SSD Upgrade

[travisbundo]

I'm looking at some potential upgrades for my PC. I'll be using this drive for my OS, as well as some of my main programs includes games(MMORPGs). Some of the options I'm looking at includes:

OCZ Vertex 3 120g - http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1387820&CatId=5300

Crucial m4 128g - http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1387820&CatId=5300

OCZ Vertex Plus 120g x2 RAID0 - http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1068616&Sku=O261-6401

I've been eyeing the m4 for quite awhile but notice the Vertex 3 speeds are quite a bit better. How much more reliable is the m4? Also the price of hte Vertex Plus is very low, how would two of those disks in RAID0 array compare against the other two drives listed.

 

[WyomingKnott]

General advice: Buy one larger SSD. Do not RAID two smaller ones. If you need double the space, install your OS on one SSD and keep data or larger game installations on another independent SSD.

I'm feeling lazy. You can look up the article in the Storage section or the dozens of threads on the subject yourself. Oh, all right.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-raid-performance,2798-11.html
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/278576-32-raid
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/forum2.php?config=tomshardwareus.inc&cat=32&post=278585&page=1&p=1&sondage=0&owntopic=1&trash=0&trash_post=0&print=0&numreponse=0&quote_only=0&new=0&nojs=0

 

[JohnnyLucky]

^5 +1 what WyomingKnott said.

If reliability and stability is a major concern, then Samsung is worth considering. 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 the to ssd database:

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

Scroll down to the brands and models you are interested in and then click on the links to the technical reviews.

 

[canyoudigit489]

go for this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147134

promo code EMCNJHF45 saves you $10 with the eblast subscriptions

 

[travisbundo]

Thank you for the responses and the references. Johnylucky, How does the Samsung 470 compare w/ the 830?

 

[JohnnyLucky]

I don't think I've run across a head to head comparison of the 470 and 830. In the technical reviews they are usually compared against other brands.

The major difference is the 470 is a SATA 2 3Gb/s ssd while the 830 is a SATA 3 6Gb/s ssd. In theory the 830 should be a little faster. However in typical everyday use the difference between SATA 2 and SATA 3 drives is negligible. In all probability you would not notice the difference. You'd have to run synthetic benchmarks to measure the difference. This applies not only to to Samsung but other ssd's as well.

In my previous post I provided a link to the ssd database. You can scroll down to the Samsung section and follow the links to all of the technical reviews of the 470 and the 830.