Which SSD?

[wrenaudrey]

Which of the following SSD will have the best balance between performance, reliability, longelivity (cant think of the right word) and the best "bang for your buck/pound"?

OCZ Vertex 4- http://www.ebuyer.com/353111-ocz-128gb-vertex-4-ssd-vtx4-25sat3-128g
Crucial M4- http://www.ebuyer.com/266526-crucial-128gb-m4-ssd-ct128m4ssd2
Samsung 830- http://www.ebuyer.com/318421-samsung-128gb-830-series-ssd-kit-mz-7pc128d-eu
I would include Mushkin but this site doesnt sell them.

They are all 128GB.
Will i have a better performance, reliability and longelivity if the SSD i get has a higher capacity?

Thank You all in advanced

 

[ubercake]

Vertex 4 is fastest, but the reliability is suspect with the OCZ SSDs. I'm sure they're getting better with time.
M4 is slowest, but proven reliable and have proven longevity, comparatively.
830 is somewhere in between, but Samsung hasn't been a player in the consumer SSD space for me to trust the drives yet.

If I committed to regularly backing up my system, I'd get the Vertex 4.
If not, I'd get the M4. In about two years, I'll be able to tell you whether I'd use a Samsung drive or not.

Higher capacity does not equal better performance, reliability, and longevity.

 

[wrenaudrey]

any more thoughts guys?

 

[wrenaudrey]

Also, another additional information is that i will not be really be writing/copying alot of data to and from it. I will only use it for OS, frequently used programs and some games. Hope that helps with which one is best for me.

 

[Deleted member 217926]

Samsung 830 is the best for overall reliability and speed.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-recommendation-review,3194-3.html

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-recommendation-review,3194-6.html

 

[wrenaudrey]

Samsung 830 is the best for overall reliability and speed.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-recommendation-review,3194-6.html

Yes it does show the 830 is the best for overall reliability and speed in the 128GB range.
But according to ubercake, "830 is somewhere in between, but Samsung hasn't been a player in the consumer SSD space for me to trust the drives yet."

Is he/she wrong or what?

 

[Deleted member 217926]

If anything Samsung has been subjected to more intense testing than any other SSD maker. They are the drives included in OEMs like Dell. Dell would have to replace any defective drives so they do a huge amount of in house testing in addition to the testing Samsung does. Samsung actually makes the memory modules in their drives as well unlike any other company. Samsung memory has always been about the most reliable you can get.

 

[wrenaudrey]

Thank you very much for all of your input, ubercake and anort3.
Made my decision.

 

[wrenaudrey]

Best answer selected by wrenaudrey.

 

[ubercake]

Vertex 4 is new. This is why it's not part of the review posted by anort3. Please see this review:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5719/ocz-vertex-4-review-256gb-512gb/3

It includes all of the drives in most of the charts. In most of the charts, the Vertex 4 blows the Samsung 830 out of the water with speed. But like I said, the Samsung 830's performance is somewhere between the M4 and the Vertex 4.

 

[ubercake]

Yes it does show the 830 is the best for overall reliability and speed in the 128GB range.
But according to ubercake, "830 is somewhere in between, but Samsung hasn't been a player in the consumer SSD space for me to trust the drives yet."

Is he/she wrong or what?

He/She is not wrong in stating that. Sequential speeds are more marketing and less practical when considering the drive speed.

The usage you're looking for applies to random reads and writes.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

Not even close....Mushkin Chronos Deluxe.

1. Nothing tops it's performance
http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/4328/mushkin_chronos_deluxe_120gb_solid_state_drive_review/index5.html

2. Nothing tops the longevity of its premium toshiba toggle mode flash
http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/4328/mushkin_chronos_deluxe_120gb_solid_state_drive_review/index2.htm
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The first has to do with the flash used; 3Xnm Toshiba Toggle Mode NAND. This flash has a much longer lifespan than the 25nm IMFT flash that resides in many of today's SandForce SF-2281 controlled products. We hear that Toshiba flash is starting to become rare these days and with Toshiba getting ready for their own 2Xnm flash rollout, 3Xnm flash is going to dry up at some point. In short, the window to get a performance SSD with the longest lasting flash is getting smaller every day

.

3. Nothing comes close in its performance range to it's $0.83 per GB cost
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226318

http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/4328/mushkin_chronos_deluxe_120gb_solid_state_drive_review/index13.html

To sum it all up with a bow on top, you get amazing performance, extremely long service life and a hassle free low price point on a drive that literally has very little competition in the marketplace.

The competition is Patriot Wildfire, OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 6G (latest revision) and OCZ Vertex 3 Max IOPS ..... but ya ain't gonna find them at Mushkin's prices.

 

[wrenaudrey]

Vertex 4 is new. This is why it's not part of the review posted by anort3. Please see this review:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5719/ocz-vertex-4-review-256gb-512gb/3

It includes all of the drives in most of the charts. In most of the charts, the Vertex 4 blows the Samsung 830 out of the water with speed. But like I said, the Samsung 830's performance is somewhere between the M4 and the Vertex 4.

Yes, its speed is great BUT im not really looking into the speed of these things, as im not really going to be moving data in and out of it constantly. Sure the boot time does matter but i think im sure the boot time does not rely on the read and write of the drive.
What im really looking for is the reliability and longevity, and what caught my eye was what anort3 said, the 830's are used in some company so it goes through some heavy testing, and it has been proven that IT IS realiable.

 

[Deleted member 217926]

Let's be honest here too. The Vertex 4 may decrease real world boot time by a second or less from the Samsung drive. In some cases the 830 is still faster than the Vertex 4 and in fact if you read that Anantech article to the conclusion page:

" In the end, as with most brand new controllers and SSD reviews our conclusion is to wait. Vertex 4 is a unique drive that really delivers a lot of what we've been asking for from a performance standpoint, but with some tangible caveats that we're told will be resolved in the coming weeks. If you're buying an SSD today, our standarding recommendation (particularly for Mac users) is Samsung's SSD 830. If you have a workload that demands better write and/or random read performance, let's see how this and other soon-to-be-announced drives behave over time before jumping the gun."

Don't get me wrong I love my Vertex 2. It's almost 2 years old and Windows 7 still boots in about 15 seconds. But right after I got my ( 34nm flash based ) Vertex 2 OCZ began having problems. Alot of that was due to moving to 25nm based flash and the the early Sandforce 2281 bugs. So while the Indilinx Everest 2 based Vertex 4 looks great so far and I would buy OCZ again I would like to see the drive out for a few more months with no bugs before I start recommending it.


The Mushkin article Jack linked to is 9 months old and pretty outdated information at this point.

 

[wrenaudrey]

Well thank you all people! I have ended up buying the 830, just earlier. It dropped a massive £17 (around $25?) to £76.99, so i just jumped it.