Solid State Drive Recommendation

[Neji]

I'm a little out of touch with SSD drives but I'm looking to upgrade, hopefully to provide me with a more reliable and faster system.


First of all, my system is as follows:
Asus P8Z68-V PRO Z68 Socket 1155 8 Channel HD Audio ATX Motherboard
Intel Core i7 2600k 3.4GHz Socket 1155
Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit
Asus ATI Radeon HD 6950 DirectCU II 2048MB GDDR5

Would I benefit greatly from an SSD ie would it be worth investing in one?

If I were to get one, what would I need for speed and compatibility with the above system? I've spotted an OCZ agility one that looks to be a pretty good buy.

http://www.ebuyer.com/268239-ocz-60gb-agility-3-ssd-agt3-25sat3-60g

My budget is around 65-70 GBP, btw.

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[joshernater9]

Yes, SSD's, on any build, will greatly improve speed.

Around 76 GBP will get you this nice Mushkin Chronos: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226236

Although if you want to go cheaper, than you can get the 60gb version for about 50 GBP: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226247

I personally prefer the Mushkin Chronos over the M4

 

[Neji]

The Mushkin ones do look promising, a lot of good things said about it from what I can see.

Would it be worth paying a little extra and getting the Deluxe version? I read something about NAND being better and only the deluxe has it?

Deluxe is here - http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Storage/Hard+Drives+-+SSD/Mushkin+Chronos+deluxe+60GB+2.5%22+SATA-III+Solid+State+Hard+Drive+?productId=46082&source=googleps

Thanks for the help.

 

[joshernater9]

The Mushkin ones do look promising, a lot of good things said about it from what I can see.

Would it be worth paying a little extra and getting the Deluxe version? I read something about NAND being better and only the deluxe has it?

Deluxe is here - http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Storage/Hard+Drives+-+SSD/Mushkin+Chronos+deluxe+60GB+2.5%22+SATA-III+Solid+State+Hard+Drive+?productId=46082&source=googleps

Thanks for the help.

The deluxe really isn't worth the extra money for the small increase of speed between the two in my opinion, i would stick the the normal one.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

If it is available in your part of the world, here is my standard recommendation.

If reliability and stability is a major concern, then I recommend Samsung. Samsung was awarded contracts to supply Dell, Sony, Lenovo, Apple and other off the shelf brands with OEM versions of their 470 Series SATA 2 3Gb/s ssd's. Eventually the 470's were released for retail sale to consumers. There have been no major issues reported. The 470 has an absolutely stellar record.

Then Samsung released their 830 Series SATA 3 6Gb/s ssd's as successors to the 470. The first ones were OEM versions for Dell and the other off the shelf brands followed by release of retail versions for consumers. The ssd's are Samsung's own design with their own components and firmware. It looks like Samsung got it right again.

Here is a link to the ssd database:

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

Scroll down to the brands you are interested in and follow the links to the technical reviews.

 

[Neji]

So it's between the Mushkin and the Samsungs? I can get the 830 for a little more than I was wanting to pay but I don't mind forking out the extra £20.

Thanks for the link to the db, looks good. I'll have a read and make some decisions.

Thanks to both of you for the help.

 

[RetiredChief]

First off, I have SSDs in all my systems - 2 desktops and 3 laptops. I would not go back to a Mechanical HDD. However for an OS + Program drive my recommendation is 80 Gig or larger.

2nd advantage/disadvantages:
.. Very fast Boot time. Does not improve bios post, but does improve the time from "Start loading Operating system" to when that spinning circvle stops - 10->20 seconds. How often do you boot and reboot your computer.
.. Much faster program load time. One to two blinks of the eye. I can click on a link to a spreadsheet and the program loads and the spreadsheet is there before I can drag cursor to a cell.
.. NO improvement in how fast a program runs after loading and NO improvement in frames per sec in games.
.. What is NOT on the SSD runs at the Normal HDD speed.
.. Cost per gig = High

As to size (why I recommend 80+). With a 60 gig SSD.
.. Your real size is about 50 gigs. First you lose about 4 gigs because the advertised size vs "real" size. 2nd You must leave at least 10% of the drive free.
You MUST, at a minimum (I do this even on my 120/128 gig SSDs:
1) Disable hibernation - Saves about 6 gigs.
2) Set page file (virtual memory) min and max to the same size ie 1024 mb. Can be moved to HDD
3) Move internet temp files and My Docs to the HDD
4) disable, or Limit, the Restore points. Over time this will eat considerable disk space and can NOT be moved to the HDD.

Viable option, until you can afford a larger SSD.
.. Look into the New Seagate hybrid drives. They have an 8 gig (small) SSD built into the drive. This is an SLC, not MLC, SSD - Faster and much longer write cycles (before a cell dies). Almost the same advantage on Boot time and (depending on usage) program load times - Is it faster than a dedicated SSD - NO, But close. 750 -> 1 TB vs 60 Gigs.
And Yes it will be faster than a Normal HDD. As with SSD, what is NOT in cache is NOT speeded up.
A Review: http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=806&Itemid=60

NOW when you can afford the 80+ SSD. You can then move the hybrid drive over to a storage drive!! The best of both worlds.