Time for an SSD?

BasilBasil NubcaekEngland Icrontian
edited December 2011 in Hardware
So I've been looking at those shiny solid state drives the cool kids have been playing with and it seems the time may have come for me to join them. I've got a few quid for the birthday which along with what I have already earmarked for tech toys would be enough for a decent ~120GB unit.

Currently looking at the Crucial M4, Crucial Force 3, OCZ Octane and Vertex 3 and can find little beyond price to distinguish them, any views on the above would be greatly appreciated.

Comments

  • RyderRyder Kalamazoo, Mi Icrontian
    Vertex3 or Vertex3 MaxIO is going to be the fastest (can't speak for those other guys, *ahem* *cough*).
    Octane is our new Indilinx based drive and while slower in the 4K read/write realm, the access time is about 3 to 5 times lower than the SandForce based offerings which make it feel really snappy in Windows.
    Octane also doesn't take a speed hit with incompressible data (like AVI, MP3, etc).
  • TushonTushon I'm scared, Coach Alexandria, VA Icrontian
    Vertex 3 for $170. Done.
  • fatcatfatcat Mizzou Icrontian
    just make sure you aren't hooking a vertex3 up to a shitty marvell sata3 controller
  • BasilBasil Nubcaek England Icrontian
    edited December 2011
    Vertex 3 for $170. Done.
    Heh, try £146 ($230), and that's the cheapest I've seen it.

    That said the octane/M4 are similarly priced and the force 3's performance isn't that great so it's looking like a Vertex3 for me.

    Thanks guys.
  • PirateNinjaPirateNinja Icrontian
    I've used Crucial ssds exclusively for a couple of years, and I currently own five. I have 2 256 M4s in my desktop. They run great. I am sure OCZ works great too and run faster. I just keep going back to Crucial because I don't have any issues.

    Just one real suggestion: get a nice quality adapter for your case if you don't have native physical support for 2.5" drives from your case manufacturer.
  • BasilBasil Nubcaek England Icrontian
    Yeah, crucial/intel seem to have the best reputation for just working.
    I've seen more than a couple oblique references to OCZ unreliability but so far sources for that seem to be anecdotal or out of date.

    What exactly do you mean by a nice quality adaptor? Wasn't planning on getting anything too fancy as I didn't see any real need to decouple/heatsink it.
  • TushonTushon I'm scared, Coach Alexandria, VA Icrontian
    edited December 2011
    I think he means something like this
  • fatcatfatcat Mizzou Icrontian
    edited December 2011
    OCZ SSD's come with an 3.5" to 2.5" bracket, unless that has changed since I got my Vertex2

    Both my SSD's came with them, OCZ and Samsung
  • TushonTushon I'm scared, Coach Alexandria, VA Icrontian
    Did not come with my Crucial back in February of this year, but that may have changed. I imagine specs sheet will say something about that on your site of purchasing.
  • CantiCanti =/= smalltime http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9K18CGEeiI&feature=related Icrontian
    I'm considering jumping on the SSD bandwagon too. Will programs run if I put them on a partition separate from the operating system and/or a different hard drive altogether?
  • RyderRyder Kalamazoo, Mi Icrontian
    If you install them there yes. Some programs still put a bit of code, etc in the /windows folder, but that seems to be fewer and fewer.
  • mertesnmertesn I am Bobby Miller Yukon, OK Icrontian
    Yeah, crucial/intel seem to have the best reputation for just working.
    I've seen more than a couple oblique references to OCZ unreliability but so far sources for that seem to be anecdotal or out of date.
    I own and use the following SSDs:
    2xVertex 2 120GB
    Vertex 3 240GB
    RevoDrive X2 100GB
    RevoDrive 3 240GB (currently under review)
    Samsung 830-series 64GB

    All have performed very well. I highly recommend the OCZ drives. Their performance, support, and tools are excellent.
  • ardichokeardichoke Icrontian
    edited January 2012
    Only OCZ drives I've used have been Z-Drives at work. Used about a dozen of them. Every one of them would randomly stop working until the server was rebooted or fail outright. It was so bad we stopped offering them entirely because we were just constantly replacing them. Of course that's just anecdotal evidence as everyone will be so keen to point out (as they do every time I say something bad about SSDs).
  • TushonTushon I'm scared, Coach Alexandria, VA Icrontian
    There are just a lot of variables there that may or may not have been addressed (ranging from firmware, BIOS updates, implementation of OS, etc) that you don't speak about. I'm not accusing you/work of not having done those things, simply that it isn't out there is a testable/repeatable/documented format.
  • CantiCanti =/= smalltime http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9K18CGEeiI&feature=related Icrontian
    Went with this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227728. I've never had a hard drive fail on me yet no matter how long I've used it so hopefully that will continue. Looking forward to seeing how much faster things run as my hard drives are by far the most outdated things in my PC at this point.
  • ardichokeardichoke Icrontian
    I've never had a hard drive fail on me yet no matter how long I've used it so hopefully that will continue.
    You realize that you've probably doomed yourself to repeated failures of this drive by saying that, right? :P
  • NiGHTSNiGHTS San Diego Icrontian
    edited January 2012
    Went with this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227728. I've never had a hard drive fail on me yet no matter how long I've used it so hopefully that will continue. Looking forward to seeing how much faster things run as my hard drives are by far the most outdated things in my PC at this point.
    OMG ths make you lvl sooooo much faster in bf3 my i got one and lvl 38 friend is now lvl 73 but he has nvidia vdeo card so i dunn lool

    Seriously though, you'll load maps like noone's business in everything you play. You get first pick of vehicles.
  • TushonTushon I'm scared, Coach Alexandria, VA Icrontian
    OMG ths make you lvl sooooo much faster in bf3 my i got one and lvl 38 friend is now lvl 73 but he has nvidia vdeo card so i dunn lool

    Seriously though, you'll load maps like noone's business in everything you play. You get first pick of vehicles.
    HACKS. I'm reportinged ur a$$
  • TimTim Southwest PA Icrontian
    I'm planning on getting an OCZ Vertex 3 or Agility 3 SSD for the boot drive in my next PC. Either 90 GB or 120 GB, most likely. Although the Vertex is a little faster, will we ever REALLY see the difference betweeb 500-550 MB/second read speeds? They do have significant differences in the IOPS speeds, but again, compared to even a fast mechanical hard drive, will it be noticeable in real world use?

    When doing things like general internet surfing, going from site to site, watching youtube videos, etc - is that something that will make use of the increased 4k IOPS speeds a lot?
  • BasilBasil Nubcaek England Icrontian
    edited January 2012
    Just ordered a 128GB Crucial M4, should be here on Friday.

    Was just over a tenner less than the cheapest Vertex 3 and that was reason enough for me to grab one.
  • djmonstadjmonsta London, UK Member
    I have a 64Gb SSD but I only use is as my boot drive, I have 3 other HDD's for my prograns and games. I have to say that the speed difference was absolutely worth the money!
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