SSD Are Me!

[MickMcGeough]

Originally Posted by TSXCman

I've been looking into a 128gb SSD for my laptop and came across this deal:
Imation M-Class 2.5” Solid State Drive SSD 128GB SATA II with Upgrade Kit

for 125$ locally. is this a lower tier SSD? i havent seen them going for 1$/gb yet and wondering what are the main speeds/properties to pay attention to?

Do not buy that drive. If I'm not mistaken it's about 2 years old and clocks in slower than a good mechanical drive in a lot of scenarios.

Just ask us what to buy. There are a bunch of people in this thread that are familiar with plenty of what's on the market. What's your budget and minimum capacity?

Memex has the Vertex 2 for $189 after rebates if you need something local. It's a huge jump up from the Imation for $65 more. I still think these prices will fall a bit more once the SATA-III drives become more readily available, if you can wait.

[TSXCman]

I'd like 90-128gb that is under 1.50$/gb if possible. I just got used to regualr drives getting under 80$ for 2tb, that its really hard to get jacked to spend 100$+ for so little.

but in a laptop it would be a very strong upgrade from the general consensus.

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by MickMcGeough

Do not buy that drive. If I'm not mistaken it's about 2 years old and clocks in slower than a good mechanical drive in a lot of scenarios.

Just ask us what to buy. There are a bunch of people in this thread that are familiar with plenty of what's on the market. What's your budget and minimum capacity?

Memex has the Vertex 2 for $189 after rebates if you need something local. It's a huge jump up from the Imation for $65 more. I still think these prices will fall a bit more once the SATA-III drives become more readily available, if you can wait.

I don't think that Imation drive has trim or garbage collection either. A cheap controller. It's not a good drive.

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by TSXCman

I'd like 90-128gb that is under 1.50$/gb if possible. I just got used to regualr drives getting under 80$ for 2tb, that its really hard to get jacked to spend 100$+ for so little.

but in a laptop it would be a very strong upgrade from the general consensus.

I don't think that's realistic for a $1.50/gb to get you a decent SSD. Spend another $20 and you can get a great SSD however. If you are under that strict a budget, I would hold out for another few months.

[MickMcGeough]

Originally Posted by TSXCman

I'd like 90-128gb that is under 1.50$/gb if possible. I just got used to regualr drives getting under 80$ for 2tb, that its really hard to get jacked to spend 100$+ for so little.

but in a laptop it would be a very strong upgrade from the general consensus.

120GB Vertex 2 @ Memex: $1.61/GB
120GB Vertex 2 @ NCIX: $1.54/GB
180GB Vertex 2 @ NCIX: $1.38/GB

Weirdly enough, it's difficult to compare cheap mechanical drives to SSDs. Upgrading a mechanical drive is a storage upgrade more often than not, but an SSD is a performance upgrade (and, in my opinion, by far the best bang for your buck in terms of perceived overall system performance).

[Hack&Lube]

Memory Express gets the Vertex 3 in stock.

Unfortunately (or fortunately) it's only the 240Gigger at $579.99!

http://www.memoryexpress.com/Product...(ME).aspx?cc=1

Per $, this is actually the better deal as the 120GB model is usually $299.99 and performs slower than the 240GB model! However, this drive blows everything else out of the water.

[Hack&Lube]

I bought a Crucial C300 128GB off Kijiji for $225. Unfortunately I flashed the firmware from 0006 to 0007 which was released yesterday which was more a stability update than a performance update and my performance dropped significantly.

[MickMcGeough]

OCZ announces a couple of SF-2200 based "budget" drives.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/10/o...ty-speedsters/

Love to see how these stack up against the Vertex 3 in real-world stuff. The Agility in particular looks especially promising - that's a lot of (claimed) performance for a decent price.

[Tinordi]

Updated my netbook to a vertex 60gb. Very very happy.

[MickMcGeough]

Hooray for more Sandforce-22xx drives!

http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/16/c...-modest-money/

Looks to be a direct competitor to the Vertex 3 but at a better price. Consumers win!

[photon]

NCIX has some good prices on previous generation OCZ drives.

120GB for $149
180GB for $229
240GB for $299!

And a 240GB RevoDrive for $379

EDIT: Be aware that the rebates, while legit, take a looooong time to process. Like 5 months.

[Hanni]

That is so tempting. I'm not up to speed on SSD's, is there a big difference between these and the new generation? Although any SSD I'm sure would be a huge improvement over my Caviar Black.

