Help me pick a good SSD, around 200 GB

[Shmee]

Hey, so I am thinking of getting an SSD soon, but I need it to be able to fit most if not all of my games as well as boot. So, I was considering the adata s599 256 GB model.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-472-_-Product

What I like is that it appears to have good performance, (It has a Sandforce controller I assume?) and it is cheaper than most other SSD's over 200 GB.

Any problems with it? Any other recomendations? Looking to get a good 200 GB or greater SSD for as cheap as possible, and it needs to be GOOD (Trim support, stable, good performance)

 

[FishAk]

One thing to consider is that, since games load sequentially, putting them on an SSD isn't that much better than a good HDD. There is some improvement, but you have to decide for yourself wither that small performance gain warrants the extra expense.

That said, the larger SSDs are generally faster than the smaller ones, due to more channels. Also, if you have a SATA III controller, you might benefit from the Crucial C300 with it's high sequential speeds.

Since the Intel drives have been out so long, they are considered the most reliable. The C300 has the fastest sequential speeds, but it falls a bit when it has to deal with small files- like the OS files. Sandforce based drives, and in particular, the Vertex 2, with it's Sandforce supported special firmware, are the fastest all-around SSDs. In addition, all the available evidence points to the Sandforce drives, as the only SSDs that can be completely filled to capacity without suffering write amplification, and performance loss. All other SSDs need an extra 10 to 20 percent of unused space reserved, above the stock over provisioning.

You can see this thread for more on this topic.

With the stock over provisioning of the SF1200 controller on the A-Data link you provided, the usable space of that disk would be 238Gb.

 

[Shmee]

really? I was under the impression that an SSD did wonders for load times. Even so, a good SSD (around 250 MB/s read) would still load faster than my 2 samsung 750 GB raid 0 (around 135 MB/s average)

also, if you checked my sig, you will see that I have the original UD5, with no Sata 3 controller :C

Anyways, looks like sandforce is the way to go. Just wanted to make sure that this was a decent drive and has no problems like weird crippling firmware.

 

[FishAk]

I didn't say there would be no improvement, only that the improvement with games- which load sequentially- wouldn't be huge.

A set of high density HDDs in RAID 0 would come close to, if not beat an SSD in sequential opperations. The price/Gb for the array would be far less than an SSD. A single WD Caviar Black 1Tb drive with about 130Mb/s for sequential R/W is fully half the speed of the fastest SSDs. By keeping games in the outer edge of the disks, one can take advantage of the fastest performance the HDD has to offer. So even with a single high density drive, the load time for a game could only be cut in half at best. With the OS on an SSD, it's doubtful one could perceive a difference between playing games from an SSD or a good HDD set in RAID 0.

Where SSDs have the huge advantage, is their nearly nonexistent access time. For small files, an SSD is many times faster than a HDD.

 

[billyb0b]

sandforce controlled drives are speedy. though i've never heard anything about a-data the brand. neither positive or negative. for that reason i would stay away, personally, if spending that much cash

intel, ocz, corsair, kingston, all make nice ssd's

 

[flamenko]

I would advise the OWC Mercury Extreme Pro RE if you can afford it. They have an excellent rep from all reviewers and customers alike. Also, as I have played JC2 on both HD and SSD, I can state from personal experience that I havent got the time to get chips and pop in between scene transitions any longer eheheh.

 

[jjmIII]

This seems like a deal...OCZ Agility 2 180gb

 

[Shmee]

not bad, was looking for a bit larger though, and the adata I posted seems a bit faster too. And also, 2.5 inch would be nice.

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

Load times with games on SSDs do not improve very much. As in, they do improve, but only ever by a few seconds, from, say, 30 seconds down to 25 or 24. Whether that extra 5-6s is worth going from a medium where it costs about 50c-$1 for the space for the game to a medium where it costs $20-$40 for the space to put the same game...well, that is up to you.

 

[FishAk]

Also, as I have played JC2 on both HD and SSD, I can state from personal experience that I havent got the time to get chips and pop in between scene transitions any longer eheheh.

Is the only variable having the game proper loaded on the various mediums? Or was the OS also on the different drives? I don't have personal experience with games, so I don't know from first hand experience.

If in both cases the OS was on an SSD, and only the game was on a HHD, compared to being on an SSD, than it would show that games can benefit immensely from being on an SSD.

If the OS with game was on an SSD, compared to OS with game being on a HDD, this says nothing about games.

If the first is true, the game reads enough small files during scene transitions to make a big difference.

 

[jjmIII]

And also, 2.5 inch would be nice.

Hmmm, did not see that...might be the first 3.5" I've seen.

 

[bad_monkey]

Hmmm, did not see that...might be the first 3.5" I've seen.

Yeah, I was just asking myself the other day why they don't make 3.5" SSD's. Well, I guess it turns out that they do.

 

[flamenko]

You have to be careful though because there are manufacturers where the 3.5" version is not up to specs with the 2.5" version.

 

[jjmIII]

You have to be careful though because there are manufacturers where the 3.5" version is not up to specs with the 2.5" version.

The OCZ looks to be same as a 2.5" ....but the new OCZ's kinda scare me...lots of RMA complaints it seems.

 

[Cable God]

I would advise the OWC Mercury Extreme Pro RE if you can afford it. They have an excellent rep from all reviewers and customers alike. Also, as I have played JC2 on both HD and SSD, I can state from personal experience that I havent got the time to get chips and pop in between scene transitions any longer eheheh.

Yep. We run OWC in our MBP's, Mac Pros, iMacs, and the Pro RE editions in hardware RAID in servers with no issues at all. The 5 year replacement guarantee of the Pro RE is very nice.