Just bought an SSD without researching it... Too late?

[TurtleCrusher]

Either I'm getting older and lazier, or I blindly trust neweggs 2-year replacement plan. I've never purchased an SSD either.

I bought this 80GB OCZ Vertex 2 SSD Refurbished for $49.99. I have shoprunner, so it'll be a 2-day air. I'll be using this as an OS drive on my desktop and a light scratch disk for small conversions. Price is a major issue, and the wife said I could spend $50 on anything, and I did. Quickly.

Anand said that the drive was one of the best, in 2010, as the controller is Sandforce. Currently I have a 640GB WD Black AALS and a 1TB WD Blue. Will this SSD make my PC a ton more responsive? Was it bad to go refurbished? I did buy a two year replacement plan for $7 and I have several 250GB backup external HDDs.

 

[Blain]

Anything OCZ as well as refurbished SSD and HDs are on my do not buy list.
But there are people here that love OCZ.
It may work out just fine for you.

 

[Steltek]

My advice?

Develop a comprehensive backup regimen - you'll probably be glad you did. And, who knows, you might get lucky and have zero problems with it.

I wouldn't be holding my breath, though. . . .

 

[T_Yamamoto]

Its an older drive. I'm sure it'll be fine but beware of OCZ next time. Unless its using a controller other than sand force.

 

[Charlie98]

My advice?

Develop a comprehensive backup regimen - you'll probably be glad you did.

This is a good idea no matter who's drive you bought, not just OCZ.

I have an OCZ SSD, never had a problem with it and it's happily churning away in my HTPC; others have had oodles of problems with OCZ... luck of the draw.

Since $50 was your limit... plug it in and enjoy it!

 

[TurtleCrusher]

I hope it's good to go. The speeds look really good, especially considering my motherboard is SATA 2, so a faster SSD wouldn't show it's benefits on my system anyway.

I'm actually pretty excited to get this. Reading online it is said that Windows 7 only takes up 9-12GB when you disable page file and hibernation. So I'll have 60GB or so for data? That sems like enough for all essential apps (broswer, office, photoshop, steam (and source files), BF3 and enough for 20GB for scratch.

To do a backup, would it be wise to just clone the SSD often to a 120GB SATA 2.5" 5400RPM drive that I have laying around? Or is there something else that would be better?

 

[mfenn]

My advice?

Develop a comprehensive backup regimen - you'll probably be glad you did. And, who knows, you might get lucky and have zero problems with it.

I wouldn't be holding my breath, though. . . .

Pretty much this. The SSD has 3 strikes against it:

Refurbished - Strike 1
OCZ - Strike 2
Vertex 2 (Original Sandforce) - Strike 3

If this were baseball, he'd be out! Luckily there are do-overs as long as you have backups.

 

[mfenn]

To do a backup, would it be wise to just clone the SSD often to a 120GB SATA 2.5" 5400RPM drive that I have laying around? Or is there something else that would be better?

That's a totally fine plan since you have the spare drive. If anything goes wrong with the SSD, just boot from the HDD and you're back in business (albeit slowly).

 

[TurtleCrusher]

That's a totally fine plan since you have the spare drive. If anything goes wrong with the SSD, just boot from the HDD and you're back in business (albeit slowly).

I'll be doing this! Crossing my fingers it'll be good!

Edit: SSD's bite the dust quickly if they are going to, right?

 

[Blain]

Waiting a few days on your refurbed OCZ SSD purchase would have saved you 20% with Newegg's promo code EMCXVVM45

:'( Ouch!
Don't tell your wife

 

[TurtleCrusher]

God dammit... I would have got the 120GB if I'd have seen that. Heck, I'd probably have convinced the wife that the 180GB would be worth it.

Damn damn damn.....

 

[sm625]

The drive will work great! Until it dies! And it will die! So make sure you establish a regular backup routine. Ugh.

 

[Hubb1e]

You should backup anyways. I can't tell you how many times it's saved me.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Edit: SSD's bite the dust quickly if they are going to, right?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJirutSSRHQ

Sums up computer hardware quite well, IMO.

Read up on the bathtub curve:

http://www.weibull.com/hotwire/issue21/hottopics21.htm

 

[TurtleCrusher]

I've been researching a lot today on the reliability of the drive, and it seems like most deaths happened on earlier firmware versions, as hardly anyone in the past 9 months has been reporting deaths. Sales (and deals) have gone through the roof in the past 6 months for the Vertex 2 line of drives and deaths have barely been documented on forums compared to earlier.

It also appears as if most of the deaths were related to awakening from sleep mode, and the latest firmware addresses that issue.

 

[TurtleCrusher]

Just got it. Not DOA, had latest firmware on the drive. Very very fast! BF3 loaded in 25 seconds when it used to take 6 minutes! Everything loads and runs very fast.

Lets hope it lasts!

 

[Charlie98]

It also appears as if most of the deaths were related to awakening from sleep mode, and the latest firmware addresses that issue.

That's interesting... I haven't updated my Agility3, yet. I never slept it when it was in my desktop, I would like to be able to now that it's in the HTPC.

...it's nice having your games on an SSD... I put everything on my new 256GB and the reduced load times are sweet.

 

[mfenn]

Just got it. Not DOA, had latest firmware on the drive. Very very fast! BF3 loaded in 25 seconds when it used to take 6 minutes! Everything loads and runs very fast.

Lets hope it lasts!

Glad you like it! Now make that backup (and set up a Task Scheduler job to do it automatically).

 

[TurtleCrusher]

Glad you like it! Now make that backup (and set up a Task Scheduler job to do it automatically).

After porting my user files over to a mechanical HDD, all I have on the SSD is windows and games, of which I have copies of the games folder on the mechanical HDD as well. If I kept any personal files on the SSD I'd back it up, but now that I think about it, most of my user settings are in the "cloud" as well.

If I start keeping anything but windows and games on the SSD I'll back it up, but at the moment it's pretty pointless. (if it failed I'd honestly lose nothing but the drive itself)

 

[mfenn]

After porting my user files over to a mechanical HDD, all I have on the SSD is windows and games, of which I have copies of the games folder on the mechanical HDD as well. If I kept any personal files on the SSD I'd back it up, but now that I think about it, most of my user settings are in the "cloud" as well.

If I start keeping anything but windows and games on the SSD I'll back it up, but at the moment it's pretty pointless. (if it failed I'd honestly lose nothing but the drive itself)

And the time spent reconfiguring Windows, which is not trivial (at least, not for me).