief]

My prolem is with a couple of prograqms. One is an embrodery program (She fantastic at designing her clothes). She sarted with it a long time ago and has been getting updates - the updates require the prvious version. Initial version required a parallel port dongal. later on it required a speacial disk writer to be attached. I don't think I could ever re-install it. Upgrades run around $300, Not sure what the Non-upgrade cost. Then she has some programs that she has download and lost keys.
I've already migrated from Xp->vista->Win 7.
She has managed to mess up her installation, trying to fix But have to be VERY careful.
Have a new SSD for her, But first have to get the promlems sortted out. Going to Clone the HDD (problems and all) to another HDD so that I can try to fix and if It gets hosed, She does NOT go into orbit - Most likely she would put ME in orbit.

Currently shes in England visiting her brothers, So have a couple of weeks.

 

[rus2]

My prolem is with a couple of prograqms. One is an embrodery program (She fantastic at designing her clothes). She sarted with it a long time ago and has been getting updates - the updates require the prvious version. Initial version required a parallel port dongal. later on it required a speacial disk writer to be attached. I don't think I could ever re-install it. Upgrades run around $300, Not sure what the Non-upgrade cost. Then she has some programs that she has download and lost keys.
I've already migrated from Xp->vista->Win 7.
She has managed to mess up her installation, trying to fix But have to be VERY careful.
Have a new SSD for her, But first have to get the promlems sortted out. Going to Clone the HDD (problems and all) to another HDD so that I can try to fix and if It gets hosed, She does NOT go into orbit - Most likely she would put ME in orbit.

Currently shes in England visiting her brothers, So have a couple of weeks.

Do you have a docking station? If so, use EaseUS, Disk clone, check the Optimize for SSD and clone her HDD to the new SSD and have correct alignment. Identical to her HDD.

 

[RetiredChief]

^ Thats what I plan on doing. But first going to clone HDD -> HDD as she has some windows problems. that I need to fix. When fixed then go HDD -> SSD.

 

[rus2]

Good choice. It worked great for me. Good luck.