Recommend SSD

[pete6032]

I have a motherboard with SATAII AMD 880G chipset. Need to replace a dying HDD. This PC will be used for office/email/web browsing. No gaming, light photo editing. I'm looking for something that will last a few years, in the 512 GB range. Any recommendations?

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Samsung or Crucial.

If you can find them, Samsung 850EVO or Crucial BX100 would the first choices (based on reputation. They are very good, excellent reliability, both recently discontinued in favor of slower, cheaper replacements.)

If you can't find those, Crucial MX200 or BX200. (Crucial's a very solid brand. MX200 was the "pro" version of the BX100. BX200 is the slower cheaper replacement for the BX100.)

The Mushkin Reactor 512GB (not 480GB) has the same major components (Crucial MLC NAND, SM2246EN controller) as the BX100, and might be a good idea. (I just got one. Works good, benchmarks are nominal. There's an anandtech review. If it sleeps with my girlfriend or lights my cat on fire in the next 30 days, I'll be sure to complain loudly.)

Lasting a few years is a gamble - ultimately, you don't find out which drive is most likely to last five years until five years after they're obsolete. Stuff moves fast enough that even if Brand X made the most reliable, best, fastest, cheapest SSD today, they might not be making anything remotely as good in 5 years. Or visa versa. In the meantime, there's still at least one person somewhere who had their "reliable" drive die on them and was left holding the bag.

So you can find horror stories about every brand and model from people who will "never buy ____ again!" Just get something with good price/performance/capacity, get something you can afford to replace if the worst happens, and make sure your data is Backed. Up. Every. Day.

 

[MustISO]

I've had Crucial, Intel, Samsung, Corsair and OCZ. All have been solid so far. The 2 samsungs are pretty new from Black Friday this year but the others are a few years old.

 

[Charlie98]

Echo what Dave said. At SATA II speeds, you don't need to get the fastestest SSD out there. I also agree with him about backing up your data (assuming you have data you don't want to lose.)

Personally, I'm an Intel or Crucial guy, but that's just my personal preference.

 

[pete6032]

Thanks. Backing up right now. After numerous reboot attempts I was able to get the drive to start up and read in Windows. About half the time it shows up but doesn't read, sometimes it doesn't show up at all, and other times I get chkdsk error or S.M.A.R.T. error messages during boot.

 

[nerp]

The Sandisk Ultra II drives are sold, too.

 

[ronbo613]

I have an SATA II system and use Samsung and Crucial SSDs. I'm going to buy another one, I think I'll go Crucial for value and longevity. You won't see the slightly faster speed benefit of a Samsung SSD on an SATA II system.

 

[MongGrel]

I'll third or 4th or 5th wherever the count is on the Sammy's and Crucial's.

Have both at the house, is usually just a matter of what looks like a deal att.

 

[grimpr]

Get the Samsungs or Sandisks, Crucials dont have good latency, they're not snappy drives. Ultra II's from the great Sandisk are cheap and good.

 

[jhansman]

Another vote for the Samsung 850 EVO. Whether the 250 or 500GB, it's just a great drive. Look for deals on it; they pop up fairly frequently lately.