Best SSD for Ma & Pa?

[EliteRetard]

Around $100 (regular online price).

Reliability/durability is probably the most important.

2011 Intel X-25M (60GB)
2012 Crucial M4, Samsung 830, or Intel (60GB)
2013?
2014?
2015 Crucial MX100 256GB

What is the SSD to buy today for computer illiterate people (use it like a HDD)?
Boost the speed of that slow laptop, or the old office PC...or for a new relatively budget build?

I've been asking every year because I find it interesting. Does anybody recall the best $100 SSD from 2013? What about for 2014? Probably the 128GB 840 EVO. When did the MX100 come out, I'm listing it for 2015 because it seems recent and should be a good budget choice for all of next year.

 

[corkyg]

Yes and no. You last sentence slants me toward "no." SSDs are terrific performers, but they do require maintenance, and are probably less tolerant of abuse than a conventi9onal drive.

Assume they are running Win7? Assume this is a desktop?

 

[Zap]

If they are running Win7, why not? I actually think an SSD is great for average users. Can't tell you how many times my mom called me saying there was something wrong with her system, when basically it just needed a reboot because she clicked way too many times on her email icon since it didn't come up right away. Hasn't happened since I switched her to an SSD because it pops up pretty much immediately.

 

[EliteRetard]

If they are running Win7, why not? I actually think an SSD is great for average users. Can't tell you how many times my mom called me saying there was something wrong with her system, when basically it just needed a reboot because she clicked way too many times on her email icon since it didn't come up right away. Hasn't happened since I switched her to an SSD because it pops up pretty much immediately.

Yeah, this is pretty much what Im looking at...so what reccomendations are there? Im talking new systems, so yes Win7. I built allot of computers for lots of people and many of them could benefit from an SSD. If the manufacturers werent so insane Id probably have some idea what to look for, but when theres thousands of options from the same brand Im rather lost.

And since they are average users (at best) Id like something that can take care of itself. Ive heard some fix themselves just by sitting around so it wont matter when they download stupid junk or delete a bunch of old emails or pdf files or whatever. A longer life span would be usefull, like my dad still uses his 486 and the Pentium 2 I built him (though he has a more modern system too). If it can go like 5 years at least...

 

[TemjinGold]

How much are you looking to spend and how much space do you need?

 

[taltamir]

Yes and no. You last sentence slants me toward "no." SSDs are terrific performers, but they do require maintenance, and are probably less tolerant of abuse than a conventi9onal drive.

what do you mean by maintenance? define abuse?
SSD are much more durable than spindle drives, so I would say the opposite is true.

 

[Zap]

And since they are average users (at best) Id like something that can take care of itself. Ive heard some fix themselves just by sitting around so it wont matter when they download stupid junk or delete a bunch of old emails or pdf files or whatever.

You'll need to have someone run Disk Cleanup (comes with Windows) periodically to delete old files. Otherwise "take care of itself" is garbage collection of deleted stuff. That's what Trim does. So, use Windows 7 and use drives which supports Trim (see the sticky for a list). After that, it is up to you to choose a drive which has the capacity the user needs at an appropriate price point.

 

[Emulex]

intel x25 - none of the bugs that sandforce/others have.

 

[EliteRetard]

Seems like there are plenty of options in the 100$ range...like I was saying, size shouldnt matter to much as long as it can hold an OS and some basic programs like word and email...and survive a computer n00b for a few years.

Does running antivirus wear on an SSD? Automatic updates? Installing/uninstalling lots of smaller files? What about downloading/watching video content online?

I dont know jack about SSDs myself, they are still to small and to expensive for my needs...but for some people 60GB is enough. (Id need 500GB at 200$ or less)

Only one I kinda know of are the Intel drives, though it sounds like they are no longer competitive. Though since their performance should still be much better than a HDD I guess performance isnt the main factor here.

 

[Emulex]

intel is like buying an intel cpu and intel chipset mobo. you know its just gonna work.

if you go with the other guys (amd/etc) you know its gonna be all heck. I can bust out my ancient p4 2.8 and load win7 on it without loading a single driver. I know you can't do the same with that old AMD athlon/sis chipset from days gone by.

speed is great - reliability is 100x greater

 

[corkyg]

what do you mean by maintenance? define abuse?
SSD are much more durable than spindle drives, so I would say the opposite is true.

They seem to be fussy about alignment, and the need for TRIM, etc. Seems like those who simply install and forget soon complain about decreased performance.

Most of the respondents in this Forum have no problem with that, but Ma and Pa Kettle might.

 

[taltamir]

They seem to be fussy about alignment

That is not quite true... ALL drives are fussy about alignment, no exceptions.
Windows XP correctly aligns 512B sector spindle drives. but incorrectly aligns 4kb sector spindle drives and SSDs. It isn't because of fussiness, its simply a matter of the expectations and assumptions the OS makes.
Win7 correctly aligns SSDs and 512B spindle drives, but I don't know if it does or doesn't correctly align 4kb spindle drives.
And lets not even start on RAID arrays (which often require special alignment considerations)
Every drive's partition has to be aligned, the question is whether it is aligned correctly or not. Misalignment only results in decreased performance.

