Finally looking for a new SSD as well

[taq8ojh]

My Intel 320 (160GB version) died recently, and I seem to be getting my money back (bastards thought it was ok to try to sneak in 180GB 335 as valid RMA replacement without even asking my consent).
So, what do I with the money? The original SSD cost me about 240eur/$315.
I am mostly decided to get Samsung 840 Pro, 256GB version, but I also thought, what if there was something a little cheaper, maybe slightly slower, but still universally good (as in, not being horrible in specific situations), just like the Samsung?

 

[milee]

You could get the S3500 160GB for about EUR 170 or the 240GB for EUR 240. Both versions are faster than your 320.

 

[taq8ojh]

Anything will be faster than 320 But that's not exactly the way I was thinking

 

[taq8ojh]

Anyone tried the new Sandisk Extreme II by chance? Seems pretty fast and slightly cheaper than Samsung.

edit
Looks I misread. The II is not sold yet, at least not around here. What I saw was the first generation

 

[lehtv]

Can you link to a store where you're buying from?

 

[milee]

@lehtv

S3500 160GB (2.5''):
http://www.hardwarehouse.de/product_info.php?products_id=3416203

S3500 240GB (2.5""):
http://www.hardwarehouse.de/product_info.php?products_id=3416205

 

[Cerb]

^ What he said.

Still, consider the Crucial M500, Corsair Neutron series, and Plextor M5S. They're not quite as fast, but tend to be cheaper, and are solid drives. The Neutron and M500 are both specifically good drives for steady state and mixed read/write workloads. The M500 also has caps to help keep state sane on a bad shutdown, like your 320 did, if you consider that an important feature.

Thanks much to the fast caching, though, the Samsung 840 Evo, above 120GB, anyway, is a generally speedy drive, sometimes beating the 840 Pro.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2013/07/03/toshiba_thnsnh_256gb_ssd_review/8
But, the new cheap Toshiba isn't half bad, either. As a drive to recommend for not much money, its newness really is the only thing working against it.

 

[milee]

@Octopuss
What was the way you were thinking then?

 

[taq8ojh]

Basically I thought about something with all around good performance, just like 840 Pro, only a bit slower and similarly cheaper.

But I managed to find a store that has Sandisk Extreme II 240GB for less than 840 Pro, so I ordered that.

 

[hot120]

What exactly happened to the 320? How did it die? Was it the 8MB bug?

 

[taq8ojh]

Heh, wish I knew.
Right out of nowhere I got Windows error which I didn't write down in my idiocy (never saw anything like that before, but obviously it was disk related), and double that, I decided to keep on doing what I was doing, and maybe back some of the data on it later (little I knew the damn Synology backup software wasn't working). After some time everything froze, and when I restarted the PC, I couldn't boot anymore. When I plugged the SSD in another PC, it seemed to only have the 100MB partition on it (I didn't actually check its size), or something like that. I believe it wasn't the 8MB bug, but I am not sure really. When I looked at SMART attributes, there were some errors. Again, I was so incredibly stupid I didn't write that down either (seriously, wtf was I thinking?).

Long story short: WTF situation (and oh sh..!! as well, since I lost two months worth of stuff - not work, but still). Just for the laughs, even more WTF was the fact my wife's disk sort of died right when I started looking into fixing possibilities of the SSD.

 

[Jabrono]

Look at the Samsung EVO 250GB.

Generally, less expensive than the PRO and with RAPID mode enabled through software, it has record breaking performance.

http://www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconductor/minisite/SSD/uk/html/about/SSD840EVO.html

 

[Kallogan]

http://www.hardwarehouse.de/product...6GB-Toshiba-2-5---6-3cm--SATA-III-Retail.html

It's not famous but it's a damn balanced ssd, not that far from a 840 pro, look at this thread :

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2336796

 

[taq8ojh]

I am fairly happy with my choice.