Why Crucial M4 and not Corsair Force 3??

rogerthatman

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May 2, 2012
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Please give me a good explanation about it. I've been searching the web for like ever.. and everybody says hands down the m4 and it's great and a better choice than the Corsair Force 3.
My (big) question is - WHY?? By specs the Force 3 is waaaay better with 500MB/S Write. The M4 is ONLY 175MB/S. Huge difference (I'm talking about the 120GB/128GB version).
I'm about to buy a SSD and I was really about to buy the Corsair Force 3 120GB, but the internet says something else even though with the better performance of the Force 3 (according to specs).

Please help me decide. I'm losing my mind! :ouch:
 
Solution
Hello,

As I always tell people - the mere fact of upgrading to an SSD will have an enormous improvement in terms of access time and speed over regular HDD's.

So knowing that - for myself I chose the Crucial M4. Has been extremely reliable and i've had no issues stemming from it. (built my new computer about 1-2 months ago, and still no issues).

Knowing SSD's are fast no matter which one you get - which is why I went for reliability and got the M4.
Its all about the type of nand that the drives use. The force 3 uses cheaper Asynchronous NAND, whereas the m4 uses the better and higher quality (albeit more expensive) Synchronous NAND. Same as the poster above was saying, this has a huge influence when we are talking about incompressible and compressible data.

When they advertise those specs like you were quoting, 500MB/s read and/or write, take those with a grain of salt. They are more than likely showing you numbers under a highly controlled and instanced application. You will never get those speeds in real usage with that drive.

Using crystaldiskmark and using randomized date (best to simulate real usage), the force 3 BARELY breaks 200MB/s READ. And thats sequential read too mind you.

Here's a good site and review for your reading pleasure.

http://www.storagereview.com/corsair_force_series_3_review

Cheers
 
Hello,

As I always tell people - the mere fact of upgrading to an SSD will have an enormous improvement in terms of access time and speed over regular HDD's.

So knowing that - for myself I chose the Crucial M4. Has been extremely reliable and i've had no issues stemming from it. (built my new computer about 1-2 months ago, and still no issues).

Knowing SSD's are fast no matter which one you get - which is why I went for reliability and got the M4.
 
Solution
OK... thank you so much.
Now my biggest concern is about the value. 128GB is really a small space.
I'm now with completely new computer and my C: is already has 90GB used.
In addition, maybe in the next year or some, the ssd will be much cheaper which much of a storage space..
 


Actually I disagree. I just got my new PC and I've installed a few programs and my C: is already in use of 90GB!
So 128GB is without a doubt not enough. That's why I'm not sure if I should buy a SSD or not (Because 256GB SSD is really too much - really expansive)
 


You really only want to run your OS and Maybe one or two high use applications on the SSD you install a normal drive to store all the bloatware
 


Actually I wanna install some applications, not just few. Also, I want to install Diablo 3 on it. and Only that is 15GB.
 


Well that comes down to expectation management. if you want to install 1tb of stuff on your system then your going to need a bigger drive. however running every application from your ssd is just not practical unless you can afford to buy 20 of them and set them up in a raid. if you can afford to do that then by all means install the world. :)

Quick afterthought installing diablo 3 on your ssd is not going to provide you with the performance increase you may expect. the entire game requires that you are connected to an online server and load times will vary based off your latency with that online battlenet server. Just my two cents.
 
I think 128 is sufficient as one has said. I have a 128gb ssd and here's what I have installed on it.
Win 7 64
BF3
SC2
Lightroom
Photoshop
Premier Pro
Chrome
and I'm sure there is some small stuff that I'm forgetting.

Thats the OS, 2 good size games, and at least 3 programs AND I believe I have somewhere around 30GB free. That sounds like enough space for me. Get an HDD for all your music, photos, videos etc...

Don't get me wrong, I could always use more, like a 256gb, who wouldn't. But if its the difference of getting into an ssd versus passing it up all together, well then I would def get in at the 128gb mark. Prices have gotten ridiculous lately anyways. M4's are selling for LESS than a 1$ per gb!!

 


Haha a little bit. Although a lot of desktop cases are starting to come with 2.5" mounts.

My HTPC came with a 2.5" mount....although it's actully just 4 holes in a piece of flat aluminum where you can just screw the SSD in.
 


But it's normal, right? SSD will work great on a PC just as on a laptop, won't it?
Just hoping it's worth buying and won't crash a week later or some.
 


Yes it will work. SSD's are one of the few technologies that work both in a laptop as well as in a desktop. Both the SATA connector and the SATA power connector are physically and electrically the same for both.

The only SSD's you might have issues with are mSATA SSD's, which none were listed in this thread :)
 
Yeah, that's just were the industry took a turn. I guess they thought why make a product for each separately when they can just supply the same device to both sets of consumers. They did have 3.5 ssd's when they first came out and got popular but they didn't last long.
 
Well, another question:
If I put a load of data on my SSD, can it make it slower or worse somehow?
Because for instance, when I put a lot of data on my iphone and my ipad, they become slower and stuck a lot. Since SSD is like the memory of the iphone and ipad, I assume it works the same?
Because I expect my SSD to be almost full of the 128GB... Kinda freaks me out.
 


Yes. As SSD's fill up they become slower. You might want to leave at least 10% free to keep your speed up.

I recommend reading this very in depth article. It might be a little old now, but the theories behind it are still true:

Warning, lots of reading ahead!
http://www.anandtech.com/show/2738/2

Edit: If you do get the SSD - don't benchmark it too much or too often. Doing it too much can substantially lower your speeds.
 



Ohh man.. that really sucks. By how much the speed becomes slower when I fill up the maximum of data?