Recommend an SSD

[crazymonkeyzero]

I am planning to buy a 128gb ssd for my laptop, so can someone recommend one which is reliable and fast. I have had a bad experience wth ssds in the past when i bought a kingston ssd-now which slowed down ALOT after 1.5 years on my windows 7 machine, but I think the ssd tech has developed some more so I am ready to try another. I see people really like the crucial m4 and samsung 830, so Im guesssing these two are among the best. If someone could give me some advice on the matter I'd greatly appreciate it.

 

[hhhd1]

Samsung 830, Crucial M4, Plextor M3/M5

Intel is also not bad, haven't heard much complaints over their sandforce drives.

 

[corkyg]

Samsung 830, Crucial M4, Plextor M3/M5

Intel is also not bad, haven't heard much complaints over their sandforce drives.

Second that motion! I just finished putting a 830/256 in my laptop and am going for another.

 

[crazymonkeyzero]

Thanks for the reply guys. I'll pick one between the ones you listed based on price then. Also, is there anything I should know on how to tweak or adjust settings for the ssd in the bios for optimal performance or is it just plug and play? Because I heard in many cases that if you fail to change certain settings in the bios, the ssd will degrade in performance over time and get slow...not sure if this is completely true.

 

[Jocelyn84]

Thanks for the reply guys. I'll pick one between the ones you listed based on price then. Also, is there anything I should know on how to tweak or adjust settings for the ssd in the bios for optimal performance or is it just plug and play? Because I heard in many cases that if you fail to change certain settings in the bios, the ssd will degrade in performance over time and get slow...not sure if this is completely true.

Sean's Windows 7 Install & Optimization Guide for SSDs & HDDs

 

[blastingcap]

Samsung 830, Crucial M4, Plextor M3/M5

Intel is also not bad, haven't heard much complaints over their sandforce drives.

I have the same rec (M4, Samsung 830, Plextor M3/M5), but would avoid all Sandforce drives, even by Intel. Intel took forever ironing the bugs out of their Sandforce drives enough for sale, and who is to say they didn't miss any?

So I would not get any drives w/ Sandforce controllers, even the Intel ones, which are a cut above the non-Intel Sandforce drives.

Read this for more info: http://www.anandtech.com/show/5508/intel-ssd-520-review-cherryville-brings-reliability-to-sandforce

I would also not get a "V4" by Crucial as that is barely any cheaper and uses a sketchier controller so I'm not sure how reliable those are. Stick to M4 if you're buying Crucial, and update the firmware immediately no matter which brand you ultimately decide to get.

 

[crazymonkeyzero]

Thanks again to everyone's advice.


One more thing. I just realized my laptop, which is about 3 years old, supports only sata II, so is there any point paying the premium for sata3 drives due to data rate bottlenecks? I see that crucial has released a new v4 series ssd for sataii users and it's pretty cheap, $80-90for 128gb but uses a Phison controller??( never heard of it) Do you guys think it would be a good buy, or should I still go with the aforementioned sata3 drives above.

 

[Jocelyn84]

Stay away from the v4, it's garbage lol. Just pick up an m4, Samsung 830, or Plextor M3/M5 when it hits $80-$90, because their performance on Sata II will be better than the lousy excuse for an SSD called the v4. TD actually has the M5 for $80 after a $20 rebate - http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...884&CatId=5298

Also, some laptops can only take 7mm SSDs, in which case you'll want any 830 or a 7mm m4.

Edit: The cheapest 830 128GB I could find was $97.99 + free shipping - http://www.buydig.com/shop/product.aspx?sku=SAMSSD128
If you want a Samsung, I'd wait for a deal to pop up. They generally happen at least once a week.

 

[Cerb]

Thanks again to everyone's advice.


One more thing. I just realized my laptop, which is about 3 years old, supports only sata II, so is there any point paying the premium for sata3 drives due to data rate bottlenecks?

No. We keep going through this, but go here, and check out the numbers. Yeah, 6Gbps helps the faster drives, but the faster drive ay 6Gbps is still faster at 3Gbps. Only in large sequential copies does it really make a difference, and 3Gbps is still just shy of double what any HDD can offer.

Now, when it's also cheaper when not on sale, it's not like they won't sell any, but the whole, "you only have SATA 3Gbps, so that SATA 6Gbps drive is all wasted," is just marketing.

 

[aviator78]

Go for the Samsung 830...very reliable and high performance! Stay away from this sandforce stuff.