3 questions from a SSD noob (yes I read the sticky).

Barfo

Lifer
Jan 4, 2005
27,539
212
106
1. Would a SSD be a good upgrade for me? I don't plan to upgrade my CPU until next year and thought the SSD upgrade would be nice until then.


2. Which one should I get? I plan to spend $130 at the most, but preferably closer to $100. According to my research I should be able to get a decent 60 GB drive for this amount.
Since I know very little about SSD specs, I searched newegg for popular items with lots of reviews, I came up with these two:

Voted "Best of the Best" by Maximum PC magazine

Highest Score for a SSD ever tested-ThinkComputers

Both are OCZ, 60GB and cost the same. One is Vertex 2, the other Agility 2. Are these good drives? Which one is better? Is there a cheaper model that will get me good performance?


3. What sort of durability can I expect from a drive like this? it is intended for home use only.


Thanks.
 

boochi

Senior member
May 21, 2011
983
0
0
Get the Vertex 2. Upgrading to a SSD will be the most noticeable upgrade you will ever make. The responsiveness of them is amazing. If you follow some of the guides on setup you will minimize writes to the drive and it should last several times as long as any spinner on the market.
 

nanaki333

Diamond Member
Sep 14, 2002
3,772
13
81
1. an SSD will even make an atom based nettop tolerable, so with your cpu, it would be an excellent upgrade

2. get the vertex if it's the same price. higher iops

3. durability on sandforce drives is a mixed back. some people have had them running for a year+, others get doa ones, while some people have them fail after a month with the dreaded not detected by bios

you could always try a 40GB intel drive
 

Elixer

Lifer
May 7, 2002
10,371
762
126
For any drive, be it a SSD or a HD, make sure you make frequent backups.

BTW, while performance does jump for many things, there are still things that negate the speed advantage of the SSD. Most people think that if you get a SSD, then you will have a "instant on" machine, and that just isn't the case.
 

Voo

Golden Member
Feb 27, 2009
1,684
0
76
3. durability on sandforce drives is a mixed back. some people have had them running for a year+, others get doa ones, while some people have them fail after a month with the dreaded not detected by bios
Neither DOA nor deadlocked drives have anything to do with durability (durability != compatibility). Basically you either have hardware that's compatible with SF drives and fw XYZ or you don't - and in the second case you have a problem.
So better to make a quick google search for the MB and see if something comes up for the newest fw or not - that should at least reduce the risk.
 

nanaki333

Diamond Member
Sep 14, 2002
3,772
13
81
Neither DOA nor deadlocked drives have anything to do with durability (durability != compatibility). Basically you either have hardware that's compatible with SF drives and fw XYZ or you don't - and in the second case you have a problem.
So better to make a quick google search for the MB and see if something comes up for the newest fw or not - that should at least reduce the risk.

sorry.. i mistook that for reliability. if i have to sit around and roll the dice each time i turn on my computer to see if my drive will be detected or not, i tend to avoid those drives. my statement had nothing to do with compatibility. search this section of the forum alone and you'll find plenty of people with issues with their SF drives that stop being detected in their bios.


OP, you can check out the C300, which is also a great drive. 64GB is only $99 right now.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820148357

and i have had almost all ocz brand drives in my possession rma'd at least once in their lifetime, some within months of owning. but like i said, others have had them going for 1+ year with no problem. others even on this forum, which can be done with a search, turns up similar problems with drives just up and not being detected.
 
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shortylickens

No Lifer
Jul 15, 2003
80,287
17,080
136
BUMP!

Whats the best quality drive in the 100-128 range? I dont care about speed especially cuz I've only got SATA II. I just want the most sturdy, high quality storage for my OS and main apps. I realized too late that 30gigs before formatting with Windows 7 is NOT enough. I had to kill Hibernation and move the swap to my 1TB drive, which is ironic cuz lots of people use their terabyte for everything except the swap file, which is on their 30GB SSD.

Anands reviews are good but they tend to focus more on speed than reliability so I need help from yous guys.
Price is not a huge issue provided its not extreme.
 

