SSD really worth it?

[NastyNative]

I've been looking for an SSD drive to stick into my i7 build.

Every website I go to read reviews on SSD (tigerdirect/newegg/amazon ect)
have some serious issues with these drives.
Everything from dying quickly/firm ware updates/not transferring at speeds advertised.

Is SSD really even worth it.
Sure its nice to have my OS load up quick, but its no like I'm at my desk going "Man, I really wish my OS would load up 8 secs faster"

Sure some do work , but most are dying in about 18 months.

If you had an SSD drive longer than that please post make and model Im really interested.
Also add why you think its worth it. For me i'll be mainly gaming BF3 baby cant wait.

 

[drescherjm]

Sure some do work , but most are dying in about 18 months.

This is wrong. SSDs have a higher life expectation than sata hard drives. Also lower failure rates. Some drives (Intel SSDs) have less than 1% annual failure rate. While hard drives the expectation is 2% to 8% annual failure rates for their 5 year expected hard drive life.

If you had an SSD drive longer than that please post make and model Im really interested.

My 80GB G1 intel 25X-M has been going strong since spring/summer 2009 and the last time I looked I was at 99% life left in the drive.

 

[NastyNative]

So all these people on these sites are just posting lies...???

I will def check out your drive...


any new ones that you would recommend?

 

[Trepidati0n]

I've been looking for an SSD drive to stick into my i7 build.

Every website I go to read reviews on SSD (tigerdirect/newegg/amazon ect)
have some serious issues with these drives.
Everything from dying quickly/firm ware updates/not transferring at speeds advertised.

Is SSD really even worth it.
Sure its nice to have my OS load up quick, but its no like I'm at my desk going "Man, I really wish my OS would load up 8 secs faster"

Sure some do work , but most are dying in about 18 months.

If you had an SSD drive longer than that please post make and model Im really interested.
Also add why you think its worth it. For me i'll be mainly gaming BF3 baby cant wait.

Valid source? I'm not sure if you know this...but when it comes to reviews, they are heavily slanted towards failure. Based upon your logic, we should let the media determine who innocent and guilty in court cases and screw the jury, judges, and prosecution.

 

[ToddW2]

Your post is full of BS you've read on the internet and assumed to be the truth.

It's such a loaded post and question it's not even worthy of a reply other than SEARCH & READ - everything's been covered at least 5x in the last month alone

 

[NastyNative]

Well reviews are a huge part of me purchasing an item.
If the item has tons of review with people who actually purchased the item "certified purchase"
I tend to belive them..

Im not sure how SSD reviews have anything to do with how media determines innocence.

If you own a SSD drive and have had a good experience with it please share it.

 

[ToddW2]

Valid source? I'm not sure if you know this...but when it comes to reviews, they are heavily slanted towards failure. Based upon your logic, we should let the media determine who innocent and guilty in court cases and screw the jury, judges, and prosecution.

10/1 ratio of people complaining vs good reviews is MY guess.

When something works it works and no one talks about it much.

I agree with you 100%

 

[NastyNative]

Your post is full of BS you've read on the internet and assumed to be the truth.

It's such a loaded post and question it's not even worthy of a reply other than SEARCH & READ - everything's been covered at least 5x in the last month alone

why did you reply?

 

[Trepidati0n]

why did you reply?

The reason why people are tizzed up about this is you started taking "comments" and posting them as facts. For example "they are all dying in 18 months". That kind of shit is flat out libel.

A more useful approach would have been posting:

I've been reading a bunch of reviews on different sites (newegg, amazon, etc) and it appears that SSD appear failure prone and not meeting performance expectations. However, I keep reading reviews from professional sites that show how good they are. Could someone please help me understand what I'm missing?

 

[Ravynmagi]

I think SSD drives are worth it. Not just the OS loads faster, all your apps do. The OS feels more responsive, doesn't lag when you have multiple applications accessing the drive at once. It's really nice.

