New 128gb SSD advice (M4 vs Sammy 840 vs Vertex 4)

[goodwidp]

So, I'm planning on purchasing my first SSD and have pretty much narrowed it down to 3 choices based on the research I've done and the friendly advice I've received from users on other forums. My planned usage is for a fresh Win 7 (64x) install, a few games, and perhaps a few apps (though nothing too major or large). I have around 3tb of mechanical HDD storage space, so I'll continue to use them for video, music, documents etc... My budget is around $100-$110, though I'm willing to go a bit above if it's worth the premium. The main features I'm looking for are reliability, customer service, and speed; in that order. I know that in this price range, most of the drives will essentially perform relatively similar in terms of real-world performance so my main concern is having a drive that will last me at least a few years.

Here are the 3 drives I'm considering (prices are from Newegg):
Samsung 840- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820147188 ($99)
Crucial M4 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820148442 ($110)
OCZ Vertex 4- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820227791 ($120)

While I'm open to any vendor, I do have a $15 Newegg gift card so I'm going to factor that in when looking at prices elsewhere.

Any opinions/advice/input is sincerely appreciated. Thanks very much, in advance.

[josephjpeters]

Vertex 4 because it uses MLC and has a 5 year warranty.

I'd then say 840 (its a new drive using a really great controller but TLC NAND) followed by the M4 (it's pretty old at this point and it's only a 3 year warranty).

[aviator78]

I would recommend the 840.
Here is why;
OCZ had major problems with reliability of SSDs in the past and the company itself has big problems.
Crucial M4 had some bugs in the last two or three firmware updates.

The Samsung 840 has an incredibly good controller and due to the fact that Samsung produces their own controllers they won't be affected by implementation bugs like SandForce controller SSDs.
In fact you woun't recognize any difference in real usage speed between these drives. Especially not while gaming. Only benchmarks will be different.

[TemjinGold]

Err... none of these drives would be affected by SandForce controller issues. The Vertex 4 would be the fastest of the three.

[jwilliams4200]

I'd go with the 128GB Plextor M5P. High quality SSD with a 5-year warranty.

It is $125 at newegg now, but with your $15 credit, it fits in your $110 budget.

[Coup27]

Originally Posted by jwilliams4200

I'd go with the 128GB Plextor M5P. High quality SSD with a 5-year warranty.

It is $125 at newegg now, but with your $15 credit, it fits in your $110 budget.

This is definitely the best option.

[goodwidp]

Thanks very much for all the replies. Originally I was only looking at the Sammy 840 and M4 and was avoiding OCZ drives because I remember reading quite a bit of negative reviews and user experiences in the past. However, once someone mentioned the Vertex 4 in another forum, I started looking into them again and it seems like OCZ has made some great strides recently in terms of better reliability and customer service. The fact that is has the longest warranty out of the choices (5 yrs) and is the fastest (again, only in benchmarks. I realize real world performance is essentially the same) is making me lean towards the Vertex 4 as of now. I'm still going to wait a bit longer to see if any deals pop up, so I'd love to hear more input and opinions.

Thanks again! I really do appreciate the friendly and helpful advice.

[MontyAC]

Plextor M5P with the latest firmware is hard to beat.

[spinejam]

I can vouch for the Vertex_4 -- they are fast and I've been very pleased w/ mine.

[Mfusick]

Originally Posted by josephjpeters

Vertex 4 because it uses MLC and has a 5 year warranty.

I'd then say 840 (its a new drive using a really great controller but TLC NAND) followed by the M4 (it's pretty old at this point and it's only a 3 year warranty).

+1.

Vertex4 is going to lead in quality and performance due to superior NAND inside. It also has the 5 year warranty.

Samsung is a great drive. Cheaper NAND but still a great drive. The controller makes up for the NAND and still delivers great performance.

Crucial M4 is long in the tooth. Shorter warranty. Slower performance. Older controller and design. It's and old slow pig by today's standards.
It would be like buying last years model basically. Still a good drive.

Real world difference is going to be very small and not very noticeable.
I'd buy what I get a great deal on- and I would weight the Vertex4 higher because of better NAND and warranty. The fact it's really fast performance does not hurt either.

[Mfusick]

Originally Posted by jwilliams4200

I'd go with the 128GB Plextor M5P. High quality SSD with a 5-year warranty.

It is $125 at newegg now, but with your $15 credit, it fits in your $110 budget.

If you deal hunt you can get a VERTEX 4 cheaper than that.

[Coup27]

But really, why would you want to?

[groberts101]

Originally Posted by Coup27

But really, why would you want to?

More aggressive real time recovery/garbage collection.. and therefore better steady state performance in heavy usage combined with very little dedicated recovery time would be at the top of my list. But.. I do more than just word processing and browsing on my system and obviously YMMV.

Unless of course that older shortcoming has changed with newer firmware? Which I honestly don't know for sure since they had a newer uber-fast version about to be released awhile back.

On the other hand.. I do like the faster toggle nand on that drive over the V4 and it certainly gives the M5P an edge over the V4(mainly on lighter q's and reads). Been harping on OCZ for years now to get a TRUE Limited Edition version made with toggle for many of their top drives. There are tons of peens and raiders out there who would easily pay the extra premium for a drive like that.

[goodwidp]

Thanks SO much for the continued input. I really do appreciate it. I haven't made any decisions yet, so keep it comin'!

