SSD now or wait?

EquaLiZr

EquaLiZr

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Im biting the bit on this for the last few weeks and debating on if i should get one or not. Im able to either get the kingston v series $150 64gig or the patriot warp 2 64gig for $220.

Need to know asap as they are on hold and wont be back in stock for quite some time. Specs are in sig and im using win 7 64bit
 
I would look at the 80gb intel x 25 g2 that is the one most people seem to be getting right now. I just got one of the new 40gb kingston drives because it uses the same controller as the intel drive but its a little small so I plan on running two in raid 0 as soon as I can pick up another one though.

I dont think that 64gb kingston drive uses the same controller (Can someone confirm this) so it is not that great.
 
dont go for the patriot warp2, get the kingston v+ notice the +, not the regular v series, it can be had for less than 200, and pretty darn good drive, it uses the samsung controller so you gotta wait if you want any firmware updates and hope it comes with the latest firmware, samsung is being really lazy about making their flash utility available to public, even though they said they would sometime soon. or go with the intel, I just got a good deal on my samsung 256gb so I went for it, and hope someone realease a firmware update for the samsung based drive.
mwave.com had the intel 80gb gen2 onsale for like 250 the other day, go with that one if space isn't an issue.
 
brent4president said:
wait. intel dropped the ball, ask anyone
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Yes, they screwed up their firmware release. This thread is about the OP buying his first SSD so I don't think he will be updating with an already pulled firmware.

OP, that G2 from mwave seems to be the way to go for SSD's right now. Performance is great with the shipped firmware so no worries there.
 
I have a 300 gig raptor...I'm waiting for the prices to fall...I've had 74 gig raptors, and even the 150 raptor. I need more space than that. I need all my games and apps on the fast OS HD. I play too many games I guess ;)

cod 4, 5, and 6 take up like 30 gigs just between the 3 of them...
 
Why does mwave have two versions of the OEM 80GB X25-M for $259 and $269? I'm about to pull the trigger on an 80GB for my new lappy but don't want to get stuck with an older OEM version (if there's such a thing)
 
trinibwoy said:
Why does mwave have two versions of the OEM 80GB X25-M for $259 and $269? I'm about to pull the trigger on an 80GB for my new lappy but don't want to get stuck with an older OEM version (if there's such a thing)
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They both show the same part number which is the important part. As long as the next to last to digits are G2 then it should be fine. I'd go with the one for $259..... :)

http://www.mwave.com/mwave/skusearch_v3.asp?scriteria=BA36252&parent=2

To be specific though - Intel made a minor change to the part numbers but it's the same drive.

http://communities.intel.com/thread/7185
 
Sweet, thanks for the info! :)

edit: picked it up for $249 after $10 coupon code "HARVEST09".
 
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brent4president said:
wait. intel dropped the ball, ask anyone
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and everyone also knows that Intel will fix the firmware..... they might not get it done overnight but it will be fixed and the Intel G2 SSD's do rock

trinibwoy said:
Sweet, thanks for the info! :)

edit: picked it up for $249 after $10 coupon code "HARVEST09".
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Heh - you will not regret it - I have 2 now. I did run the bad firmware upgrade on one but fortunatley it did not blow up on me and it's working flawlessly with full TRIM support on Windows 7. :) The other I'm waiting till they fix the new firmware and I see some reports from users on how it's working. Just use it as it comes and when new firmware comes out just wait a week to be sure others are not having issues. Even without TRIM the G2 Intel drives run great.
 
Yep, that's the plan. This is for a laptop and even a slow SSD will blow away the fastest laptop HDD so TRIM support isn't high on my priority list right now :)
 
[H]'er;1034902439 said:
...

cod 4, 5, and 6 take up like 30 gigs just between the 3 of them...
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This may be a stupid question: but if I were to install something like Modern Warfare 2 to an SSD while I was playing it regularly, could I later drag (copy/transfer) its folders from the SSD to the HDD when I only play it intermittently without damaging the game (i.e. have it be fully functional in the new drive) and avoid a complete uninstall / reinstall?

I'd like to keep the OS & key apps on the SSD, and maybe the game I'm currently playing a lot of, but am concerned with doing so on an SSD until they get the TRIM issue resolved. Otherwise, it doesn't seem to me to make much sense putting 'volitile' programs like games (install, play, uninstall, install the next one, play; repeat.) on the SSD if it turns to molassus once full.
 
i'm not talking about the latest firmware, i meant prices were supposed to drop, but intel couldnt keep up with the demand and now everything's all messed up
 
DarkSideA8 said:
This may be a stupid question: but if I were to install something like Modern Warfare 2 to an SSD while I was playing it regularly, could I later drag (copy/transfer) its folders from the SSD to the HDD when I only play it intermittently without damaging the game (i.e. have it be fully functional in the new drive) and avoid a complete uninstall / reinstall?