This is neither maintenance nor durability, it is a onetime setup difficulty (which is eliminated entirely by simply using a modern enough OS to be automated) that at WORST will decrease performance while STILL being faster than a spindle drive.

and the need for TRIM

This is neither maintenance nor durability, it is a onetime setup difficulty (which is eliminated entirely by simply using a modern enough OS to be automated) that at WORST will decrease performance while STILL being faster than a spindle drive.

etc.

The only thing I can think of in etc is the "disable defrag" which:

This is neither maintenance nor durability, it is a onetime setup difficulty (which is eliminated entirely by simply using a modern enough OS to be automated) that at WORST will decrease performance while STILL being faster than a spindle drive.

Seems like those who simply install and forget soon complain about decreased performance.

1. not on win7.
2. even degraded, SSDs vastly outperform spindle drives... modern SSDs are 2-3 times faster sequentially and 100 times faster in random access. They degrade to 1/2 to 2/3 their initial speed depending on the model (with TRIM to 99% with GC to ~90% of initial speed)
3. Alignment has nothing to do with degradation, only TRIM... and frankly this isn't too different than performance degradation on spindle disks due to fragmentation (they are actually very, very similar).
Spindle disk performance degrades, defrag keeps it at peak performance, windows 7 automatically defrags.
SSD performance degrades, TRIM keeps it at peak performance, windows 7 automatically TRIMs.

 

[Voo]

They seem to be fussy about alignment, and the need for TRIM, etc. Seems like those who simply install and forget soon complain about decreased performance.

Most of the respondents in this Forum have no problem with that, but Ma and Pa Kettle might.

A standard install of Win7 (which is what the average user who surely wouldn't restore images would do/have) will have the correct alignment and TRIM available (since the standard MS drivers do support it).
So I don't see how that'd be much of a problem. If they need a more sophisticated install they will need someone to do that anyhow and this person should know that stuff.

That is not quite true... ALL drives are fussy about alignment, no exceptions.

But different drives have quite different performance losses when not being aligned - Intel drives lose much less performance than SF ones.

 

[GarfieldtheCat]

intel x25 - none of the bugs that sandforce/others have.

++

SSD's are fine, X25 has good performance, just below the best drives, and has been out a long time and has a good track record now.

 

[Emulex]

my misaligned intel x25-m 80gb (full) seems to smoke the sandforce drives aligned (empty) - search my threads for posted benchmarks. I thought alignment put a world of hurt on the drives? guess not.

 

[lmccrary]

My Vertex 2 is the best component I've ever purchased.

 

[EliteRetard]

So a year later, have the reccomendations changed at all? Whats the best SSD for ma, pa, or granny?

Cost is still a concern like say around 100$, but size isnt much of an issue. AHCI then Win7 and just let it do its thing...treated like any regular old HDD.

Hopefully it doesnt bother anyone that Im bumping this. I think I may wan't to ask again in another year as well.

 

[Soulkeeper]

for $100 or less you can get a 64GB drive by samsung, crucial, or one of the sandforces (60GB)
you might even be able to get a 90GB ocz/corsair/mushkin SSD on sale ($139 on newegg now)

I suggest either the 830 samsung or the crucial M4
but generally no one drive is a horrible choice imo.

 

[N4g4rok]

My Vertex 2 is the best component I've ever purchased.

They're great while they work, but just keep some back ups in case it decides to give out.

since Ma & Pa dont even need drive size (they can store photos and junk on another drive) wouldnt an SSD be great for them?

I'm working on the same thing for a customer now. Even though i've been lucky with sandforce drives, i would not want to risk getting a bad egg for someone else's build. They're looking for roughly the same use as you are and i've put in an Intel SSD, mainly because of their good track record and 5 year warranty.

 

[Silenus]

My mom lives with a friend of hers and they share a computer. I built it a few years ago and it has a Core 2 Duo E7500 CPU with a 500GB caviar black. Not bad for their basic usage scenarios. Email web, a lot of greeting card creation, and some basic photo editing. Thing is they only use maybe 50GB space and I also set up a vm on the machine for a certain older app to run in an xp vm. The machine was feeling a little sluggish and they would be waiting on the hard drive lots of times even with their use. So I got them an 80GB Intel 320 series. Converted the machine over to that and it's like brand new machine again, except better. It's snappy and responsive and can run an XP vm with little impact on the rest of the system now. It will definitely extend the useful life of the rest of the machine since they really dont need much in the way of processing power.

Funny thing now even my mom has an SSD and I STILL don't have one in my own machine!

 

[exdeath]

Intel, Crucial, etc.

eg: Something that doesn't necessarily win benchmarks but will provide years of problem free use.

 

[exdeath]

They're great while they work, but just keep some back ups in case it decides to give out.

This should always be true regardless.

Especially for us enthusiasts who more than likely came from Raptor RAID 0s etc and are naturally used to having backups and not trusting our C drives

 

[Obsoleet]

Intel, Crucial or Samsung

 

[zCypher]

Undoubtedly yes. Another vote for Intel, Crucial or Samsung. Then again I got my mom the Vertex3 and it has been great. She is no techie but even to her the difference is day and night, she will never go back to a regular hdd now and complains how slow the computers at work are.

 

[zuffy]

Maintenance for SSD? If anything, it's less maintenance than spindle.