Best $100 SSD drive

H

havokator

Limp Gawd
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Mar 12, 2003
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I am looking for the best/fastest SSD drive for $100 or less. Size doesn't matter (32gb is fine).

Are these 2 any good? Which one would be faster for a boot drive? Should I just be looking for the fastest advertised read/write speed?

Corsair Nova CSSD-V32GB2-BRKT 2.5" 32GB SATA II
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233122

Imation M-Class 27509 2.5" 32GB SATA II MLC Internal
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820322012


Also, can I run an SSD on an older P4 SATA I machine running Windows XP without any problems or do I need to upgrade to Windows 7?
 
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Personally, for a $100 budget I would get a 40GB Intel X-25V (and I did just that myself for my netbook in Dec).
 
That drive is more than $100, and those read/write specs are not true for real data.
 
Sandforce uses some compression algorithms on the data. This allows it to have very high write speeds with "compressible" data. When they write data for benchmarking, it's just all zeroes or all ones, so the Sandforce drives compress it and get really high benchmarks. However, with real world data, it cannot reach the advertised speeds. Or at least that's my understanding of the situation.
 
So it sounds like the Intel X25-V is the drive to get? From doing some research, it sounds like the intel SSD's are also the most reliable.

My other question is, do I need to upgrade to Windows 7 to use an SSD properly or can I stick with Windows XP?

And will a SATA II drive work fine in older SATA I motherboard?


john4200 said:
That drive is more than $100, and those read/write specs are not true for real data.
Click to expand...
Well if the speed is really that much faster, I think it would be worth the extra $5.
 
havokator said:
Well if the speed is really that much faster, I think it would be worth the extra $5.
Click to expand...

If you had mentioned you are open to going over $100, then I would have recommended the 64GB Crucial C300. It is the best choice for low-capacity SSDs. It has a sequential write speed about double the X25-V.

For an SSD, you probably should upgrade to Windows 7. While SSDs can be used with XP, there are several annoyances that have to be handled manually.

Any SATA drive should work on any SATA port. Of course, with SATA 1.5Gbps, your maximum speed will be less than 150MB/s.
 
I need a drive that will work on a SATA I controller temporarily. I know the speed will be limited, and the drive will eventually be put onto a SATA III board.

Is this drive one of the C300 that you would recommend:
Crucial RealSSD C300 CTFDDAC064MAG-1G1 2.5" 64GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148357&cm_re=C300-_-20-148-357-_-Product

Is this drive significantly faster than the Intel X25-V? Also, I'm curious why the 1.8'' is cheaper than the 2.5'' drive. Is it because the 1.8'' drive uses a different SATA connection? From the picture, the power connector looks different.



Also, what is wrong with the Sandforce based drives with advertised speed of 280/270MB/s such as these? Is the Intel X25-V actually faster for real world usage because of the compression used by the Sandforce controller?
Mushkin Enhanced Callisto Deluxe MKNSSDCL40GB-DX 2.5" 40GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226168
A-DATA S599 AS599S-40GM-C 2.5" 40GB SATA II Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211487&cm_re=s599-_-20-211-487-_-Product (price just dropped to $99)
Corsair Force F40 CSSD-F40GB2 2.5" 40GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233130
 
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If you're willing to buy it from somewhere else, Superbiiz has the C300 for $119.99.
 
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