Yes, there have been failures that have made the news. Intel apparently has some situation going on right now and there have been others. But these issues are actually a pretty small minority. I really wouldn't let it scare me off from an SSD. But like with spinning drives, there is always that chance of failure, so it's still a good idea to back up what you can't afford to lose.

 

[NastyNative]

The reason why people are tizzed up about this is you started taking "comments" and posting them as facts. For example "they are all dying in 18 months". That kind of shit is flat out libel.

A more useful approach would have been posting:

Sure I understand, but Im not going to sugar coat, these people are straight up bashing SSD drives and some of the reviews were leading me to belive that SSD drives are crap.
Im not talking about random reviews either, but from people that actually purchased SSD.

Thats is why I came in here to see what peeps had to say about it thats all.

I want to purchase an SSD but dont know which model or brand are the best right now.
Which is hard to find when every were I go to purchase it SSD drives have really bad reviews. Go to newegg and check out the review from verified purchasers, you will see for your self.

 

[NastyNative]

I think SSD drives are worth it. Not just the OS loads faster, all your apps do. The OS feels more responsive, doesn't lag when you have multiple applications accessing the drive at once. It's really nice.

Yes, there have been failures that have made the news. Intel apparently has some situation going on right now and there have been others. But these issues are actually a pretty small minority. I really wouldn't let it scare me off from an SSD. But like with spinning drives, there is always that chance of failure, so it's still a good idea to back up what you can't afford to lose.

Thanks for the informative post Ravy which SSD are u using and with your experience what SSD drive model and brand do you find to be the best.

 

[OldSchool]

Oh, this thread again?

Getting an SSD was the single most impressive component upgrade I have ever seen. I have had an 80GB G2 Intel X-25M for ~20 mo now without a single issue. If you are worried about reliability buy an Intel, they are universally considered the most reliable manufacturer.

 

[Coaxial]

I agree with Oldschool. I made the SSD switch about a year ago and it PAINS me to use a computer without one. I haven't had any problems with mine yet, using a corsair nova 128gb, the same one that is in the [H]otdeals section. Think of how much has changed in computers over the last decade or two, the only thing still remotely the same is the hard drive! Up until SSDs came out at least.

I can only speak for myself, but I'll put it this way: every computer I build from here on out will have an SSD in it.


Edit with some questions/examples: You're on [H], so I assume you tinker with your computer quite a bit like the majority of us. Think of every time you've wanted to install drivers/updates/software. Sure, it doesn't happen instantly with an SSD, but it's orders of magnitudes faster. Every time a map loads in FPS games I have a grin watching that bar zip across, and that's with my *slow* SSD from a year ago! These new ones are twice as fast!

It's really the last thing left that will make a high-end computer *feel* high-end. I've had people use my computer to go on the web, click firefox and go "what the hell?!" Because it pops up instantly. Just my .02

 

[GeorgeHR]

Lots of users here (including myself) are not too impressed by the performance. While there are some instances where a SSD will make a difference, there are just as many if not more instances where it will not make a difference.

 

[Jesse B]

Sure I understand, but Im not going to sugar coat, these people are straight up bashing SSD drives and some of the reviews were leading me to belive that SSD drives are crap.
Im not talking about random reviews either, but from people that actually purchased SSD.

Customer reviews are probably one of the worst sources out there. 90% of the time the bad review is given due to ignorance. Go look at ANY case out there, and somebody will complain it only holds X drives when it's CLEARLY advertised, and they knew that before purchasing. The same goes for every other component out there.

 

[ToddW2]

I am 100% with OldSchool on exactly what he posted.

Except I have 3 Intel SSD in use 15months+ no problems
1 in use 2+ months no problems.

Single biggest improvement I`ve made to any PC in the last 17 years.

Will you notice it? Maybe, Maybe not... YOU have to determine this

 

[rive22]

I wouldn't worry too much about reliability for now. As long as they are covered under warranty it's all good, when they break just send em back and get replacements. And backup should be mandatory anyway, no matter what kind of drives you're running.

