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Best 256GB SSD

K

KarsusTG

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Aug 27, 2010
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Looking for the best 256ish GB SSD around or under the $500 price point. I will be buying in the next couple weeks.

It seems the SSD's of this size and larger are having extreme stability issues. Is this generally true, or is it just that more people will post when they have a problem than when they don't?

I have previously had a 60GB SSD and even with the registry tweak putting my profile on the physical drive and just windows 7 and my baseline was putting it at just under 50%... I need something bigger. Anyone have any suggestions?
 
The only SSDs that are having issues are Sandforce based.

For under $500, I recommend this SSD:

$390.99 - Crucial M4 CT256M4SSD2 2.5" 256GB SATA
 
Good deal and thanks for the heads up. I might be buying this next week hehe.
 
I would stay far away from that Maximum PC recommendation. Read the threads about OCZ and Sandforce based drives in general.
 
thecaptainjs said:
Maximum PC Recommends:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227707
Click to expand...

With few exceptions, the big review sites tend to 'recommend' whatever the free samples from the manufacturers suggest they should recommend. Trash a product too bad and no more free samples. And unfortunately the review game isn't about truth in reviews, its about page views and keeping the reviews flowing and the website profitable.

The smart money goes with the Micron based drives right now, Crucial C300 or M4.
 
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Ok let's see my g.skill phoenix pro is sandforce based last time I checked, I have 7gb left of free space(out of 58ish) and still 100% health. The only thing I can't do is use sleep(who the hell uses that on a hefty desktop/gaming machine anyways?). and that has been known. So cut the bs with sandforce, its not an awful controller, except maybe ocz since I guess their drivers are meant to kill your SSD lol.

Anyways, the recommended crucial is the best choice, even after what I said.
 
I own several small OCZ and Intel drives and they all have worked fine.

About 6 months ago I bought a 240 Gig Vertex 2 drive. It crapped out 2 months ago and had to be RMA'd to OCZ.

OCZ makes some really good products right now, but they like to be on the bleeding edge. That can be a dangerous place to play.

Personally, I need a bit more security than cutting edge performance, so I am shopping for either an Intel or Crucial to replace the drive I had to swap in for the OCZ that died. I am still hemming about whether to go with Sata 2 or 3.

Don
 
I dont really need bleeding edge. I believe in fast, but stable. I would really like to be able to run 2 layer encryption while still being faster than my 7200rpm HDD, but I might still be dreaming...
 
xIronCrossx said:
Ok let's see my g.skill phoenix pro is sandforce based last time I checked, I have 7gb left of free space(out of 58ish) and still 100% health. The only thing I can't do is use sleep(who the hell uses that on a hefty desktop/gaming machine anyways?). and that has been known. So cut the bs with sandforce, its not an awful controller, except maybe ocz since I guess their drivers are meant to kill your SSD lol.
Click to expand...

One data point does not a conclusion make (to quote Yoda).
 
KarsusTG said:
I dont really need bleeding edge. I believe in fast, but stable. I would really like to be able to run 2 layer encryption while still being faster than my 7200rpm HDD, but I might still be dreaming...
Click to expand...

Full disk encryption ? If yes, it will be very difficult to predict the results (both in speed and reliability). I've been wondering for years what FDE would do to an SSD, but I never tried. It should significantly impact write amplification, all the while rendering trim and any kind of garbage collection and compression useless.
 
I have not tested it either. I saw some benchmarks for some sata II ssd's running two layer FDE that put them just barely faster than a normal 7200rpm 1TB drive, so I am guessing a sata III has to still be significantly faster after two layer.

Anyone with a spare sata III SSD wanna do some benchmarking for us?!?!

At work, we use FDE with normal mechanical drives and honestly it's a pain in the ass...
 
Besides the reliability problems with Sandforce based SSDs you should not use an SSD with compression for this task since encryption is generally not compressible.
 
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i own an ocz agility 2 for my laptop.. its great..

but i recently was in the same boat like you for my desktop...

i went with the 256gb crucial m4 because of consistency and i did not want to take the gamble with ocz had to offer again...

i highly recommend the crucial m4.. i grabbed it off amazon when it was around 390 :)
 
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