I'd like to keep the OS & key apps on the SSD, and maybe the game I'm currently playing a lot of, but am concerned with doing so on an SSD until they get the TRIM issue resolved. Otherwise, it doesn't seem to me to make much sense putting 'volitile' programs like games (install, play, uninstall, install the next one, play; repeat.) on the SSD if it turns to molassus once full.
Click to expand...

Yes, try something like mklink, which allows you to move your stuff to a HD when you're done playing and it won't break your install.
 
I'm waiting, for 3 things.

1) Price to be reasonable. $500+ for 160GB is way too much.
2) Firmware needs to work and not make a working drive useless.
3) I want to know that my drive, using it as any normal HDD won't suddenly die or lose performance due to wear. I know HDDs wear, but I have a few 15K Seagate Cheeta SCSI drives that are still working after about 7 years of use. If I understand correctly eventually an SSD loses performance as it's used. So if I keep my system for a long time, unless I have TRIM, I will slowly get slower and slower performance. I don't know about the deathrate of them either. No click of death to warn you, but you might one day end up with a blank drive for no reason? Can that happen?
 
cmdrdredd said:
I'm waiting, for 3 things.

1) Price to be reasonable. $500+ for 160GB is way too much.
2) Firmware needs to work and not make a working drive useless.
3) I want to know that my drive, using it as any normal HDD won't suddenly die or lose performance due to wear. I know HDDs wear, but I have a few 15K Seagate Cheeta SCSI drives that are still working after about 7 years of use. If I understand correctly eventually an SSD loses performance as it's used. So if I keep my system for a long time, unless I have TRIM, I will slowly get slower and slower performance. I don't know about the deathrate of them either. No click of death to warn you, but you might one day end up with a blank drive for no reason? Can that happen?
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1) I can't argue much against that. Early adopters and those who wish to run bleeding edge tech have to be willing to pay to play...others should wait until prices fall.

2) While I agree, and the recent Intel fiasco was not a pleasant experience for many G2 owners, it's not like all drives suffer from firmware botches. Plenty of Indilinx drive owners have flashed to newer firmwares without incident, so I wouldn't stay away from SSDs just because you're worried about a firmware update borking the drive. Hopefully Intel will redeem themselves with the next firmware release (I'll definitely wait for others to flash their drives first though) :D

3) Reading a couple of Anand's articles on SSDs will help you understand the nature of SSDs in much greater detail. Basically, SSDs perform best when there is little or no data written to them, but so do mechanical hard drives. As data is written to an SSD, it slows until it hits steady state performance...however, hard drive access suffers as more data is written to a mechanical drive also. Different SSDs take different performance hits as they approach steady state (obviously the better designed ones suffer less of a degradation). And as Anand states, even when an SSD has reached steady state, its performance is still much higher than what a mechanical drive could hope to achieve. Finally, garbage collection and TRIM on the newer drives & firmwares work to restore the performance to closer to what it was when the drive was fresh.

As for what happens when the flash wears out, it is my understanding that you'll still be able to read from the drive...you just won't be able to write to it. This is in contrast to a mechanical drive where, when it dies, you typically cannot read OR write. And according to the following article, a good SSD keeps track of its wear leveling and will warn you ahead of time before it fails.

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/intel/showdoc.aspx?i=3403&p=5

In addition to the above article, I also recommend these:

http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3531&p=1

http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3631

The $ per GB factor might still be the thing that keeps you from buying an SSD, and there's nothing wrong with that, but I hope you will read those informative articles in order to better understand the technology. Pretty neat stuff. :)
 
I think I am going to try and jump on the 80 gig Intel befoe Christmas. I am hoping there are some good deals during black Friday.

I do a ton of multitasking, and being able to have programs open up and work faster would be very beneficial.
 
EquaLiZr said:
...the kingston v series $150 64gig...
Click to expand...

I'm running this drive right now (in a netbook though) and it's great for what I use it for - for a desktop though, I'd probably either go all or none with an SSD now and get something on par with the intel drives, or just wait a few months (at the most).
 