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by Hanni

That is so tempting. I'm not up to speed on SSD's, is there a big difference between these and the new generation? Although any SSD I'm sure would be a huge improvement over my Caviar Black.

They will destroy your Caviar Black in performance.

These Vertex 2 drives were among the fastest before SATA3 drives came out. I'm guessing your computer is still on SATA2 most likely so this is the right drive for a SATA2 based system.

[Hanni]

The Vertex 2 showed up today and I got everything done. All I can say is wow, now I wish I hadn't waited so long to get one.

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by Hanni

The Vertex 2 showed up today and I got everything done. All I can say is wow, now I wish I hadn't waited so long to get one.

Remember SSDs need a little more babying than tradition HDDs. Try to do everything you can to minimize writes to the drive because there are a limited number of writes over the drive's lifespan. Your SSD is actually much bigger capacity than you see as useable space. The rest is provisioning to spread out writes across the drive to increase longevity.

Do things like disable hibernate (never hibernate!!!), disable system restore if you want, disable drive indexing service if you like (drive is small and searches are blazing fast already on an SSD so it's not needed), don't ever let the OS compress the drive to save space (SSD has compression built into controller), NEVER defrag. Make sure Trim is on and working. Consider only having speed essential programs on the SSD and everything else on a mechanical drive. You can create symbolic links in Vista/7/Linux so the drive behaves as if the files were on the SSD even if they are on the HDD.

Which Vertex 2 did you get? With SSDs, the larger the capacity, the better the performance usually.

[Hanni]

I got the 120gb, after that it was starting to get out of the range I really wanted to spend on a hard drive.

Thanks for the advice, some I don't have to worry about (I never used to use hibernate anyway). Still have lots of space ( I think 70 or so gig) any games or extra programs will go on a mechanical drive.

[Hanni]

So should I move my steam install directory to one of my storage drives? I have no need to keep most of my games since once I'm done with them I will never play them again. I may only play 2 or 3 new games a year, installing and then uninstalling a few games a year should be fine, shouldn't it? I'd like to keep SC2 and TF2 on the ssd as those are the 2 I play on a regular basis. Like I said I still have 50+gb free so space shouldn't be an issue especially if I'm swapping out an old game for a new.

I also just realized I forgot to backup my 3 Mass Effect 2 saves before formatting the old drive *facepalm*

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by Hanni

So should I move my steam install directory to one of my storage drives? I have no need to keep most of my games since once I'm done with them I will never play them again. I may only play 2 or 3 new games a year, installing and then uninstalling a few games a year should be fine, shouldn't it? I'd like to keep SC2 and TF2 on the ssd as those are the 2 I play on a regular basis. Like I said I still have 50+gb free so space shouldn't be an issue especially if I'm swapping out an old game for a new.

I also just realized I forgot to backup my 3 Mass Effect 2 saves before formatting the old drive *facepalm*

Keep your steam folder on your SSD and the games you play the most on the SSD. As for the other games, goto your steam\steamapps\common folder and all your games are there. Create a symbolic link that essentially moves all those games that you don't play and don't require fast loading and speed to the mechanical drive. The symbolic link will make Steam think they are still in the folder and they will still work as normal.

[TSXCman]

hey guys,

I got the retail edge deal in order and am going to be purchasing one of the Intel 320 SSDs, but I would like your recommendations on which size or to stay away.

I can buy the 120gb for $160
Or the 160gb for $200 + a lot of time (enough to earn 28 000 credits)

I immediately preferred the 120gb but I looked at some benchmarks to learn that the higher capacity also meant higher performance.

How does the Intel 320 series stack up to the SSDs that people are seeking now? and would there be a noticable difference between the 2 volumes in terms of performance (the volume size is fine at 120gb)?

[photon]

The 320 can't hold up against the Vertex/Agility 3 or 510, but it isn't that bad

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4244/i...d-320-review/8

120GB for $160 is ok, but you can get an Agility 3 120GB for $200 from NCIX right now, or a 180GB Vertex 2 for $250, both of which will outperform the 320 quite handily, significantly in the case of the Agility 3 (Assuming you've got SATAIII).

Intel reliability though is a lot higher than OCZ or anyone else, so if that's a factor that might be something to consider.

Anand's mid-range review has info on the 160GB vs. everything else comparable:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4421/t...-ssd-roundup/2

A 320 will be sooooo much faster than a normal HDD it'll still blow you away.