Need SSD advice

[Sly]

I am an SSD noob and i have no idea what i'm doing.

BF3 unloads itself every time you decide to switch server, which means a considerably long loading time. Alt-tabbing to access fraps and teamspeak is also a killer. So i think it's time i get an SSD. 100+Gig should do it.

Now i'm afraid i don't know what i'm supposed to look for, especially considering the problems the earlier generations had, and hardware i can get is pretty limited since shipping isn't a common practice here.

This one's about $323.
Corsair Force GT 120gb
http://www.tipidpc.com/viewitem.php?iid=13530100

This one's also 120gig but only $225
120GB GSkill Phoenix Pro
http://www.tipidpc.com/viewitem.php?iid=13546372

And this one's 115gig which is even cheaper at about $180. That's a pretty big difference for 5Gigs.
G.Skill Phoenix EVO 115GB
http://www.tipidpc.com/viewitem.php?iid=13543218



The numbers say that the 115Gig is just as fast as the more expensive 120Gig. So why would i want it? Is the 115Gig an older model? Stability issues?

 

[westrock2000]

Most likely the 115GB one has the same amount of physical memory in it, but more has been set aside in case something goes wrong in the future. More reserve memory is good in the long run, but less useable space is a turn off to customers.

$323 for a 120GB is very excessive here in the United States, but it looks like your over in Malaysia. The safe bet is always the Intel such as the 320 or the 510. Both are solid drives, but not quite as fast as the drives with Sandforce chips. But even then its pretty close depending on the type of benchmark your looking at.

I personally would be a little hesitant to buy a G.Skill brand. But I do not have any real experience with those drives.

Any modern drive should be fine. The early SSD's did have alot of issues, but those were mostly ironed out by 2009 or so. Anything thats come out in the last 2 years will have the features you want and the bugs should be worked out. There are always issues of companies using "cheap" memory, but again thats mostly a name brand and price point thing. If you see a bunch of drives at say $300 and then theres this one that is the same size and only $260, chances are you should stay away from that one.

Of those 3, the middle priced one is probably the best best, unless you can justify the cost difference for the Corsair. Those are good drives, but at this point all the SSD's are awsome compared to what you have now

 

[Sly]

Thanks. Knowing that we've already gotten past the 'buggy' generation is a big relief, that means it should work regardless of brand right? It seemed just a little while ago that 60gig drives were the ones in the $200.00 range

This is the intel 520. It's a little over $500.00 for a 120gig drive. Kind of out of my budget.
http://www.tipidpc.com/viewitem.php?iid=13508963

Divide the price by 43 to get USD. I think i'll look into the G.Skill drives some more.

 

[westrock2000]

Don't kill yourself with one thats too expensive. Like I said any current SSD will more then make itself noticable compared to a platter based harddrive. Just check some of the reviews on the G.Skill and of course take it with a grain of salt. People usually only remember to say something when something goes wrong. Chances are the G.Skill uses a common controller such as Sandforce so it probably isn't too different from an OCZ drive. Actually looking at the specs, it is essentially similar to the OCZ Agility 2 or Vertex 2. It uses the last generation Sandforce SF-1200 which was a good chip. I have 3 drives that are 1-2 years old in various systems based on the SF-1200 and have not had any issues with them (all are 64GB models).

You can read some reviews of the G.Skill Pro here on the Newegg website
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231378