Samsung 840 120gb or SanDisk 128gb on SATA II?

[paddybliss]

I have a Dell Vostro 430: H57 Chipset, i7 830 Processor, 4GB 1066Mhz RAM.

I'm considering adding an SSD to my system as boot/OS/App drive.Ther modo is only SATA II, so i understand that high performance drives would be a waste of time, so I'm looking at these two:

Samsung 840 Series 120gb (not the pro version)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-Series-120GB-Solid-State/dp/B009LI7C5I/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_nC?ie=UTF8&colid=LTTDI2NER5I0&coliid=I1O9RQ3W8KXW5C

SanDisk 128GB 2.5 inch Solid State Drive
http://www.amazon.co.uk/SanDisk-128GB-Solid-State-Drive/dp/B007ZW2LY4/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_nC?ie=UTF8&colid=LTTDI2NER5I0&coliid=I5P6A57BVCB4T&psc=1

Since I last look, the price of the Samsung has gone up a bit, which might swing it, but it is a faster drive, though the write speed is slower than the Sandisk.

Is it worth £18 more?

Many thanks in advance.

 

[khealou]

I had the same case as yours and had to choose between SanDisk Extreme and Samsung 840 (not Pro), so i did a lot of googling and ended up with this:
SanDisk uses a SandForce controller thus reviewers assumes it's a good reason to avoid it (at least for now) and stick with Samsung (or Intel), the latter offers better reliability and performance but you'll have to pay more

 

[paddybliss]

What about the write speed on the Samsung, even hampered by my mobo only having SATA II, this seems very slow compared to almost any other SSD?

 

[e56imfg]

You won't notice any difference between the 2 SSDs. In the past, Sandforce had a reputation of BSODs, corruption, etc. But today it's non-existent. But Samsung's controller is the best IMO.

If you want to pay extra for the extra stability and reliability, go with the 840.

If you just want a cheap drive, go with the Sandisk.

 

[paddybliss]

Thanks. Well I certainly don't want to lose data or not be able to boot up from it, if thats what you mean about stability and reliability?

How much would the slow write speed on the Samsung affect everyday usage? It's write speed of 130Mbs is SATA I speed and slower than some hard drives, I'm think this might effect swap file (page file)?

 

[Idonno]

If you can spend just a little more (£110.00 as opposed to 88) get this one: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-Series-128GB-Solid-State/dp/B009LI7CKI/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1360071532&sr=1-1
It will get slowed by Sata II a little bit but, I doubt you will even notice it and it's a better SSD (3x faster write speeds)

I wouldn't buy the Sandisk for a boot drive because for your OS the most important spec is low access times. The 128GB Samsung 840 pro gets .04ms read and .03ms write. The Sandisk gets .18ms read and .21ms write.

As you can see the Sandisk is considerably slower.

You can check and compare "AS SSD" benchmarks here: http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/ssd-charts-2012/benchmarks,129.html

 

[paddybliss]

Umm, £110 is a littler more than I wanted to pay. How about any of these, which are in the same price range as the Samsung & Sandisk:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Crucial-CT128M4SSD2-128GB-2-5-inch-Internal/dp/B004W2JKZI/ref=sr_1_2?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1360074194&sr=1-2

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kingston-Technology-120GB-Solid-Adapter/dp/B00A1ZTZOG/ref=sr_1_31?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1360073946&sr=1-31

http://www.amazon.co.uk/OCZ-AGT4-25SAT3-128G-Agility-128GB-Internal/dp/B007ZWVCOY/ref=sr_1_33?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1360074084&sr=1-33

 

[Idonno]

In that case I would stick with the Samsung 840 Series 120gb (not the pro version) That you posted.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-Se [...] RQ3W8KXW5C
It still has very good access times.
.05ms read and .04ms write which is still allot better than the others you posted.
For the price it's still a good reliable SSD just not as good (or expensive) as the pro.

 

[paddybliss]

Ok, I guess just don't understand the technology well enough. So you are say the Samsung rated at 130Mbs will still write quicker than the Crucial rated at 260Mbs?

 

[Idonno]

It will in many instances but, the M4 will do better with large files. The snappiness of your OS is reliant mostly on small reads and Access time. Most people pair an SSD with a regular hard drive for the storage of large files anyway.

But really your final choice is dependent on how you use your boot drive. However I believe that the 840 will make your system feel faster 90% of the time.