I just received my first SSD from the egg today. Saw read rates more than double from my old 500gb Samsung HD501LJ. ~80Mb/sec to ~173Mb/sec average with burst rates of 220Mb/sec on my new Kingston SNV125-S2/40GB. I got it when it was on Shell Shocker for $85 + $10 extra for a normally $70 NZXT case. Very happy so far, though I'm probably going to have to order a second one to run in Raid 0 as my 40 is already full after loading Windows 7 and 2 games. Not that big of a deal though, as I can just replace the games if I need to.

hdtunebenchmarksamsunghx.png

hdtunebenchmarkkingston.png
 
Caducus said:
... Not that big of a deal though, as I can just replace the games if I need to.
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You sure it's not that big of a deal? IIRC, if that drive doesn't support TRIM, it's gonna get sluggish after you've replaced a game or two...
 
IIRC the Intel G2 based drives only lose a little bit of performance after all the sectors have been used, which is still pretty fast.
 
so which drives have Trim? I was thinking about getting the Patriot Torqz 64gig.
 
EquaLiZr said:
so which drives have Trim? I was thinking about getting the Patriot Torqz 64gig.
Click to expand...

Indilinx drives do. I recommend OCZ because they are the premier vendor for Indilinx. The Agility series or the Vertex series are worth a look.

The drives are already shipping with TRIM firmware pre-installed (I got mine two weeks ago, and it was already installed). IF it's not installed, the upgrade process is fairly simple (so long as you can put the SATA slot in legacy IDE mode for the upgrade).
 
Caducus said:
I just received my first SSD from the egg today. Saw read rates more than double from my old 500gb Samsung HD501LJ. ~80Mb/sec to ~173Mb/sec average with burst rates of 220Mb/sec on my new Kingston SNV125-S2/40GB. I got it when it was on Shell Shocker for $85 + $10 extra for a normally $70 NZXT case. Very happy so far, though I'm probably going to have to order a second one to run in Raid 0 as my 40 is already full after loading Windows 7 and 2 games. Not that big of a deal though, as I can just replace the games if I need to.
Click to expand...

My Kingston SNV125-S2/40GB came with firmware 2CV102HA which is the latest firmware support TRIM from Intel. I have not test it yet.

I will use this Kingston 40GB as OS and SuperTalent Ultra Drive 64GB for my portable apps and Virtual Machine.

Since I got the SuperTalent Ultra Drive SSD 3 months ago and I am hooked to SSD.
 
I bought the Intel 160 GB G2 and I am really impressed by its performance. I have no longer have to wait for my applications to start up. And this gives more free time to browse the [H] forums. :cool:
 
Matador said:
My Kingston SNV125-S2/40GB came with firmware 2CV102HA which is the latest firmware support TRIM from Intel. I have not test it yet.

I will use this Kingston 40GB as OS and SuperTalent Ultra Drive 64GB for my portable apps and Virtual Machine.
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That's very interesting news, thanks. I assume you ordered from Newegg?
 
DarkSideA8 said:
You sure it's not that big of a deal? IIRC, if that drive doesn't support TRIM, it's gonna get sluggish after you've replaced a game or two...
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Do you even know what you are talking about?

The slowdown that occurs on the drive without Trim only affects writes to the drive. It is the Write speed that slows down. The speed which files are read from your drive (which is what determines game loading time, etc), is not affected.

Even then it only slows down a little bit, and once you've filled all sectors on the new drive the performance will level out. It is not a situation where performance will continue to deteriorate; once you've written enough information to the drive to fill it's entire capacity you've already reached your minimum write performance, which is actually still very fast.
 
Well i went with 2x Seagate baracudas 500gig 16meg cache 7200.12 drives and they are quite fast, over 190meg/s averaged in raid 0 striped. Only cost me $105can with tax :)
 
defaultluser said:
Indilinx drives do. I recommend OCZ because they are the premier vendor for Indilinx. The Agility series or the Vertex series are worth a look.

The drives are already shipping with TRIM firmware pre-installed (I got mine two weeks ago, and it was already installed). IF it's not installed, the upgrade process is fairly simple (so long as you can put the SATA slot in legacy IDE mode for the upgrade).
Click to expand...

How do you know if it has TRIM installed or not? Is there an info tool somewhere?
 
cmdrdredd said:
How do you know if it has TRIM installed or not? Is there an info tool somewhere?
Click to expand...

I'm assuming you're asking for OCZ drives, right?

It's very easy if you already have Windows installed:

Right click on Computer -> Properties -> Device Manager -> Disk Drives -> open up your SSD and go to the Details tab, and look at Hardware IDs. This should contain either v1.3 (no TRIM) or 1.4 (TRIM).

You can verify that TRIM is working FOR ANY SSD by performing the following check (search for "cmd," you might have to right-click and run-as admin):

http://forums.legitreviews.com/about23670.html
 
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