SSD suggestions

[ratdude747]

In the next few months, I'm looking to swap out the large but woefully slow 1Tb drive in my Lenovo Ideapad p400 for an SSD of some sort... or at least something faster than the 5400RPM piece of crap that runs like a 4200 that I have now.

Size wise, I dualboot arch linux and windows 7 x64... so I'd say 120GB at a minimum, 200GB and up preferred. I don't really have a budget, so I'm rather trying to find what kind of $ it will take to fix this right. Heck, everything else on it is blazing fast, so this slow HDD is really holding it back.

So, any brand/model suggestions?

[domas]

Re: SSD suggestions

when i was looking for one for myself a year ago, i was choosing from:
ocz vertex 4 / samsung 830 / cruical m4 / intel 520

All of them had very similar specs, while Intel would be the slowest (very low difference anyway) and slightly more expensive than the rest. It did have 120gb of capacity compared to others 3 IIRC with 128gb

I still chose Intel due to expected reliability.

But it was a year ago.

[cheapie]

Re: SSD suggestions

I've had two SSDs. A few years ago, I had a cheap Wintec 64GB. It never worked properly from the start (random read errors from ~32GB to the end). Now, I have a Samsung 840 Series 120GB. It works fine. According to the SMART data, I've used 1% of its lifetime in the few months I've had it.

[domas]

Re: SSD suggestions

My intel ssd toolbox says it is both 100% healty and there is nothing used.. or it just seems so. There is no numerical evaluation, just stupid graphs, cant see if it is 99% or 100%

I had it for a year already, it is only for C drive, D drive is toshiba spinner

[ratdude747]

Re: SSD suggestions

I've personally heard OCZ SSD's are trouble.

[gg1978]

Re: SSD suggestions

I've personally heard OCZ SSD's are trouble.

That would be correct.. never had one myself, but have heard of numerous issues with them.. I've used Crucial, Intel, Samsung, Corsair with no issues.

[gg1978]

Re: SSD suggestions

newegg did have a 256G Toshiba on sale for ~150 just recently, i picked one up just to try it out.. I'm sure it'll be OK on the long term, but we'll see..

[sofTest]

Re: SSD suggestions

I've personally heard OCZ SSD's are trouble.

I personally own a OCZ Agility 3 and a OCZ Vertex 4, and I've had absolutely no issues. From the firmware history, I can read that early versions had issues (if that's what you define "trouble"), as have models from other manufacturers. I therefore choose SSD-models that have firmware versions that has matured a while. Mature firmware seem to be more important to SSD's, than on HDD's.

Speed wise, practically you probably wouldn't notice any difference between the medium ranges and high end ones. The high end ones does often carry a better warranty, if that's a concern for you.

If I were you, I would look for a good deal on nice mature end-of-manufacture models (when new models are introduced) from a well known brand. Those are often on sale.

[y_not]

Re: SSD suggestions

Not that I'm 100% an Intel fanboy, or anything close. In fact, I try NOT to be a "fanboy" at all, it tends to instill blindness to the point that you can't see the forest for the trees after a while. IE. The company you're a fanboy/fangirl for, at some point, becomes such in your mind that they can do no wrong!

Not a place I ever want to be, so I always keep my options open when it comes to the tech world and most of my nerdly interests.

With that said, I'd like to add that I feel Intel's SSDs are simply incredible!! They may not be the fastest on the planet, all the time, but they always finish the race.. no matter what! They're just plain RELIABLE & I have had ZERO failures with them so far. Not to say it's impossible, as we all know that anything can fail. All you can do is give it a head start by buying the best & hope yours isn't one of them.
Yeah, Samsung beats them at X benchmark, running X amount of uncompressed data with a certain queue depth. But really, who cares? They're synthetic benchmarks and most data on a computer is already quite compressed. Yes, synthetics can serve a purpose and they do at times give much insight into things. IIRC the Sammy even beats the Intel at certain real world tasks like Adobe Premier video writes/saves and such.

