SSD recommendations?

[silentmemories]

I'm looking to upgrade my current computer at the moment (i5 2500K, AMD 6900) and I've decided that I need a few more hard drives + a SSD.

For the hard drives, I'm going to go with Western Digital. No idea on what to pick for SSD though.

Any recommendations? I'm looking for 128GB at least.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Cerb]

Run of the mill web/gaming box, running Win 7/8?

Off the top of my head, and not an exhaustive list:
Sandisk Ultra Plus
Samsung 840 Evo (near release)
Crucial M500
Corsair Neutron (aging, but proven)
Plextor M5S (aging, but proven)

 

[silentmemories]

Alright thanks. I had a look and I think the Samsung 840 is quite a good option.

I'm new to SSDs - I've been using hard drives all my life. Is there any resource that I can use to read up on SSDs?

I have absolutely no knowledge about SSD maintenance, ...

Thanks in advance.

 

[Cerb]

If installing Windows 7 or newer, just have only the SSD connected, make sure SATA is set to AHCI, install Windows, and that's pretty much that. You can get the AS-SSD benchmark utility to verify alignment quickly and easily, and also verify that performance is in spec (the 3rd info line should be green, and end in, "OK," for alignment).

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2727880

As long as it's not doing anything stupid like trying to defrag it, you should be fine.

If you're running Windows 7 or newer already, then you can shortcut the, "trust Windows to align the partition," step, by setting the disk up as a new drive in your existing install, and check alignment, before installing it anew. Then, just tell the installer to use the existing partition. Belt and suspenders, maybe, but hey, it only adds a couple minutes. If it doesn't do it right, then look up how to manually make an aligned partition.

 

[silentmemories]

If installing Windows 7 or newer, just have only the SSD connected, make sure SATA is set to AHCI, install Windows, and that's pretty much that. You can get the AS-SSD benchmark utility to verify alignment quickly and easily, and also verify that performance is in spec (the 3rd info line should be green, and end in, "OK," for alignment).

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2727880

As long as it's not doing anything stupid like trying to defrag it, you should be fine.

If you're running Windows 7 or newer already, then you can shortcut the, "trust Windows to align the partition," step, by setting the disk up as a new drive in your existing install, and check alignment, before installing it anew. Then, just tell the installer to use the existing partition. Belt and suspenders, maybe, but hey, it only adds a couple minutes. If it doesn't do it right, then look up how to manually make an aligned partition.

Thanks for the tips and the URL. I'll have a read of it sometime.

Regarding the AHCI thing - I'm planning on having 1 SSD as a boot drive and then 2 WD physical hard drives for the build. How would I progress for this? The physical hard drives don't use the AHCI setting, right?

 

[Cerb]

How would I progress for this? The physical hard drives don't use the AHCI setting, right?

AHCI works with HDDs, too. It's largely just a standardized way of exposing SATA features, the most important of which is NCQ. By having AHCI turned on when installing Windows, it will then be configured to load the driver for it during bootup.

Only connecting the SSD for the install is a separate thing. Windows sometimes likes to make a special system partition on another drive, for no apparent reason (I'm sure MS didn't randomly write the installer that way, but I haven't found out why it can happen, yet). Or, it may update an existing bootloader on another drive, instead of installing it fresh on the new drive. Having only the new drive [and installation media] connected during the install completely removes the risk of either happening.

 

[silentmemories]

AHCI works with HDDs, too. It's largely just a standardized way of exposing SATA features, the most important of which is NCQ. By having AHCI turned on when installing Windows, it will then be configured to load the driver for it during bootup.

Only connecting the SSD for the install is a separate thing. Windows sometimes likes to make a special system partition on another drive, for no apparent reason (I'm sure MS didn't randomly write the installer that way, but I haven't found out why it can happen, yet). Or, it may update an existing bootloader on another drive, instead of installing it fresh on the new drive. Having only the new drive [and installation media] connected during the install completely removes the risk of either happening.

Many thanks for your reply.

 

[aigomorla]

Run of the mill web/gaming box, running Win 7/8?

Off the top of my head, and not an exhaustive list:
Sandisk Ultra Plus
Samsung 840 Evo (near release)
Crucial M500
Corsair Neutron (aging, but proven)
Plextor M5S (aging, but proven)

i think u mean the sandisk extreme 2 no?
The ultras are sd cards...
you also forgot to add intel, which are about as tough as any SSD's can get as well in abuse.

That list u gave is my solid list...

 

[taq8ojh]

Windows sometimes likes to make a special system partition on another drive, for no apparent reason (I'm sure MS didn't randomly write the installer that way, but I haven't found out why it can happen, yet).

Speaking of this, I recently experienced the most annoying and stupid outcome of this... "feature". During setup, I selected (and double checked) one of the two current disks I have in my PC for installation, and guess what happened. The damn thing was installed on the OTHER disk, putting the "boot" folder (or rather simply using the other disk as the startup partition) onto the one I wanted Windows to reside on.
I was seeing in bright red right there.

 

[Essence_of_War]

Alright thanks. I had a look and I think the Samsung 840 is quite a good option.

I'm new to SSDs - I've been using hard drives all my life. Is there any resource that I can use to read up on SSDs?

I have absolutely no knowledge about SSD maintenance, ...

Thanks in advance.

SSD Stickies

 

[Cerb]

i think u mean the sandisk extreme 2 no?

http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Ultra-.../dp/B0093HMKVI

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7173/...-120gb-250gb-500gb-750gb-1tb-models-tested/10

Sandisk Ultra Plus. Not in the same performance league as the Extreme II, but also more in the cost bracket of the TLC 840.

 

[silentmemories]

SSD Stickies

Thank you for linking to a sticky.

I just read this part of the post (http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?p=29731860&postcount=4) and I was scared. Would like some clarification regarding that if possible.

"Do NOT endlessly run anything that writes huge amounts of useless data to your SSD."

Is having a few games on my SSD fine? (Dota 2, Battlefield 3, ...? Not sure if they're IO intensive or whether I should move it to my WD Green (Bad for performance though)).

Thanks in advance.

 

[taq8ojh]

Having games on a SSD is fine, and it just means a little bit of reading. What the statement above means is you should avoid writing lots of unnecessary data, like running a disk benchmark on the SSD ten times in a row, copying 20GB movie there and back etc. However, with the years SSDs are supposed to last these days, nothing you can write to them by means of normal usage per day cannot be considered "huge amounts".
I think you can sleep well

 

[silentmemories]

Having games on a SSD is fine, and it just means a little bit of reading. What the statement above means is you should avoid writing lots of unnecessary data, like running a disk benchmark on the SSD ten times in a row, copying 20GB movie there and back etc. However, with the years SSDs are supposed to last these days, nothing you can write to them by means of normal usage per day cannot be considered "huge amounts".
I think you can sleep well

Haha thanks for the reassurance. Is there any program or disc utility that I can download that I can use to check the 'health' of my SSD?

 

[taq8ojh]

Manufacturers usually have some programs that complement their products available for download. Intel for example has this multi-purpose program called Intel SSD Toolbox which does that.
In other cases, you might see some useful informations in S.M.A.R.T.