[goodwidp]

Newegg has a promo going with the M4 listed at $99.99 and the 840 (non-pro) is $89.99. Should I just go ahead and grab the M4, even though it's technically a bit slower (compared to newer SSDs) and older, or is it worth spending a bit more money on a Vertex 4 or M5 Pro?

Thanks again.

Newegg promo link:

http://promotions.newegg.com/neemail...mepage-_-promo

[groberts101]

Originally Posted by goodwidp

Should I just go ahead and grab the M4, even though it's technically a bit slower (compared to newer SSDs) and older, or is it worth spending a bit more money on a Vertex 4 or M5 Pro?

Just depends on what you want out of it and what you're willing to spend for the potential time savings, is all. M4 ain't so bad if you rarely have heavier workloads or write alot of data.

Otherwise, there's a reason that it's marked down like that and performance will suffer.. not to mention you'll be driving a 2 year old model off the shelf as soon as you hit the buy button.

However, if you're just happy to have an SSD running your OS?.. however you decide to go there would be good enough for most and you'll still get the same overall experience from any in the lot.

[Coup27]

It all depends on what is more important to you, $25 in your pocket or a faster newer SSD. If this is your first SSD, even a really old X25-M era SSD will seem amazingly fast compared to the HDD you're currently using. The obvious fact is, the more you spend, the faster the SSD will generally be. How noticeable this difference will be is subjective, it will show in benchmarks but unless you really hammer your system you are unlikely to notice the difference.

Only you can decide what to do next. I, personally, would not buy an m4. It's not bad, it's a good deal at $99 for what it is, but I know there are newer and faster drives out there like the Vertex 4 or the M5P.

You need to decide what you are comfortable spending and then select appropriately. I used my X25-M G2 for years and then sold it to an older work colleague who loves it. Think how long you will keep it in one of your machines for and what you could do with it after. If you're looking to keep it 3+ years then $25 isn't much and at least you are not driving a 2 year old model before you even start.

[goodwidp]

Great advice everyone. I really appreciate the input.

This is my first SSD so I think regardless of which model I end up going with, I'm going to definitely notice an improvement. However, I'm also a pretty avid PC user/geek and I want the best possible products that I can afford. As nice as the M4 deal is, I think you (Coup27) made some great points about spending a little bit more $ to ensure better long-term performance and reliability. Thanks again all.

[kmmatney]

"Crucial M4 is long in the tooth. Shorter warranty. Slower performance. Older controller and design. It's and old slow pig by today's standards.
It would be like buying last years model basically. Still a good drive."

As someone who has used by a Samsung 830 and a Crucial M4 side-by-side, I can say that there is no real-life difference in speed. The Samsung 830s benchmark a little higher, but that just doesn't show up in normal usage. They are both really fast. I have 2 x 256GB Samsung SSDs in my Core i7 laptop, and a 256 Crucial M4 in my home rig, but at one point had the Curical in my laptop. They perform equally as far as I can tell.

[Hallo32]

Replace the Vertex4 with the Vector.
The M4 is old and has a few week points but will do the job as long you are not want the highest AS-SSD score.
The 840 non pro has it week point at the write performance, depend of your use case you should think about it. TLC is still a unknown point, if you are using the SSD a long time.

[goodwidp]

Thanks for the PM dlock1. I can't reply to you because I'm a new user, so this is my only option to respond. I'll gladly take a look at the link you mentioned. Thanks again. Much appreciated.

[Mfusick]

Originally Posted by goodwidp

Newegg has a promo going with the M4 listed at $99.99 and the 840 (non-pro) is $89.99. Should I just go ahead and grab the M4, even though it's technically a bit slower (compared to newer SSDs) and older, or is it worth spending a bit more money on a Vertex 4 or M5 Pro?

Thanks again.

Newegg promo link:

http://promotions.newegg.com/neemail...mepage-_-promo

No you should not choose the slower Crucial M4 over the better Samsung and Vertex4.

That's a poor choice.

[Mfusick]

I would never pay more for a Crucial.

I'd probably pay $20 more to choose a VERTEX4 or Samsung actually instead.

Crucial would make sense under $60. Otherwise- it's pure over rated.

Would you pay sticker price for last years model car ? What if the new one had better gas mileage, and engine improvements and features?

You'd want a discount on the old model right????

Well Vertex4 and Samsung both have pretty significant controller improvements. Both controllers are much newer and better than the older Crucial. Both drives boast better performance because of that.

Nothing wrong with a Crucial but paying $10 more for it at this point seems like a silly choice.

[poohbear]

The reality is u won't notice an iota of difference in performance between this 2012 model SSDs & 2011 SSDs. But i certainly wouldn't go out & pay more for the older gen SSDs, that just doesn't make any sense.

[goodwidp]

Thanks very much for the continued replies. I'm getting close to pulling the trigger on one of these drives.

I noticed a thread about OCZ on here and was wondering if that should change my thinking on purchasing the V4 (or any OCZ drive for that matter).

Link: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2275812

Basically it mentions that OCZ is struggling financially, so the worry becomes not having a warranty honored if anything were to happen to the drive in the next 5 years and the company is no longer around. I realize the info in the thread is pretty much all speculation, but it was enough to make me hesitant about making the purchase. Does anyone think that's something to be genuinely concerned about or is it nothing? Thanks again.