Which SSD controllers to avoid?

[fuzzybabybunny]

So I'm thinking about getting another SSD but I'm not sure which controllers I should be avoiding. I think SF-2200 should be avoided right? Heard stories of the drives just formatting themselves or dying, lol.

Anything else? I know Intel and Samsung are really solid. Indilinx and SandForce, I'm not sure about.

 

[Zap]

Unless end users report otherwise... seems as if latest firmware fixes the major outstanding issues with all current SSD controllers. Thus, AFAIK no current controller to avoid EXCEPT the Indilinx Martini that is in the OCZ Vertex Plus. Not even sure if it is a controller issue, or just an OCZ issue, but man that thing has terrible end user feedback. Just did a quick look and it gets over 50% 1/5.

 

[Emulex]

Intel and samsung have the lowest return rate. sandforce i avoid at all costs due to large return rate - think about it the samsung is 100% samsung , the intel 320/710 are 100% intel (intel/micron make their own nand).

The Guys that buy B-Grade nand-du-jour and throw together a controller they don't make with whatever nand they can get their hands on = junk. sorry. it's junk. but junk is cheap and you don't mind failure and a painful RMA process - go for it.

everytime my intel has failed i've had a replacement the next day (no charge) - compare that to the other guys.

 

[sequoia464]

Agree with Zap.
So far I have had four intels, two Kingstons with the Toshiba controller, two Vertex 2's and two M4's. No problems with any of them, have had the Intels for a couple of years, the Vertex2's for about a year and a half - the Kingstons and M4's for just a few months. The Crucial forums seemed to me to have the least amount of users with issues. Check out the various forums for some insight.

The new Corsair with the Marvel controller that was just announced looks interesting to me, Anand just had a brief anouncement on it here .. http://www.anandtech.com/show/5082/corsair-gives-marvell-another-try-with-performance-pro-ssd .. If I didn't have more drives now than I know what to do with, I would be investigating that. Has some killer speeds, and supposedly a fairly aggressive GC (raid).

 

[houe]

I have an 80GB Intel (G2) in my laptop and a 128GB M4 in my desktop. Both have performed perfectly for me. For me I would feel fairly safe with Intel, Crucial and Samsung. The others (especially anything OCZ) I have my doubts.

 

[Coup27]

I'm hoping to upgrade SSD soon and I'm going for a Samsung 830.

 

[Nebor]

OCZ drives should be avoided. They changed the NAND, crippling the speed without changing the product number or letting anyone know it was happening... Then waged a campaign to clean their forums of all the rage filled threads. I figured I had learned my lesson from OCZ, and wouldn't buy another one of their products. Then 9 months later my OCZ drive that was running at 1/4 of rated speed when new became unrecognizable to the BIOS. So aside from the cost of the drive ($150 IIRC) I had to reinstall my OS twice because of it. Oh, plus the cost of return shipping. I mailed it back today:

 

[Coup27]

hahaha thats absolutely hilarious!

 

[Itchrelief]

Unless end users report otherwise... seems as if latest firmware fixes the major outstanding issues with all current SSD controllers. Thus, AFAIK no current controller to avoid EXCEPT the Indilinx Martini that is in the OCZ Vertex Plus. Not even sure if it is a controller issue, or just an OCZ issue, but man that thing has terrible end user feedback. Just did a quick look and it gets over 50% 1/5.

Problem with the Vertex Plus is that there's still tons of drives out there with the old, faulty firmware that is almost guaranteed to cause file system corruption within a week. If people don't update the firmware first, they are definitely going to be having problems and complaining, versus Sandforce controller based drives that it seems to be much more random and unpredictable.

Another problem was that some people couldn't update their firmware even if they knew of the problem. I am not sure why this was the case.

In any case, if you have a system without a Intel 945 chipset based system (no idea if this incompatibility was fixed yet), and you can get on the fixed firmware, the drive seems to work fine. It does for me. I'd definitely take one for free if offered.

 

[Binky]

I've got a Vertex1 30GB that is now reporting 2% health status. Not one hiccup in almost 15,000 hours. 😉

My more recent purchase is a Crucial M4 128gb that is also performing perfectly (and faster).