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Intel 330 180GB SSD versus Samsung 830 128GB

B

blackrain

Golden Member
A couple weeks after I bought the Samsung 830 (128GB) for a really good price, Newegg came out with the Intel 330 (180GB) for $99. I bit on the Intel 330 (couldn't help it because of the additional space).

Throw into the mix the fact that I also have a Crucial M4 that is opened but hasn't been used for more than 2 days.

So what do I do with this mess?

I checked the benchmarks here but don't entirely understand the differences:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/589?vs=532

Currently, I have the following setup:
785GT-E63 mobo
AMD B55 with 4 cores unlocked
4GB memory

(1) I like the Intel 330 for the extra space and I have a feeling that I won't get a Samsung 830 256 at this point based on the limited availability

(2) As far as I can tell, I won't really get as much benefit out of the Samsung (over the Intel) based on the old motherboard that I have

(3) Not likely to upgrade my system for another year or 2 (possibly in May-June 2013 at the earliest)

(4) I am thinking of selling the samsung 830 on ebay

(5) One additional consideration: Can I RAID the Samsung and the Crucial even though they are different drives? Will that work with TRIM? And then use the Intel 330 as a storage drive? What would you do?
 
I would keep the Intel and sell the other two

Can I RAID the Samsung and the Crucial even though they are different drives?
Click to expand...
No, raid drives need to be identical, and it'd give you no benefit anyway
 
I will see how much I can fetch on a barely used Crucial M4 128GB on the For Sale/Trade section of this forum and ebay. If I can get the majority of my money back, then i'll go with the sale. Otherwise, i will keep it as an overflow drive (but will need an adapter kit for it). I guess I will just sell the Samsung 830 outright. I think I paid $110 for the Crucial M4.
 
I am not sure why you would sell the Samsung, it is the best out of all 3. The 830 has been out for ages and has been virtually bullet proof in reliability and one of the fastest SSDs of it's generation. I simply do not trust SSDs with current Sandforce controllers and Crucial's m4, while a solid drive, is outpaced by the 830.
 
Coup27 said:
I am not sure why you would sell the Samsung, it is the best out of all 3. The 830 has been out for ages and has been virtually bullet proof in reliability and one of the fastest SSDs of it's generation. I simply do not trust SSDs with current Sandforce controllers and Crucial's m4, while a solid drive, is outpaced by the 830.
Click to expand...

I opened the Crucial already (got it many moons ago, but never set it up). So I am not sure what to do with it.

The biggest problem I have with the 830 is that I think its too small. I currently have 2 128GB drives in RAID, and I have been out of room for quite some time now. Of course, using the Crucial drive as well would add additional space.

So maybe it comes down to the Samsung 830 versus the Intel 330. I think I need to keep the Crucial because it is already open (although I will try to get an idea as to how much it is worth as barely used).

One thing to note. You say that the Crucial is outpaced by the Samsung 830. But I will really see that benefit with my current setup/mobo?
 
Sorry, I overlooked that you weren't comparing like for like capacities.

It's unlikely that you will notice any difference in real world usage between the m4 and the 830, but in tests the 830 is a faster drive.
 
lehtv said:
No, raid drives need to be identical, and it'd give you no benefit anyway
Click to expand...
Raid drives do not have to be identical. If the sizes are different, you're restricted to using the smallest drive as your maximum size.
If you use RAID0, you can get theoretically double the speeds.
Make sure you use Windows' disk management for setting up your RAID, or the array won't receive TRIM support.
 
Coup27 said:
Sorry, I overlooked that you weren't comparing like for like capacities.

It's unlikely that you will notice any difference in real world usage between the m4 and the 830, but in tests the 830 is a faster drive.
Click to expand...

I would take about a $30 loss if I sold the Crucial M4 now. Since there isn't likely to be any noticeable difference in real world usage, I can't really justify taking the loss on the Crucial. I should probably just hold onto it. The only thing that would make me think twice at this point is if there was some sort of reliability issue with the Crucial, but it sounds like the Marvell controller is great.

I will probably use the Crucial as my primary O/S drive as intended and make a decision at some later time about whether to use the Samsung or the Intel as a secondary storage drive. If I am keeping 2 drives, then maybe the extra space on the Intel drive becomes irrelevant.

I have to admit that I am very torn about this decision.

One last point: Its not clear to me how important the storage contents are. For example, I read on the Intel 330 review that the Sandforce controller is not good with photos and movies. So, the Intel 330 might not be good for an extra storage device. I would have to use the Intel for the O/S drive and the Crucial M4 for the extra storage for photos and movies. And that's probably where the Samsung will compete with the Intel for the O/S drive position
 
Last edited:
You will be hard pressed to detect any difference in performance among any of the modern SSD's without a synthetic benchmark.

A SSD can get slow as it reaches full, so a larger SSD will perform well for longer.

As to what to do:

SSD prices are dropping, and you will not get what they are worth.
Since you need space, find a way to install and use what you have.
If you have a laptop that can take one, do that. It will transform your laptop.

SSD's in raid-0 will win you some sequential benchmarks, but it really is not worth the bother from a performance point of view. For getting a larger single image, perhaps.
I have not tried it, but I think there are software raid(JBOD) options to gather several drives into a single image.
 
What drives/storage do you have now and what do you need? You should use an SSD as your OS drive. I think the Samsung 830 is the best out of all of those if you can make do with only 128GB (which is easy for an OS drive if you have another drive for media/storage). If you have an HDD/array for media/storage, sell the other two SSD's (M4 and 330) and start saving towards your new system. I'm normally a big fan of Intel drives, but the SandForce controller would make me nervous. The Crucial M4 also has some negative idiosyncrasies and since it has no space advantage over the 830, I'd use the 830.
 
MrK6 said:
What drives/storage do you have now and what do you need? You should use an SSD as your OS drive. I think the Samsung 830 is the best out of all of those if you can make do with only 128GB (which is easy for an OS drive if you have another drive for media/storage). If you have an HDD/array for media/storage, sell the other two SSD's (M4 and 330) and start saving towards your new system. I'm normally a big fan of Intel drives, but the SandForce controller would make me nervous. The Crucial M4 also has some negative idiosyncrasies and since it has no space advantage over the 830, I'd use the 830.
Click to expand...

I have been reading through all the Intel forums and I don't see any problems with their Sandforce controllers going back over a year. That seems like sufficient time to show if there were any problems with the controller. What I do see are problems with other things that all seem to be fixable and have nothing to do with the controller.
 
blackrain said:
I would take about a $30 loss if I sold the Crucial M4 now. Since there isn't likely to be any noticeable difference in real world usage, I can't really justify taking the loss on the Crucial. I should probably just hold onto it. The only thing that would make me think twice at this point is if there was some sort of reliability issue with the Crucial, but it sounds like the Marvell controller is great.

I will probably use the Crucial as my primary O/S drive as intended and make a decision at some later time about whether to use the Samsung or the Intel as a secondary storage drive. If I am keeping 2 drives, then maybe the extra space on the Intel drive becomes irrelevant.

I have to admit that I am very torn about this decision.

One last point: Its not clear to me how important the storage contents are. For example, I read on the Intel 330 review that the Sandforce controller is not good with photos and movies. So, the Intel 330 might not be good for an extra storage device. I would have to use the Intel for the O/S drive and the Crucial M4 for the extra storage for photos and movies. And that's probably where the Samsung will compete with the Intel for the O/S drive position
Click to expand...

as I understand Sandforce SSDs, only when you store ONLY movies and photos will the performance slow down. Otherwise the typical mix of data is going to scream on them.
 
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