 

[GoldenTiger]

I wouldn't worry too much about reliability for now. As long as they are covered under warranty it's all good, when they break just send em back and get replacements. And backup should be mandatory anyway, no matter what kind of drives you're running.

This, and they're more reliable than platter drives anyway.

I've had my main 256GB SSD since late August/early Sep, 2009, LOVE the thing... it was one of the first to launch that had TRIM support. It is simply the best upgrade I've made to a computer, ever... no qualifications, just hands-down. Load stutters in games are gone; things load obscenely fast; system remains smooth even while lots of disk IO is going on; etc. It's almost like having everything loaded in RAM in terms of experience vs. a normal hard drive.

I just recently grabbed another 256GB SSD that I'll probably be putting into this same system, just to have more room... though I'm debating if I really need it after all, haven't opened it yet. There's really no question at all though that SSD's are AMAZING, even the slowest SSD is way faster than the fastest consumer HDD due to the sub-0.1ms access times vs. 8-13ms on HDD's for smallish reads/writes (or worse).

 

[NastyNative]

Hey thanks for all the positive feed back on SSD drives.

So Intel SSD sounds like what I will be shopping for.

I found this video , freaking hilarious...

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96dWOEa4Djs"]‪Samsung SSD Awesomeness‬‏ - YouTube[/ame]

24 SSD RAID..

 

[Sycraft]

Sure I understand, but Im not going to sugar coat, these people are straight up bashing SSD drives and some of the reviews were leading me to belive that SSD drives are crap.
Im not talking about random reviews either, but from people that actually purchased SSD.

Well something to remember is that people are more likely to post bad reviews. The reason is that when something goes wrong they feel wronged and want to bitch about it. So while reviews can be useful, you can't put too much stock in them.

Now unfortunately I can't give you any useful SSD life info as I just don't have enough experience. I have some SSDs that I own myself that I've had only for a little while, and we have a couple at work. That isn't enough to build an opinion on long term reliability.

In theory, they should last longer unless subjected to heavy writes since they are not mechanical devices. In practice, of course, things can be different.

In general I'd make the same recommendation I make with HDDs: Get one with a good warranty and make regular backups. I've seen plenty of HDD failures in my time as IT support so I never view them as reliable. Same deal with SSDs. If you get them, get another drive, a regular HDD would work fine, and back up to it.

 

[Coaxial]

Hey thanks for all the positive feed back on SSD drives.

So Intel SSD sounds like what I will be shopping for.

Glad we could change your mind Honestly, it's just one of those things you have to experience first-hand to truly appreciate. Make sure you come back and update this thread with the answer to your question.

 

[e2g]

Like has been said a bunch of times on this thread, a lot of ppl bitch and complain more often than they do come back rejoicing. This is not a bad thing if you know how to read/use this information but can definitely see it being a bad impression for a newbie.

Anyways, I have two OCZ Agility 2's in each of my (2) HTPCs. I bought one in Oct 2010 (which I just got RMA'ed back in May 2011), and I bought one in Feb 2011, and has been working so far.

 

[Makaveli@BETA]

So all these people on these sites are just posting lies...???

I will def check out your drive...


any new ones that you would recommend?

The problem is when a noob start reading post from other noobs on newegg etc its basically the blind following the blind. Then believing those post to be fact you just made a wrong turn and now going down the street called FAIL!

 

[Red Falcon]

The reason why people are tizzed up about this is you started taking "comments" and posting them as facts. For example "they are all dying in 18 months". That kind of shit is flat out libel.

A more useful approach would have been posting:

This.

OP, do some research (i.e. a google search). Once you pick out a few models you like, we can help you further from there.

Seriously, your post was filled with BS statements that you found on the net, don't believe everything you read.

We're more than happy to help, but do some searching so we can better help you.