OCZ Vertex 3 or Crucial M4?

TopGun

Distinguished
Apr 28, 2009
434
0
18,790
Hey guys,

I've been told to go for the M4 and stay away from sandforce based ssds. I've also read that the vertex 3 is the fastest ssd. What are the thoughts from the Tom's experts?

There is a OCZ Vertex 3 Series – MAX IOPS Edition VTX3MI-25SAT3-120G 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) on shell shocker atm for $189.99.

Thanks,
-TG
 

ram1009

Distinguished
Sacrificing reliability for speed is a poor trade off IMHO. The Crucials have a better history, though not perfect. I've been watching this very issue for some time myself and have held off buying OCZ although they are frequently on sale.
 
This may be true when using data the is highly compressable - Not real life.

If you look at AS SSD benchmark for the M4 using Firmware version 9 - It is right up there with the Vertex III MAX IOPS SSD Which is there High end SF2281 SSD.
Ref: http://www.anandtech.com/show/4712 [...] h-fw0009/3
Still take Benchmark with grain of salt as review was for 256 Gig SSDs and 128 gig SSDs tend to be lower.

For benchmarks I prefer to look at are AS SSD or better yet look at PCMark vantage scores (closer to real life), Both overall and for the individual task you most offet preform.

My comment to an earlier post asking about vertex II/agility III:
You will not see a big diff between most of the new SSDs (Sata III and even the New Sata II).

The specs you quoted are for Sequencial read /writes which are the least important metric when looking at a OS Plus program drive. Look at random 4 K performance.
That said, if you do a lot of work with LARGE files, and they are on the SSD then Sequencial performance is important; However most put these type of files on the HDD.
Also on seq performance qouted speed is for data that is readly compressable (not real life). The Sequencial speed for SF22xx drops off when compressed data is used in the test.

I prefer marval based Sata III SSDs like the curcial M4, and Intel 510 uses. For SATA II my preference is the Samsung 470. Notes Samsung is coming out with an 800 series Sata III SSD.

I have 2 120 gig Agility IIIs (will never buy again) and two Crucial 128 gig M4 which I'm very happy with.
Just compare the dissatisfaction ratio between the Aggility III and the M4 - Night and day!!
THERE is a reason the agility is Cheaper!!




 
The Crucial M4 is a very popular ssd. There was one firmware issue. Crucial issued a firmware update which not only fixed the problem but also increased performance. Othwerwise the M4 is relatively trouble free.

OCZ on the other hand has had more than its fair share of problems with the SandForce based ssd's.