• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

SSD for OS drive- Which and how big?

I

itakey

Senior member
I'm in the market for an SSD to run Windows 7 Pro on.

Brands?
I've heard that Crucial and Intel's are the best, and the higher end Samsung. Is the Crucial M4 the best of the best these days in a Sata III?


Would a 64GB drive cut it for OS stuff mainly and programs? No gaming, but I do use photoshop and stuff regularly.

I think i'm considering the Crucial M4 CT128M4SSD2 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) at $159.99

Any other drives a better value WITH the reputation and ratings right now?
 
The m4 has been a solid drive but it has been out for about a year now, that means that newer drivers from everybody else are faster. Reliability wise the m4 has been good. It has had some faullts but Crucial have been fast in fixing them so it will be a solid purchase.

Newer drives on the market in the high end SATA 6Gb/s sector are:

Samsung 830 series
Intel 520 series
OCZ Octane
Corsair Performance Pro

There are also a vast array of Sandforce SF-2281 drives such as the Vertex 3, Agility 3, Solid 3, Mushkin Chronos Dulex, Corsair Force GT and many many others.

The Intel 520 is also SF-2281 based but I have seperated it out because the SF-2281 has been plauged by issues (plenty of finger pointing in previous threads) but Intel has supposedly got this drive working 100% - although it is far too early in the day to make that claim.

My personal pick would be an 830. I believe Samsung is #1 in the reliability stakes. If you look at the AT bench between the 830 and the 520, the 830 certainly holds it's own and also wins a lot of tests. It also comes with a polished toolbox application to manage and assist in maintaining its speed over time.

In response to your second question, W7 x64 + all updates + office + essential apps checks in around 25GB. A 64GB drive will give you 60GB usable capacity. Only you can decide the rest.
 
Last edited:
To do it over again, I would have gone with a 128GB SSD, instead of my 60GB. As it is, I have some of my programs split between the SSD and my main HDD... I would much rather just have everything on one drive.

With W7, Office 2003, QuickBooks and some of the other software I run, I'm setting right at 26GB, leaving 30GB. As I said, I would rather have all my programs on one drive, and 30GB room can't get it done... but 90GB more would!
 
Another thing to add to that is a 128GB drive is generally a fair bit faster than a 64GB drive. Although this trend does scale linearly, the differences between 128GB/256GB/512GB is not as much as 128GB and 64GB.
 
Last edited:
Coup27 said:
The m4 has been a solid drive but it has been out for about a year now, that means that newer drivers from everybody else are faster. Reliability wise the m4 has been good. It has had some faullts but Crucial have been fast in fixing them so it will be a solid purchase.

Newer drives on the market in the high end SATA 6Gb/s sector are:

Samsung 830 series
Intel 520 series
OCZ Octane
Corsair Performance Pro

There are also a vast array of Sandforce SF-2281 drives such as the Vertex 3, Agility 3, Solid 3, Mushkin Chronos Dulex, Corsair Force GT and many many others.

The Intel 520 is also SF-2281 based but I have seperated it out because the SF-2281 has been plauged by issues (plenty of finger pointing in previous threads) but Intel has supposedly got this drive working 100% - although it is far too early in the day to make that claim.

My personal pick would be an 830. I believe Samsung is #1 in the reliability stakes. If you look at the AT bench between the 830 and the 520, the 830 certainly holds it's own and also wins a lot of tests. It also comes with a polished toolbox application to manage and assist in maintaining its speed over time.

In response to your second question, W7 x64 + all updates + office + essential apps checks in around 25GB. A 64GB drive will give you 60GB usable capacity. Only you can decide the rest.
Click to expand...

Thanks to you both for the feedback, GOOD STUFF!. With the estimates it seems like I could get away with a 64GB, but i'll probably be safer with a 128GB or something in between. On Windows XP right now I have about 64GB and could probably shave a little if needed, but I also don't want to be at the tip end of the capacity. I currently keep all my programs and OS on one drive, and then all my files on a WD Caviar Black,and some other scattered drives. So based on price i'm sort of considering a 64GB thinking that I could upgrade larger once the pricing comes down.

Anyone know how Windows XP Pro and Windows 7 Pro compare in size? Trying to figure out if they are close, or if I'd be set way over already as is.


The Samsung's definitely bring a premium in price. I don't mind spending, but I don't want to get a larger drive and then not utilize it since I don't load up games, and my app setup is roughly around 60GB.

Any good 128GB drives in the $140-$160 range?
 