I'll admit, I'd probably buy a Sammy, if it weren't for 2 things.
1. They don't stay fast, not for long, due to a lack of overprovisioning with a swap/spare area on each channel.
*This is a problem for how the SSD handles the read/write/block allocate cycles in the memory cells, as well as the inevitable, or at least possible cell failure(s) that will happen. Thus needing spares on each channel, lest it cripple the speed when it has to failover to a new cell/chip.
2. Even if you manually overprovision it, it is recommended to do about 25%, this suddenly makes them more expensive than Intel's SSDs.
So what's the point? This should have been handled at the factory.

At current SSD prices on the Egg, that makes Sammy's 256GB 840 Pro $1.11/GB (rounded up) & Intel's 240GB, pre provisioned drive, $0.88c/GB.

Plenty of people in forums with Samsung SSDs are reporting slowness, periodic bottleneck issues, etc..
Sure, I know, take everything you read on the web with a grain of salt. That's what I do, I throw out about 80% of it and then keep gathering data, chucking a large chunk of it each time. If I see a consistent pattern, I put it all together and sift out the stuff that seems like someone doesn't know what they're reporting and could have prevented, leaving the good data. Then just analyzing that. When I see some big anomaly, like this AnandTech article, which backs up with real tech data & testing, what so many keep reporting about the Sammys, but the rest of the community rebukes, CRYING FOUL!!
I tend to really weigh in on an article like this and give it some serious consideration.

E.v.e.r.y s.i.n.g.l.e review site that you read, will sing nothing but praises for the Samsung SSDs without addressing these 2 key issues.
I don't see how it matters whether it's the fastest horse in the race, if it can't make it to the finish line!!
This site doesn't sugar coat it. But WOW!! Is it a read, but it's worth it!
Sorry to give you so much stuff to read here RatDude, but I know it'll answer & back up my claims. Not to mention you have been INCREDIBLY helpful to me in the past, so I want to return the favor.
Plus, It took me the better part of most of the day, over the course of a weekend early this year, to track down the following articles that got down to the brass tacks of it all. Figuring out if Samsung SSDs were alll they're cracked up to be, along with other brands and their reliability (speed wise mostly) compared to Intel.
Then I had to read them! HAHA That's always fun!

Exploring the Relationship Between Spare Area and Performance Consistency in Modern SSDs - AnandTech
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6489/playing-with-op

Note: This article uses the Intel server/data center drive, the DC S3700 as the Intel comparison, but somewhere else I saw a similar article that compared the Sammy to Intel's consumer drives and got the same results, indicating that Intel does this on their whole line of SSDs. The only differences are the cell types & firmware optimizations for servers and such.

Samsung's 840 Pro SSD (Proof of no Parity Data or NAND redundancy) - The Tech Report
http://techreport.com/review/23990/s...s-ssd-reviewed

The above article proves that Sammy's don't have data parity or nand cell redundancy. That's a HUGE problem if you value your data and system up time. I suppose if you're just a gamer or something and don't care if you have to spend the weekend redoing your system & getting it just the way you want it, then it's not as big of a deal. But I think it is!! Even mechanical HDDs have parity, lazy write buffers, sector reallocation technology /w spares and on and on.

Lastly...
AnandTech - Info on SandForce's NAND redundancy & Data Parity
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4256/t...review-120gb/2

This review/article covers an OCZ drive @ 1st glance, which it does, but it goes on to discuss in great detail how this all works & why it's so important.


On a side note, I wouldn't touch OCZ /w a 10ft pole, they seem to be a hemorrhaging company /w very high SSD failures, among many things.

And just to be fair here, according to one NewEgg reviewer, Intel apparently has a firmware problem with their newest SSD series, the 530, that causes them not be detected at POST on a reboot in some laptops, but does work fine on cold boots/warm boots. IE. Where you actually manually power cycle the machine and turn it back on from an off state, be it cold, or warm.
There's supposed to be a thread on it @ Intel's site. I haven't looked into it yet, but worth checking out.
I wouldn't let it scare me though, just buy it if that's what you decide to go with and if it has the problem, then swap it out for a 520 series, or go /w something else. I'm going to be using their 530 series very soon, so I'll report if it trips out in these cases, or not. I'm sure it'll be fine & is a VERY LIMITED number of older-ish laptops.