WaTaGuMp

Lifer
May 10, 2001
21,207
2,506
126
BUMP!

Whats the best quality drive in the 100-128 range? I dont care about speed especially cuz I've only got SATA II. I just want the most sturdy, high quality storage for my OS and main apps. I realized too late that 30gigs before formatting with Windows 7 is NOT enough. I had to kill Hibernation and move the swap to my 1TB drive, which is ironic cuz lots of people use their terabyte for everything except the swap file, which is on their 30GB SSD.

Anands reviews are good but they tend to focus more on speed than reliability so I need help from yous guys.
Price is not a huge issue provided its not extreme.

Intel drives seem to be the best for being reliable.
 

aceO07

Diamond Member
Nov 6, 2000
4,491
0
76
HOLY CRAP!

2-3 dollars a fucking gig!

The Intel 320 SSD 120GB is $210. There's a 10% coupon for SSD from Newegg. So the price is about $190, $1.60/GB.

edit: Nevermind, the 10% is linked to email. However, if you're a new newegg customer you can save $10.
 
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shortylickens

No Lifer
Jul 15, 2003
80,287
17,080
136
yeah. i just posted that. $99 for 64GB is a sweet deal. sata3 if he decides to upgrade or throw a sata3 controller in there later too.

I hate controller cards, and by the time I get a new motherboard I will probably spring for a big fat SSD.
 

Voo

Golden Member
Feb 27, 2009
1,684
0
76
my statement had nothing to do with compatibility. search this section of the forum alone and you'll find plenty of people with issues with their SF drives that stop being detected in their bios.
Well reliability includes compatibility so now that statement is correct, but still I don't see why we should widen the field when the problem is pretty much limited to one narrow field. Or would you like to elaborate how SF drives not being detected (/deadlocked) by some particular kinds of HW (or only with some particular features) is not solely a compatibility problem with the aforementioned hardware?
The thing is, if you have a MB (and drivers) that's compatible with SF drives you won't have any problems with it, if you don't - well we all have seen enough posts about that.
 

WaTaGuMp

Lifer
May 10, 2001
21,207
2,506
126
I personally wouldn't take the chance on a OCZ drive, the failure rate scares me. I don't normally follow reviews from people over at newegg, but its hard not to notice the amount saying they are getting drives that fail. Too many 1 star reviews for me.
 

Barfo

Lifer
Jan 4, 2005
27,539
212
106
I personally wouldn't take the chance on a OCZ drive, the failure rate scares me. I don't normally follow reviews from people over at newegg, but its hard not to notice the amount saying they are getting drives that fail. Too many 1 star reviews for me.

Noted. So now I'm looking at $100 for a 40GB Intel drive, which doesn't seem to be enough, $150 for 80GB is over my budget :(

I shouldn't of added the Crucial in the mix since it is SATA 3.

What's wrong with that?
 

WaTaGuMp

Lifer
May 10, 2001
21,207
2,506
126
Noted. So now I'm looking at $100 for a 40GB Intel drive, which doesn't seem to be enough, $150 for 80GB is over my budget :(



What's wrong with that?

I believe the SATA 3 are higher in price, but I could be wrong.
 

rbk123

Senior member
Aug 22, 2006
747
350
136
Monitor the Hot Deals forum. The Kingston 96GB V+100 seems to show up frequently for $99-129 after rebate. I picked up one and it rocks. Other SSD deals pop up as well.
 

WaTaGuMp

Lifer
May 10, 2001
21,207
2,506
126
nah. the 64GB c300 is only $99. he can run it just fine in sata2. the 64GB doesn't run much faster than what sata2 offers for read speed anyway.


looks like the price just went up. it's amazing what waiting 24 hours to make a purchase at newegg does. price went up $15 :( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-357-_-Product

It has been said that newegg has built in sales monitoring, when something starts to sell a lot the price jumps. Of course this could be just rumors, but it did happen with the 6850 video cards when I was shopping for mine.