Windows 7 x64 is massive compared to Windows XP Pro. I wouldn't be suprised if it consumes twice as much disk space.

Going back to your other thread for a moment, the 830 also comes with a full copy of Ghost 15 so if you wanted a fully featured modern backing up suite, you would not have to buy one on top of the SSD.

I don't live in the US so don't have good knowledge on prices and wheres good to buy stuff from, apart from Newegg lol.
 
A lot of the 128Gb drives are going on sale lately (Newegg, especially, but that's about the only retail site I really follow...) and they have been getting down to the magical $1/GB with sale prices and rebates. If you have a few weeks to spare, you can wait and see what rolls around...


This is the one I'm eyeballing right now...

http://204.14.213.185/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820249014
 
Last edited:
80GB is nice, 120GB is preferable IMHO to also handily include some other applications besides Win7.

Regarding the brand, stick with the major Intel/SF choices and you have some good sub $200 120GB options, or sub $150 80GB options.
 
I've used 60gb, 80gb, 128gb and 160gb drives. Personally I think 150GB+ is where you want to be if you want to keep a reasonable amount of programs all on the SSD. I'm happy with my current 160GB but honestly could not use a 128GB. Buying a new SSD, a 256GB would be the sweet spot for me.

I'm going for a 512GB though when that time comes, which is more than I need as I'm sitting at 40GB free on my 160GB now with everything installed that I need and more. It gives breathing room and I can install a new game if I want to, or install a very large game (I've installed Skyrim, Rage, ect on it) by removing 1 or 2 unused apps/games.

I have to agree with the Samsung 830 opinions. Samsung has top reliability, and the 830 is made/designed all in-house by Samsung which bodes well for reliability.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/828449-REG/Samsung_MZ_7PC256N_AM_256GB_830_Series_SSD.html
 
Last edited:
Charlie98 said:
A lot of the 128Gb drives are going on sale lately (Newegg, especially, but that's about the only retail site I really follow...) and they have been getting down to the magical $1/GB with sale prices and rebates. If you have a few weeks to spare, you can wait and see what rolls around...


This is the one I'm eyeballing right now...

http://204.14.213.185/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820249014
Click to expand...

I'm happy with the above drive, the Plextor M3 128GB, got it a few weeks ago and it was my first moving from a hard drive to an SSD. Very nice! Not sure how it compares to other drives, but I think it might be challenging to "feel" the difference in speeds among the different SSDs right now, especially if you stay within the same SATAIII tier. It gets a 7.9 on the windows tool WEI, but that's not a very helpful metric.

I just haven't loaded any fancy proper disk measuring tools, but I'm sure other's have compared disks sizes and performance etc. using proper disk measuring tools. Also I'm running an AMD system using the AMD AHCI driver, no issues.
 
You can do it on a 60GB drive, but install photoshop and such on the SSD , gl

ALL MEDIA STUFF goes to a large 500GB or 1TB hard drive, gl
 
Last edited:
For reference I threw a 240GB SSD into my laptop with Windows 7 Home Premium 64 and a couple small programs, and the final config is sitting at 15.5 GB out of 240 GB (or 14.4GB out of 223 GB if you prefer those numbers).

It's guaranteed to stay roomy just for the fact that the Celeron 900 and GMA 4500M GPU can't run anything so no games will ever be installed 😛
 
Thanks for the feedback everyone. I think shopping for an SSD is the hardest part of the build right about now. So many options but lots of performance stats to look at and stuff.

I'm definitely looking to get a 128GB or smaller since the price will drop, and I don't want to store a ton on it, and a 128GB should do it max.

That Plexor drive looks like it has some great reviews. How does this drive compare to the higher end recommended drives like the Samsung 830 series or the Intel 520 series.
 
itakey said:
Thanks for the feedback everyone. I think shopping for an SSD is the hardest part of the build right about now. So many options but lots of performance stats to look at and stuff.

I'm definitely looking to get a 128GB or smaller since the price will drop, and I don't want to store a ton on it, and a 128GB should do it max.

That Plexor drive looks like it has some great reviews. How does this drive compare to the higher end recommended drives like the Samsung 830 series or the Intel 520 series.
Click to expand...


While I only added to what was said about the M3, due to it being somewhat of an underrated ssd, I'd honestly go with whichever is the cheapest between the Crucial m4, Samsung 830, and Plextor They all use the same controller, and you're not going to see any real life differences between them. The Crucial uses synchronous 2xnm nand, while the Samsung and Plextor use toggle 2xnm nand. These are different implementations and I wouldn't go as far as to say one is better than the other.