See, not a fanboy, otherwise I wouldn't have said those last few paragraphs. I would have buried my head in the sand, hummed and ignored them. :P

[SuperDuty]

Re: SSD suggestions

OCZ SSDs have a pretty bad reputation indeed, I would avoid them, especially the cheaper Agility ones.
Yet I have two Vertex 2 64Gb that have been running perfectly for over three years now. According to CrystalDiskInfo, the one in my computer has run for 10394 hours (457 days), been turned on 1690 times and it used 10% of its life.

[ratdude747]

Re: SSD suggestions

Sorry to give you so much stuff to read here RatDude, but I know it'll answer & back up my claims. Not to mention you have been INCREDIBLY helpful to me in the past, so I want to return the favor.

Don't be sorry... I had no idea about that at all. I'm leaning towards intel myself... and long posts aren't a problem to me, if the info in said post is valid and helpful.

BTW, you're welcome. I try to be helpful... So far you've been helpful too.

[y_not]

Re: SSD suggestions

Don't be sorry... I had no idea about that at all. I'm leaning towards intel myself... and long posts aren't a problem to me, if the info in said post is valid and helpful.

BTW, you're welcome. I try to be helpful... So far you've been helpful too.

Thanks Ratdude!
I really appreciate that, it means a lot to me, as seldom does anyone thank someone on a forum.
I'm glad it was helpful.

Peace out bro!

[eccerr0r]

Re: SSD suggestions

For "regular" SSDs, I own a 180G Intel 520 series and a 128G Crucial M4. Both run at 6Gbps SATA3.
Both are incredibly fast and haven't lost any data from them.
No complaints for the Intel, and some firmware annoyances with the M4 but it hasn't caused any issues. Getting the wear indicator to move is kind of tough, but the larger the SSD you have (or possibly, the more you overprovision), the harder it is to wear out the whole drive...

[shovenose]

Re: SSD suggestions

I would go for Intel, Samsung, or Crucial (in that order).
Personally I use Intel SSDs.
Any SSD-based servers I have run on Samsung, though.
0 failures.

[c_hegge]

Re: SSD suggestions

I have both a Samsung 840 128GB and, more recently, an intel 335 240GB. I haven't noticed any slowdowns or had any problems with either.

[y_not]

Re: SSD suggestions

eccerr0r, shovenose and c_hegge; what OSs do you run on these SSDs and what's the workstation/server's primary task and level of workload?

shovenose, If you prefer Intel to Sammy, how come you use Sammy in your server builds? Very curios, seeing as Intel is all about business.

[ratdude747]

Re: SSD suggestions

Bought a pair of lightly used 120gb Intel 520's for $160 shipped last week... they came two days ago, but I'm out of town and it was signature confirmed so I won't see it till monday (sunday if my parents can sign for it).

I'll probably sell the extra one to my buddy for $80 or so... his gateway's toshiba is dropping sectors by the day...

[cheapie]

Re: SSD suggestions

I don't understand where people are getting the idea that the Samsung 840 series is powers of two (including the site ranting about it earlier). It's 120, 250, and 500 GB.

[Uranium-235]

Re: SSD suggestions

the 840 PRO's are PO2, but the rest of the 840s are not

[mariushm]

Re: SSD suggestions

OCZ filed for bankruptcy ... you may find sales of their SSDs in the near future.

This being said... if you want a SSD pay attention to Amazon's black friday sales... they had some good deals yesterday and if I remember correctly the sales last the whole weekend.
The moment a ssd sale starts, click on the button and then if you like the price, order it in the next 10-15 minutes otherwise you'll lose it.

For example, THIS OCZ Vertex is going to be on sale in about 17 hours from the moment of this post.
Now it's about 110$ for the 128 GB version - it's probably going to be about $70-80 on sale.