A fast, reliable SSD for $200-$300

[Smartazz]

I'm looking for a fast and reliable SSD between $200 and $300. There are so many choices and I don't want to be saddled with a dead SSD. Does anyone have any recommendations between $200 and $300? Closer to $300 is fine if it yields good improvements over an SSD closer to $200. Thanks in advance.

Edit: I forgot to mention that I have a sata ii motherboard, but i'll be going with Ivy Bridge early next year. Id prefer size over speed and I don't care about benchmark numbers, I care more about real world speed. I also have a 3.2GHz Q6600 at the moment, but it'll be replaced by Ivy Bridge i7 when it comes out.

Here are a few choices I've come up with so far:

Intel 320 Sereis 160GB SSD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820167054

Crucial M4 128GB:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820148448

Kingston HyperX 120GB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820139601

A-Data 256GB SSD:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820211530


Samsung 830 Series:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820147134

 

[Kenmitch]

SATA III MB?
Preference for speed or size?
Benchmark numbers freak?

Intel, Crucial, Samsung make good SSD's

Most people say Intel for reliability.

 

[Smartazz]

I forgot to mention that I have a sata ii motherboard, but i'll be going with Ivy Bridge early next year. Id prefer size over speed and I don't care about benchmark numbers, I care more about real world speed.

 

[Coup27]

I'd go with a Samsung 830. Im upgrading from Clarkdale and H55 to Sandybridge and Z68 next week and I'm also going Samsung 830.

 

[Smartazz]

Thanks for the suggestion. Looks like a pretty good SSD. I'll add it to my list of options.

 

[Coup27]

I'd remove the 470 from your shortlist. The 830 is the successor to the 470 and I would expect the 470 to dissapear soon.

 

[Smartazz]

Good call, removed it. The fact that the 830 comes with Arkham City makes it even more attractive.

 

[Coup27]

It also comes with the most polished SSD Toolbox program out of all the SSD manufactures. Intels is also good but the Samsung one has the most features.

Crucial do not even have a Toolbox and the OCZ one looks like the UI was designed in paint.

Intel 320 is only SATA 3Gbps which will be a shame when you move over to Ivy Bridge that you're not maxing out your new SATA 6Gbps system.

That brings your decision IMO between the 830 or the Kingston, which is a Sandforce 2281 drive. Sandforce have had huge reliability problems over the years and whilst word is their latest firmware fixes the serious problem on their current 6Gbps drives, I would still go with Samsung.

 

[Smartazz]

Thanks for the advice. I won't have any problems using a SATA II motherboard with the Samsung 830 or any other SATA III drive right?

 

[Coup27]

No problems at all. All SATA drives are backward compatible. Buying 6Gbps now just means it'll run at 3Gbps speeds on your current rig, but then when you swap to Ivy Bridge it'll run at 6Gbps. No sense in buying a 3Gbps drive.

 

[Smartazz]

I wonder if the 256GB drive is worth the extra money. $400 is tough to stomach for an SSD though but maybe it'll be worth it in the long run.

 

[Coup27]

Speed wise there isn't much difference between the two sizes, nothing that you would notice outside of benchmarks. You could always get 128GB and if you need more in the long run, buy another? Also spreading the cost that way.

 

[Smartazz]

Good call. If I put another 128GB in RAID 0 someday, would garbage collection still work?

 

[TemjinGold]

No.

 

[Cerb]

Good call. If I put another 128GB in RAID 0 someday, would garbage collection still work?

Garbage collection is always working. At least, counters are waiting to reach a limit to kick in a garbage collection pass, for most drives. GC is just part of the process of moving and dynamically remapping your data, to facilitate long life of the flash.

TRIM won't work in RAID, at least not right now, but it's more of a nice to have feature, not a necessity. TRIM effectively increases short-term over-provision, making life easier on the SSD, since the SSD normally cannot natively figure out what is free space and what is not. The real long-term effects are minimal, outside of stress-testing benchmarks, though, so nothing to worry over.

