Among The Sea of SSDs - Reliability + Low Price?

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ElectroPulse

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 19, 2013
Messages
129
Hello, all!

I haven't been in the market for an SSD for a few years, the last time being when I purchased my Samsung 830 120GB 3 years ago on-sale for $90 :)

At the time, it seemed like Intel/Samsung > All. However, there are so many companies around with similar pricing, that it would take me a while to find the differences between them.

Intended use: With Windows 10 coming out, I've been looking at upgrading my mother's computer from Windows 7, due to better performance (I'm assuming that based on Windows 8.1's performance over 7). In addition, I've been thinking about getting her a 30GB-60GB SSD to be used as a caching drive for her HDD (so she wouldn't need to worry about deciding which drive to install things on). However, upon examining her computer, which she has been using for two years without reinstalling, I discovered she's only used like 70GB of storage space on there. I'm now looking into the idea of just getting her a 240GB drive, as that should take care of her needs for quite a while.

Her motherboard only supports SATA II, so performance doesn't really matter that much as long as it's over like 350mbps read/write.

I remember back in the day, Sandforce had all kinds of problems. Is this still the case?

What companies are known for having the most reliable SSDs? I'm on a fairly tight budget, so ~$80 or less would be the preferred sweetspot for price.

I ran into the PNY XLR8 while looking on PCPartPicker.com (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00T5EEI8W), and it seems to fit the bill. However, I am unsure if there are any better price/reliability drives around.

Thanks!
ElectroPulse
 
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Thank you for the replies, all!

I looked up the different brands, and after comparing them was leaning toward just bumping my budget up $20 ($20 over the course of an SSD's lifetime isn't much) for the reliability features. However, a few minutes ago I ran across a posting on Dealzon about a deal for a Samsung 850 EVO 250GB for $85 (http://www.dealzon.com/deals/cheap-samsung-ssd#samsung-850-evo-ssd-250gb-mz-75e250bam, in case anyone else is interested - The sale is through Newegg's eBay store), and went ahead jumped on that.
 
ElectroPulse said:
Thank you for the replies, all!

I looked up the different brands, and after comparing them was leaning toward just bumping my budget up $20 ($20 over the course of an SSD's lifetime isn't much) for the reliability features. However, a few minutes ago I ran across a posting on Dealzon about a deal for a Samsung 850 EVO 250GB for $85 (http://www.dealzon.com/deals/cheap-samsung-ssd#samsung-850-evo-ssd-250gb-mz-75e250bam, in case anyone else is interested - The sale is through Newegg's eBay store), and went ahead jumped on that.
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It's showing $99.99 on eBay?

I would love to buy this at $85
 
OK, if Samsung SSDs are so good, how can you explain all these 1-star reviews on the Egg?
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There are currently 11 total 1 star reviews which I is a very small % of the # of units sold.
 
x509 said:
OK, if Samsung SSDs are so good, how can you explain all these 1-star reviews on the Egg? :confused:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA0AJ2VX1082. I see 1-star reviews like this for a bunch of Samsung SSDs. I'm not anti-Samsung, I'm very, very pro-Newegg. To me, the best part of Newegg is all the reviews.
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You linked to their older model that only gas 8% 1 stars, most of those are due to people getting defective units and then never coming back after they got it replaced.
 
Kingston V300!

Before you laugh they work perfectly as superb upgrades for SATA I/II gen hardware and will push 275MBps all day long. Have pushed out around 30+ of these over the past 18 months and have yet to have any issues.

Myself I run exclusively BX100 SSDs. No point buying anything else for general use. You'll never tell the difference.
 
drescherjm said:
There are currently 11 total 1 star reviews which I is a very small % of the # of units sold.
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I bet 10 of those are from numpty Mac users, am I right?

Most 1 star reviews on Amazon are from Mac users.
 
daglesj said:
Myself I run exclusively BX100 SSDs. No point buying anything else for general use. You'll never tell the difference.
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That depends...some people want an SSD that offers a longer warranty, like the 5 or 10 hear offerings out there.

Aside from that, I tend to agree with your statement. Crucial, PNY, OCZ branded Toshiba...just a few that I typically recommend because capacity, performance, reliability, and low price are easily justified.
 
DejaWiz said:
That depends...some people want an SSD that offers a longer warranty, like the 5 or 10 hear offerings out there.
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I can see that but in reality...using a particular SSD as a main system drive say for more than 3 years with the pace of speed and price change?

Is it worth the worry?

Most will have moved on after 2 years.

Buy it, thrash it, if you trash it who cares...you got backups right?
 
daglesj said:
I can see that but in reality...using a particular SSD as a main system drive say for more than 3 years with the pace of speed and price change?

Is it worth the worry?

Most will have moved on after 2 years.

Buy it, thrash it, if you trash it who cares...you got backups right?
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But as you just said...you'll never be able to tell the difference between the speeds of different models. Using the same SSD for 5 or more years would be both economical and convenient.
 
DejaWiz said:
But as you just said...you'll never be able to tell the difference between the speeds of different models. Using the same SSD for 5 or more years would be both economical and convenient.
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I agree...but in reality...who here would?

The SSDs will be palmed off to Mum and Dad etc. and be forgotten after 2-3 years.

Both performance and long warranty are largely irrelevant. Buy on biggest size for lowest price.
 
daglesj said:
I agree...but in reality...who here would?

The SSDs will be palmed off to Mum and Dad etc. and be forgotten after 2-3 years.

Both performance and long warranty are largely irrelevant. Buy on biggest size for lowest price.
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CPUs, GPUs, MoBos, RAM...those are typically the most upgraded components amongst PC enthusiasts. Storage is typically a much longer term thing for most people.
 
DejaWiz said:
CPUs, GPUs, MoBos, RAM...those are typically the most upgraded components amongst PC enthusiasts. Storage is typically a much longer term thing for most people.
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Lol, I'm not usually one to be contrary but I'd currently say over the past 4-5 years the reverse of that is true. There have been more exciting radical developments in storage than in the other components.

However, as in all cases YMMV.:cool:
 
daglesj said:
Kingston V300!
Click to expand...

I wont laugh. Ive deployed many of these and not had a failure yet. However, i stopped using them when i started seeing their performance vary greatly across the same model. Turned out that Kingston was sometimes using asynchronous DRAM and it was cutting performance by up to 66% in some cases.

I switchedto Samsung 840 EVO, and then 850 EVO, have deployed hundreds of each, and zero have failed. And their performancehas been very satisfactory. RAPID is a nice extra, magician works well. Very happy.

Enjoy OP!
 
r00k said:
I wont laugh. Ive deployed many of these and not had a failure yet. However, i stopped using them when i started seeing their performance vary greatly across the same model. Turned out that Kingston was sometimes using asynchronous DRAM and it was cutting performance by up to 66% in some cases.
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Yes I was well aware of that shenanigans. However, as stated they will push 275MBps all day long and that means they are perfect for a 5-6 year old SATA II PC or laptop upgrade. Not had a complaint yet, just "Wow this is amazingly fast now!" If a newer SATA III machine comes in for upgrade then a BX100 will go in or similar.

No point putting in a 850 EVO in a SATA I/II setup plus they are the cheapest SSD you can buy in the UK 99 times out of 100.

Much better than the 60MBps 160GB 5400rpm rust spinner they replaced. :D
 
Intel, Crucial, Plextor. I've found these to be the most reliable, a factor I find more valuable than that last 5% of speed in the benchmarks.

I'm also partial to Marvell based controllers. 'Less "tricks" being played with your data.
 
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