Recommended SSD for old(ish) AMD system

[birthdaymonkey]

Hi folks,

After humming and hawwing for a while, I think I'm finally ready to get an SSD. I think I'm leaning toward a Sandforce drive, and the Mushkin Callisto, OCZ Vertex/Agility 2, and Corsair Force drives are all priced around the same on Canadian vendors' websites (I'm in Canada).

Sometimes the OCZ drives will be available with a $20 or $30 MIR, making them a little bit cheaper, but I'm wary of rebates in general and OCZ's rebates in particular. I've read good things about Mushkin's customer service. Corsair is a vendor I've had good experiences with. I've heard that OCZ is slightly faster than other Sandforce drives, but I've heard some bad things about their customer service.

These are the factors I've been considering. It seems that people on here generally know what they're talking about, so I figured I'd post and see if anyone would weigh in with opinions. I'm looking to get a single drive, 60GB for OS and a couple games. Motherboard is an older Asus 690G model with a Phenom II X2 running Windows 7 64-bit.

I appreciate your input very much!

 

[CurseTheSky]

I'd go with the Corsair Force personally. I've always been happy with Corsair products, and we have Yellowbeard (Corsair Rep) on this message board as a last resort in case you get an answer from Corsair that you're not happy with.

I see too many complaints about OCZ Sandforce-based drives dying prematurely to consider them, personally. Most of the deaths were limited to the Vertex LE drives, but I've seen a good number of complaints about the Vertex 2 drives as well. That, combined with tons of rebates and price drops for their drives makes me leery of buying them; seems to me like they're just trying to unload old, (possibly) faulty stock.

 

[birthdaymonkey]

I'd go with the Corsair Force personally. I've always been happy with Corsair products, and we have Yellowbeard (Corsair Rep) on this message board as a last resort in case you get an answer from Corsair that you're not happy with.

I see too many complaints about OCZ Sandforce-based drives dying prematurely to consider them, personally. Most of the deaths were limited to the Vertex LE drives, but I've seen a good number of complaints about the Vertex 2 drives as well. That, combined with tons of rebates and price drops for their drives makes me leery of buying them; seems to me like they're just trying to unload old, (possibly) faulty stock.

Thanks for your reply. After reading your recommendation I did a few searches and it seems that the Force series has some problems with random BSODs. Any idea how common this is or if it's been resolved?

 

[razel]

Your choices are fine. The differences between and the time it'll save you over the life of your ownership will be the same. Just buy any when you see it on sale or have any other compelling reason to do so.

 

[CurseTheSky]

Can you give a few links in regards to Corsair Force + BSOD? I'd imagine every SSD has its problems, but if there is a well known issue out there (like the Vertex LE drives dying) I want to know about it.

Thanks. 🙂

Edit: also, welcome to AnandTech. 🙂

 

[birthdaymonkey]

Can you give a few links in regards to Corsair Force + BSOD? I'd imagine every SSD has its problems, but if there is a well known issue out there (like the Vertex LE drives dying) I want to know about it.

Thanks. 🙂

Edit: also, welcome to AnandTech. 🙂

Thanks for the warm greeting. I've been a long-time reader of the site and lurker on the forums but hadn't felt the need to post until now.

As for the Corsair BSOD problem, this thread seems to be the main event:

http://forum.corsair.com/v3/showthread.php?t=88341

I first stumbled upon the issue looking at a Force vs. Vertex II thread at overclock.net:

http://www.overclock.net/ssd/820724-corsair-force-vs-ocz-vertex-2-a.html

From what I've gathered reading the Corsair forums, a firmware update that addresses the issue is imminent but as-yet unavailable.

I'm kind of leaning toward the Mushkin drive now, which seems to have gotten favourable reviews especially regarding the build quality--not that that matters a whole lot, but when you're dealing with so many virtually identical products (i.e. Sandforce SSDs), it's the little things that matter.

 

[libertysyclone]

I just bought a couple 120GB callisto's and have been very happy with them.

One was DOA'ish, first day kept breaking RAID/BSODing; second day died completely.

Now this was the first failure the store I bought from had seen since using mushkin SSDs (i believe them,owner is a great friend) so YMMV.

Overall I am so happy I am selling off my SAS stuff to get two more

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

With any SSD drive, make sure you have a backup ready.. I learned my lesson twice... once on my main rig and the other on the gamer...

 

[birthdaymonkey]

With any SSD drive, make sure you have a backup ready.. I learned my lesson twice... once on my main rig and the other on the gamer...

Yeah, I won't be removing the OS partition on the hard drive this is supplementing for a while. Plus, this is not a mission critical machine; it's my tinkering/HTPC/Starcraft II machine.

 

[FishAk]

Yeah, I won't be removing the OS partition on the hard drive this is supplementing for a while.

I don't know about other OSs, but if you are using Windows, be sure to disconnect the disk with the OS you don't intend to boot to. If you boot to Windows with two instances of the same version, Windows has been known to stomp all over the boot loader of one of the versions. I don't think you get a choice of which version it disables. It's OK if it's not the same version, although it erases all your restore points.

If you intend to keep the disk plugged in, format the old C partition to prevent any trouble. You can always simply restore an image to the partition if you need it again.

 

[birthdaymonkey]

I don't know about other OSs, but if you are using Windows, be sure to disconnect the disk with the OS you don't intend to boot to. If you boot to Windows with two instances of the same version, Windows has been known to stomp all over the boot loader of one of the versions. I don't think you get a choice of which version it disables. It's OK if it's not the same version, although it erases all your restore points.

If you intend to keep the disk plugged in, format the old C partition to prevent any trouble. You can always simply restore an image to the partition if you need it again.

Thanks for the tip. Of course, I'll install Windows 7 with the HDD disconnected. I'll be keeping the hard drive as storage, so I'll format the C partition once the SSD is up and running, but I'll keep the partition on standby just in case. Should I use a boot disk to format, or will I be OK booting from the SSD and formatting within Windows? From past experience, it seems my motherboard will only boot from the drive in the SATA 0 position, so I don't think Windows will get confused about which drive it boots from.

 

[FishAk]

I don't have experience with a board that only boots from one port that I know of, so I couldn't answer that. Just have a good image if you try it, in case you need to restore. Is the version to be on the SSD the same Windows version? If so, have you considered restoring an image to the SSD to begin with? There are lots of good reasons for a fresh install, but if your current install is good, it makes sense to copy and paste it.

 

[birthdaymonkey]

I don't have experience with a board that only boots from one port that I know of, so I couldn't answer that. Just have a good image if you try it, in case you need to restore. Is the version to be on the SSD the same Windows version? If so, have you considered restoring an image to the SSD to begin with? There are lots of good reasons for a fresh install, but if your current install is good, it makes sense to copy and paste it.

I'm going to go with a fresh install, but it will be the same version of Windows (home premium 64-bit). I've upgraded the video card since the initial build (switched from AMD to nvidia), I'm planning to move from IDE to AHCI, and I really don't have too many programs to re-install, so it shouldn't be too much of a hassle. Of course the Windows I'm using is an upgrade edition so I'm a bit concerned that it won't install on a blank drive (without a previous version of Windows on it) or that it will give me problems on activation. When I first installed it on this system, I ended up having to call MS to get it activated. Eugh... when I was younger and poorer, I used pirated Windows and it wasn't as much of a headache as dealing with legit copies. Hehe, I feel like I'm talking myself out a fresh install as I type this... maybe copy/paste is the best idea after all.