R2E and SSD

[SirDevon]

Hi all,

Shopping for a boot/application drive (few games). I am looking for opinions on what the best ~120GB SSD would be for my system. It doesn't necessarily have to be the absolute fastest drive out there, but I am looking for reliability as being the most important feature, speed is the bonus.

My system:
Rampage II Extreme (SATA 2)
i7 920 @ 3.6GHz
Corsair TR3X6G1866C9DF 6GB
2x HD5850 1GB @ 830/1050
Seasonic M12D 850w
Win7 x64 Home Prem

 

[WyomingKnott]

Start with a quick peek at Toms' recent article on 120 GB Sandforce drives: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/sf-2200-sandforce-ssd,2987.html .

As far as reliability, I'm going to risk a flamewar: In the small quantities that we buy them, they are all pretty much equally reliable.

 

[SirDevon]

That article gives some information on the newest SSDs on the market, it does explain some of the newest features, and it has performance figures, but it pairs them with a Z68 chipset, which have additional features that can take full advantage of these SSDs.

I suppose I am looking for someone's opinion using this older X58 chipset, and does the newest features on the SSD provide any benefit?

 

[JohnnyLucky]

I just checked the Intel motherboard database:

http://www.johnnylucky.org/motherboards/intel-motherboard-database.html

Your motherboard has the Intel ICH10R controller that supports SATA II 3 Gb/s ssd's so you are in pretty good shape. Better performance than the Marvell controllers.

If you have no plans to upgrade you motherboard this year, then a SATA II 3Gb/s would be appropriate. For a combination of very good performance and reliability, I woiuld recommend the Samsung 470 series. So far the Samsung ssd's have not had any issues.

Here is a link to the ssd database:

http://www.johnnylucky.org/data-storage/ssd-database.html

Scroll down to the Samsung section and click on the links to read the technical reviews.

 

[Zenthar]

Unless you get deals, the price difference between SATA II and SATA III drives seems is often negligible (depending on the models). SATA II SSDs start at ~180$ which is also the price at which you can find some SATA III drives so ...

Here is a few choices you might want to consider:
■OCZ Agility 3 120GB for 180$
■Mushkin Enhanced Chronos 120GB for 210$
■Corsair Force 3 120GB for 207$