SSD Comparison/Suggestions (small size)

[limitedaccess]

Need some thoughts an opinions on these, I'm not too familiar specifically with SSDs. Or if someone has a better option. Person wants to spend as low as possible and focus on value, as long as requirements are met. Location is Canada.

Corsair Force Series 60GB ($127)
Crucial C300 64gb (~$116-$130)
Kingston SSDNow V100 Series 64GB ($95-$105)
Intel 320 Series GEN3 40GB ($80-$90)
Intel X25-V 40GB ($90-$95)
OCZ Vertex 2 Extended Sandforce 60GB ($113)

From what I understand the Intels are smaller capacity and worse performance, but more reliable? The drive will be for boot, some productivity apps, maybe some games if there is space. Will be used with Win 7 and a Intel P67 motherboard. Thanks.

 

[john4200]

In that price range, your best bet is a 64GB Crucial C300 or m4. Avoid OCZ.

 

[Abula]

For a small ssd the best imo would be SAMSUNG 470 Series MZ-5PA064/US 2.5" 64GB SATA II Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) $109 (in stock on tuesday), it has much higher writes than most small ssds, with 170mg/s, and its reads are 250MB/s which are basically what most sata II good ssds hit, C300 on sata III would be my second choice with really good sequential reads 355MB/sec (SATA 6Gb/s) / 265MB/sec (SATA 3Gb/s), although its weakness is its sequential writes with 75MB/sec.

 

[limitedaccess]

In that price range, your best bet is a 64GB Crucial C300 or m4. Avoid OCZ.

What is pros/cons of the C300 vs the M4? I know when reading up on the C300, the numbers were very impressive. But I heard some mentions in that it doesn't hold performance over the long term well, notably compared to the Intel's? It was actually my front runner before reading that. The second choice being the Corsair Force (if the person wanted to spend some more).

For a small ssd the best imo would be SAMSUNG 470 Series MZ-5PA064/US 2.5" 64GB SATA II Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) $109 (in stock on tuesday), it has much higher writes than most small ssds, with 170mg/s, and its reads are 250MB/s which are basically what most sata II good ssds hit, C300 on sata III would be my second choice with really good sequential reads 355MB/sec (SATA 6Gb/s) / 265MB/sec (SATA 3Gb/s), although its weakness is its sequential writes with 75MB/sec.

Unfortunately the only place to buy that available in Canada (newegg.ca has different inventory) is at tigerdirect.ca for $130, but I'm not sure if they person will want to wait for shipping either.

 

[havermeyer]

What is pros/cons of the C300 vs the M4?

The M4 is the replacement of C300. Anand's review covers the changes in depth: http://www.anandtech.com/show/4253/the-crucial-m4-micron-c400-ssd-review

I know when reading up on the C300, the numbers were very impressive. But I heard some mentions in that it doesn't hold performance over the long term well, notably compared to the Intel's?

The source of that info is probably: http://www.anandtech.com/show/3812/the-ssd-diaries-crucials-realssd-c300/8 The knock on the idle garbage collection (i.e. no TRIM) is that (as of firmware 002) it is slow to regain performance when flogged with random writes. Running a single drive in Windows 7 (with TRIM), you shouldn't see this.

There are also quite a few people here running C300s in RAID 0 (so no TRIM) who seem quite happy with them, so again, I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[limitedaccess]

Thanks, I will discuss it over with the person. It will probably be whether he wants something cheaper like the Kingston or move up for the Crucials.