Here is a review with some benchmarks and some real world comparisons: http://www.techspot.com/review/597-budget-ssd-review/

Keep in mind that although the reviewers final picks for best budget SSD's are the OCZ Vertex 4 128GB and Crucial m4 128GB the fact that you will be running your SSD on Sata II and not Sata III the write speed advantage that the other drives have will narrow somewhat but, of course the final choice is yours I can only tell you what I would pick.

 

[paddybliss]

Thanks for your help on this. The more I read, the more confusing it gets! I started off with two options, disregarded one and now have the Crucial as as second option. It did seem to do well in those reviews and also gets a good recomendations in this recent artical on this very site:

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/ssd-recommendation-benchmark,review-32619-3.html

So i'm learning a lot here about endurance, Nand, larger drives are faster and more reliable etc. There's some irony here that this site is currently sponsored by the Samsung SSD 840, but i feel strangely resistant to buying it!

 

[paddybliss]

If i'm understanding what i've read correctly, the more full an SSD drive gets, the slower and more unrealiable it is? So I'm wondering about the 256gb 840 at £130, more than my budget, but better specs and at least i 128gb more storage which is allways useful. Am i right in my thinking here?

 

[InEvX]

Personally, I love the M4. Amazing drive with fantastic reliability.
I can sacrifice a little performance for a reputable reliability.

 

[Idonno]

If i'm understanding what i've read correctly, the more full an SSD drive gets, the slower and more unrealiable it is? So I'm wondering about the 256gb 840 at £130, more than my budget, but better specs and at least i 128gb more storage which is always useful. Am i right in my thinking here?

Yes you are correct but even mechanical (regular) hard drives recommend about 30% of free space.
Also as a rule of thumb, the larger the SSD the faster it is. And just to be clear even though I would pick the Samsung the M4 is a very capable alternative. The OCZ Vertex 4 is also a good SSD and possibly the best over all performer.

Here's another link comparing all three: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100011693&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&ActiveSearchResult=True&CompareItemList=636|20-227-791^20-227-791-TS%2C20-148-442^20-148-442-12%23%2C20-147-188^20-147-188-TS
I find the customer reviews to be particularly useful.

But again If you could spare the extra for the 840 pro that would be best. It's rated the best consumer SSD by other reviewers besides Just Tom's Hardware.

And just another thought: even though reviews are subjective to a degree almost all (if not all) the reviews for the last year have the Samsung 840 pro listed in the top 5 (usually the top 3). I don't think any other SSD is consistently listed as high as the 840 pro.

 

[paddybliss]

No I didn't know that its recomended to keep 30% of my HD free, thats for pointing that out. Perhaps thats why my PC has slowed up so much recently as i often have less than 10gb of a 500gb drive free! I need to do some spring cleaning!

The Vestrex does sound a good alrounder, if the reliability is ok?

I'm going to sit on this a while longer and look out for special offers over the next week or so that might swing it!

 

[paddybliss]

Ok, so fate has somewhat intervened in my indecisivness. I found a Samsung 840 basic at £77.99 on Amazon, though the main listing still had it at £88. The downside was the delivery was stated as between 19 Feb - 21 March. So I ordered it anyway thinking there would be plenty of time to change my mind later. Then I got an email saying good news, it will be delivered on the 8th! I'm an Amazon Prime member, so that might have helped me get upgraded or something. So i think i'll stick with that. Strangely, when I go to my order and click the link, it now comes up as £81.99, these price really do flucuate don't they?!!!

Anyway, one more thing you could help with:

I've also ordered a 3.5in mounting adapter as one doesn't come with it.

I've had a quick look inside my machine and there appears to be two loose SATA cables, but I can't see any spare power cables. Is the power normally delivered by the SATA Cable i.e is there only one cable to plug in? I've watched the Samsung Live installation guide and it shows two cables, but they are right next to each other so is it likely / usual that one cable would deliver SATA and power?

 

[Idonno]

No, It's got two cables exactly like a regular hard drive. If you don't have an available Sata power connector but you do have an available 4 Pin Molex connector you can buy an adapter like this: http://www.amazon.co.uk/StarTech-com-Molex-Power-Cable-Adapter/dp/B00009YFTI/ref=sr_1_2?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1360199574&sr=1-2

 

[paddybliss]

Not to worry, the cables I was looking at were power cables! I've ordered a SATA cable.

 

[Idonno]

Good, I think you will be very pleased with the final outcome.