I just got my M3 today and haven't even installed it yet, but here's a benchmark from elsewhere.
m3128gb.png
 
Obsoleet said:
Keep in mind only the Intel and Samsung drives have a SSD toolkit included
Click to expand...

Huge huge plus for those planning on ghosting their XP partition in their old machines being upgraded to SSDs.

Though I'm happy to report that the Agility 3 120 GB I just got (because it $97 new shipped) has been just fine in the XP machine I stuck it in. I benched the hell out it, even imaged it to my Win 7 image in my laptop to bench some more on an Intel controller, then imaged again back to XP. Basically 3x the capacity in writes in the first day with no trim or secure erase or anything other than treating it like a HDD, and no problems or slow down to report. Current firmware is goodly and looks like SF GC is very good on non TRIM systems.
 
Last edited:
What exactly is an SSD Toolkit? I just searched and saw Intel's SSD Tool box utility. Do these utilities allow easier managing of the drive, or maintenance?

I won't be using Windows XP any longer, i'm going to make the jump to Windows 7 Pro and not look back. I keep my files on a different drive from my OS and plan to do the same on the new build.

With brands, it seems that the lower end brand drives just have too many horror stories and bad reviews for me to take a chance by saving $50 to $75 bucks. I think i'm just going to bite the bullet and spend on one of the better ones.

If you guys had to decide on 3 drives being your top, which would they be, and in what order? I'm probably going to go with a 90-128GB drive based on price/reviews/performance. So far from your replies it looks like the Samsung, and the Plextor are adored 🙂
 
Just an app that allows for very easy firmware updates with automatic online checking and notification of new releases, secure erases to factory condition, manual optimization via TRIM (which can be scheduled), detailed SMART data with vendor specific fields parsed to meaningful data, built in vendor specific diagnostic tests that are more thorough than generic "chkdsk" type tests, and a built in checklist and warnings of OS SSD optimizations (disable prefetching, defrag, disable hibernate, etc, and prep the whole OS to be SSD friendly with the click of a single dialog button).

I've not used Samsung SSD Magician yet, but Intel SSD Toolbox 302 is a VERY nice thing to have, especially on XP It's everything you could ever need or want to know or do with your SSD.
 
Last edited:
That Plextor is looking more and more appealing, especially with a lot of reviews saying it is solid, 5 year warranty, and priced decent.

I'll be running this on Windows 7 Professional.

So is the SSD Toolkit worth an extra $30 to $40? The 120GB Plextor is in the $150 range where the Intel and Samsung are more in the $190= range.
 
Coup27 said:
The m4 has been a solid drive but it has been out for about a year now, that means that newer drivers from everybody else are faster. Reliability wise the m4 has been good. It has had some faullts but Crucial have been fast in fixing them so it will be a solid purchase.

Newer drives on the market in the high end SATA 6Gb/s sector are:

Samsung 830 series
Intel 520 series
OCZ Octane
Corsair Performance Pro

There are also a vast array of Sandforce SF-2281 drives such as the Vertex 3, Agility 3, Solid 3, Mushkin Chronos Dulex, Corsair Force GT and many many others.
Click to expand...

The M4 has gotten recent firmware updates that make it competitive in read/write speeds. Other than the Intel 520, I wouldn't recommend a Sandforce drive (Vertex 3, Agility 3, Corsair GT, etc)

The best drives are the Intel 520, Crucial M4, Samsung 830, and possibly the Plextor M3.
 
MrX8503 said:
The M4 has gotten recent firmware updates that make it competitive in read/write speeds. Other than the Intel 520, I wouldn't recommend a Sandforce drive (Vertex 3, Agility 3, Corsair GT, etc)

The best drives are the Intel 520, Crucial M4, Samsung 830, and possibly the Plextor M3.
Click to expand...

When you add in "possibly", "best drives" just becomes "popular drives". It uses the same controller as the m4 and 830.

Sent from my cm_tenderloin using Tapatalk
 
MrX8503 said:
The M4 has gotten recent firmware updates that make it competitive in read/write speeds. Other than the Intel 520, I wouldn't recommend a Sandforce drive (Vertex 3, Agility 3, Corsair GT, etc)

The best drives are the Intel 520, Crucial M4, Samsung 830, and possibly the Plextor M3.
Click to expand...

Firmware made it that much faster? I read somewhere that the M3 has 512MB where many of the other drives have 128mb. Is this true? That Plextor is looking sweeter and sweeter.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top