Recommended SSD (P8P67 Deluxe)?

[corleone11]

I'm about to upgrade to an SSD for my new rig, but im pulling my hair out as i can't decide which brand to part my hard earned cash with?
I care more about reliability than performance, as any SSD is going to have a dramatic increase in performance in comparison to mechanical HDD's.
A 120gb SSD is the maximum size which will cater to my needs. As per the title, my mobo is an Asus P8P67 Deluxe which supports SATA 2 and 3.

OCZ seem to be the most popular brand, yet provide the worst reliability according to reviews on sites such Amazon and Newegg.
Intel (a somewhat reputable brand) seem to have problems with intermittent freezing on their SSD's 🙁 . I'm really scratching my head
here as to which brand to go with so all suggestions and personal experiences are welcomed and greatly appreciated

 

[tecmo34]

If you can find an OCZ Vertex 3, I would go with that drive. It is the best all around SATA III drive IMO. The new Sandforce 2000 controller is a nice improvement over the Sandforce 1200 and Sandforce 1500 controllers. The Intel 510 is a good option, as is the Crucial C400 SSD, but the OCZ Vertex 3 would be my first choice.

 

[corleone11]

If you can find an OCZ Vertex 3, I would go with that drive. It is the best all around SATA III drive IMO. The new Sandforce 2000 controller is a nice improvement over the Sandforce 1200 and Sandforce 1500 controllers. The Intel 510 is a good option, as is the Crucial C400 SSD, but the OCZ Vertex 3 would be my first choice.

Thank you for your suggestion .
As mentioned before, OCZ seem to have a slightly poor reputaion in terms of reliability
Have had any experiences with OCZ solid state drives?

 

[tecmo34]

I'm running the OCZ Vertex 2 240 GB (25 nm), which replaced my Intel X25-M G2 80 GB in my primary setup. I haven't had any issues with the drive in the past two months of use and I've hit it hard with benchmarks, putting it into a throttle state and has recovered nicely (initially used the drive for testing purposes).

 

[corleone11]

I'm running the OCZ Vertex 2 240 GB (25 nm), which replaced my Intel X25-M G2 80 GB in my primary setup. I haven't had any issues with the drive in the past two months of use and I've hit it hard with benchmarks, putting it into a throttle state and has recovered nicely (initially used the drive for testing purposes).

Wow, 240GB seems a little too much I suppose your "future proofed" in a sense 😉
Well I'm glad to hear you've had good experiences with OCZ as it seems likely that i may have
to purchase their SSD due to the competitive prices. Just need a little more reassurance though.

Thanks for your help!

 

[Karch_32]

Can anyone comment on the C300 128GB by Crucial?

I was told they are a very decent choice if one cannot afford the Vertex.

 

[adampower]

The c300 sports a marvell controller which is, and was, very well liked. In many circles it was the raining champ of 'second gen' drives such as the vertex II (sandforce 1222) and the intel G2. It is also the first (i think) to benefit from a sata 3 connection. Currently they are probably the best bang for your buck in a quality/price/size comparison.

Grab it... Sorry to stray in the thread a little but perhaps the c300 or next gen c400/m4 would be interesting for the op as well. I believe the intel 510 uses the same controller.

Other vendors will soon be competing in the sandforce 2000 series market as well so the vertex 3 will likely be one of the bunch by summer. OCZ has certainly made some enemies.

my 2 cents

 

[corleone11]

The c300 sports a marvell controller which is, and was, very well liked. In many circles it was the raining champ of 'second gen' drives such as the vertex II (sandforce 1222) and the intel G2. It is also the first (i think) to benefit from a sata 3 connection. Currently they are probably the best bang for your buck in a quality/price/size comparison.

Grab it... Sorry to stray in the thread a little but perhaps the c300 or next gen c400/m4 would be interesting for the op as well. I believe the intel 510 uses the same controller.

Other vendors will soon be competing in the sandforce 2000 series market as well so the vertex 3 will likely be one of the bunch by summer. OCZ has certainly made some enemies.

my 2 cents

According to the Crucial forums and a few others, there have been quite a few people complaining about issues with the C300. Apparently there is an incompatibility / issue with the Intel Rapid Storage driver under AHCI. Just google "C300 problems" and see for yourself.
Make of it what you will, but i think i'll pass on the C300. Thanks for your kind input though.

 

[adampower]

Didn't read the 'c300 drops from 6gps' thread as I don't own one and assumed it was an isolated incident but... seems very interesting. I wonder if this will propagate to other 6gps drives.

I'm impressed corleone. You are on top of things and I know you will make the most informed decision possible. For that reason I will throw one more curve ball. The intel 320 drives are said to have a number of capacitors in parallel (I thought caps added in series but I guess i don't quite understand but they were going to use a super cap at one point but I digress). This capacitance will help ensure that upon power loss the drive will finish writing anything in a volatile cache and therefore, protect your data. This is a very interesting feature and it adds to the allure of the 'solid as a rock' Intel brand name for SSDs. Too bad they don't perform as well as the competition.

 

[corleone11]

Didn't read the 'c300 drops from 6gps' thread as I don't own one and assumed it was an isolated incident but... seems very interesting. I wonder if this will propagate to other 6gps drives.

I'm impressed corleone. You are on top of things and I know you will make the most informed decision possible. For that reason I will throw one more curve ball. The intel 320 drives are said to have a number of capacitors in parallel (I thought caps added in series but I guess i don't quite understand but they were going to use a super cap at one point but I digress). This capacitance will help ensure that upon power loss the drive will finish writing anything in a volatile cache and therefore, protect your data. This is a very interesting feature and it adds to the allure of the 'solid as a rock' Intel brand name for SSDs. Too bad they don't perform as well as the competition.

Thanks 😀 I'm usually known as the paranoid and pessimistic one in my circle :lol: , but I'd just rather be safe than sorry, especially when it comes to expensive hardware. Your right, Intel do have a good reputation, and in regards to them not performing as well as the competition, I'd happily take a hit in performance in exchange for a reliable product. As i said before, any SSD will have a dramatic improvement in performance when compared to a HDD, so there will be
no complaints from me! 😀 I'm going to look into the 320 drives as they seem like a sound investment.

Thank you very much for your advice, i appreciate it.

 

[adampower]

I'd happily take a hit in performance in exchange for a reliable product. As i said before, any SSD will have a dramatic improvement in performance when compared to a HDD, so there will be
no complaints from me!

I might print this statement out and stick it next to my computer! Tom's article said much the same thing. They threw out something like 'the worst ssds perform 85% better than an hdd and the best perform 88% better'. Don't understand those numbers but they mirror my sentiments.


Adam

 

[JohnnyLucky]

Tom's hardware published an article yesterday morning that might help you decide. Here is the link:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-ssd-price-per-gb-ssd-performance,2880.html

 

[Karch_32]

I just bought a C300 128GB for $199, newegg and amazon (I went with the latter as I saved about $20 in the end).