Corsair or Intel SSD?

[allthatisman]

I am thinking about taking another stab at the newer SSD's. I was burned by the G skill Titan when it came out, but from what I've read the intel drive is as close to perfect as there currently is. There is also the p128 by corsair that has 128kb cache and a "self healing" ability... I was thinking either the corsair or the 160gb intel when they finally get around to releasing it. The intel drive is about $100 more for 40 more gigs... Worth it? Just wait a while?.... Thoughts? I am currently running a velociraptor 150 with zero issues and not much of an overall speed decrease from the Titan. I am just itching to spend some money, but not on a core i7 setup...

 

[shabby]

Go with the intel.

 

[allthatisman]

Thanks for the reply... I think I just needed to hear myself say it out loud... You think I should just wait until Windows 7 comes out and then get the SSD?

 

[n7]

Intel.

 

[betaflame]

I would wait on SSDs, there's going to be some price dropping in the next few weeks anyway

 

[jkresh]

betaflame, vertex and other Intel competitors should be dropping price, and as Intel drives become more available prices should get closer to msrp (and maybe below it vs above at the moment), but I think the general consensus here is that based on the price of flash/gb the drives can't drop in price much for a while (as with the new vertex prices the suspicion is that ocz may be paying more for the flash in the ssd then they are selling the drive for and that can't last very long).

So while waiting a few weeks for the prices to reflect the new drop (http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3608) might make sense, it is also possible that after that we will see steady or even rising prices for a few months (though I am sure that within a year prices will be down, probably substantially)

 

[alcoholbob]

If you are okay with low sequential write speeds, the Intel is a good drive. I'm not sure how well it will handle hibernate though given it is a sequential write operation.

You already have a VR which is a damn good drive. If you have patience OCZ will release a new SSD (the Colossus) which will be a 3.5" SSD that will max out SATAII bus (260MB/s read & write). The smaller drives will probably run around 80% as fast as the Intel with very high queue depth operations (assuming your usage habits emulate that of a server). The larger size (512GB and larger) will be 4 x OCZ Vertex drives stacked together. 16 memory channels (4 per Vertex) vs 10 (Intel X25-M) would mean Intel no longer has the IOPS advantage. OCZ's goal is to place the Colossus at the Vertex's current price points. If they pull this off the X25-M will be completely irrelevant (outclassed in every benchmark conceivable) and it will be interesting how Intel will respond.

 

[taltamir]

the intel competitors are CAREFULLY dropping prices just enough to NOT spark a price war. at least that what it looks like.
Overall i prefer the intel G2 at those prices, but the vertex at the new prices will have the sequential advantage, which under certain specific usages might be advantageous.

prices are ALWAYS dropping, you wait long enough and it will be the vertex 2 vs intel G3 on 22nm MLC. or the vertex 5 vs intel G6 while we are at it... at the next few weeks expect a lot of price gouging, whether you should buy or not depends on finding something in stock and in a good price.

 

[allthatisman]

As I read more about these newer drives it definitly seems like Intel, although very good, is not the standout best drive available. It was a "Ray of light" back when everything else besides samsung drives were using a jmicron controller, but now that has all changed. I really want to see how ssd's really perform on a windows 7 machine. At this point if it's under $500 I am willing to pay, so long as the drive WORKS!

 

[rcpratt]

Sure, when the X25-M G1 was released, all of the other drives were utter crap. It blew them away. The competition has improved somewhat now, but the X25-M G2 is really still the performance leader. The prices are similar to the competitions now, too.

Stuck my X25-M G2 160GB in last night. Awesome. I can even feel a slight difference from the G1.

 

[allthatisman]

Did you re-install Windows vista/7 or did you image-copy your old ssd? I understand a lot of people just do the latter, is that better/more convenient? If so, what program is the best?

 

[rcpratt]

I just reinstalled last night, but I have previously used Acronis True Image (trial software is available) to clone the disk. The latter is certainly more convenient, and I had no issues, but I felt like a fresh start last night.

 

[deputc26]

Agreed, X-25m G2 is still the overall performance leader, I recommend Intel.