 

[Coup27]

Good call. If I put another 128GB in RAID 0 someday, would garbage collection still work?

Yes garbage collection will still work.

Intel have already said they are close to getting TRIM working in RAID so in 6 months time if you did get a second drive you should be able to RAID0 and have TRIM & GC.

 

[Smartazz]

Another SSD I didn't consider was the Corsair Force GT:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820233211

It's a bit more money, but 180GB looks nice.

 

[peonyu]

Another SSD I didn't consider was the Corsair Force GT:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820233211

It's a bit more money, but 180GB looks nice.

I have the 180 GT, it is a great drive and Ive had no issues with it so far. But you say you want reliable - most SSDs, even OCZ are reliable with the exception of 5% of drives going bad in OCZs case. And then there is Intel...If you want absolute reliability [as close as you can get], then buy a Intel SSD. They cost slightly more, and are slower than a GT but they are the industry SSD leaders for reliability so far.

 

[pinkfloyd48]

I just picked up the Samsung 128gb 830 series and loving it. Plus I got Batman AC for free.

 

[Smartazz]

Thought I'd update this thread. I ended up spending the money on a 2500k and a z68 motherboard to replace the q6600. I may still get a nice SSD for it and use my current SSD as a cache. Is a 64gb SSD cache a good idea with a larger, faster boot SSD?

 

[Kenmitch]

Thought I'd update this thread. I ended up spending the money on a 2500k and a z68 motherboard to replace the q6600. I may still get a nice SSD for it and use my current SSD as a cache. Is a 64gb SSD cache a good idea with a larger, faster boot SSD?

You did pick a MB for it's overclocking potential and not the price I'm hoping. Alot of people shop by price then are somewhat dissapointed by the lack of voltage controlls, etc.

Depening on your usage and the amount of space you'd require to go all SSD it's hard to know if you'd even need to use the SRT at all. If you just use a HDD for storage such as movies etc. then I'd think that SRT wouldn't be of much use. Might be of better use for other things like programs, games, etc.

I'd think that a 256gb SSD deal around $300 should be doable in the near future. Might not be the latest and greatest as far as speed goes but something like the M4's are pretty close already depending on the seller.

 

[Smartazz]

My plan is to use something like a 128GB boot drive for the OS and programs. The 64GB Cache SSD would be used to speed up load times in games.

 

[Ice_Dragon]

I'd remove the 470 from your shortlist. The 830 is the successor to the 470 and I would expect the 470 to dissapear soon.

Why do you say that? The 830 has only been out for about a month. It has some issues to go through. The 470 has a bit of a track record going.

 

[Coup27]

Why do you say that? The 830 has only been out for about a month. It has some issues to go through. The 470 has a bit of a track record going.

I understand that the 470 has been out a while and has a good record, however it is a 3Gbps drive in a world of 6Gbps. The 830 is the successor and I can't see the 470 still for sale in 6 months time. If the OP wants to keep this SSD for 2-3 years, it makes even less sense to go 3Gbps.

Also, what issues are known for the 830? I have just taken delivery of one myself. I thought my X25-M G2 was fast, this thing blows that out the water.

 

[Sinik]

i've been reading that what is important is the random read/write 4k bench results, and the rest is not important, dunno if this is true. so i'm a bit confused as i wanted to take a vertex 3 but i saw the bench results, and so in random 4k read, the crucials m4 and c300 score a LOT better in that (like double of the vertex 3) but, for all the other results of the bench, its the vertex 3 who scores a lot more(sometimes double) than crucials m4 and c300. so i'm really confused, i don't know what i should believe and why?

omg.... i've been reading articles and posts for some hours now and all i did was bring even more confusing in my head! now im also thinking of the intel, samsung and corsair

i don't fucking now what i should choose! everyone says something different...

i never had the money for it, but now i have it but i don't know what to spend it on!

ocz:
vertex 3?
vertex 3 max iops?
synapse cache?
intel:
??
crucial m4?
corsair force gt?
samsung?

please, can someone help me out...