• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

Trying to choose an SSD

A

AirPower4ever

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 20, 2009
Messages
131
So I have read here in the forums and at other websites about SSD's. I have two of them for some low level work systems which do not get used a lot, but now I am looking for a couple more for my wife's system and mine.

We game and do work on our systems. I ran some tests and I can see that we definitely use the reads more than the writes. I started getting the data as of 7-6-2012, my system is;
total reads - 674,248MB
total writes - 89,934MB

So reading (and past posts) looks like Crucial is a good choice. But I am also seeing the same controller in other models like Samsung's 830's or the Corsair's Preformance line. I've had my fill with Sandforce's controller, now I want to try out the Marvell ones.

So what would one prioritize in the Marvell ones? I saw someone say Samsung first then Crucial, but I'd like to hear from all of you your picks as well.

I do backups to a server, data and image. How would you guys rate the Marvell SSD's? Crucial first, Corsair next, Samsung last or what other SSD manufacturers?
 
I'd say Samsung over Crucial, but IRL you won't see much difference.

On the other hand, I crossed the fence today, and as C4, 830 and intel 520 were mostly same price, I got intel solution of 240gb capacity. Yes, it's Sandforce, but redesigned by Intel with Intel firmware, along with 5 years warranty. I'm effing happy with it. Got cloning software and the mounting kit for a price of like $330 - was cheaper then HyperX or Plextor M3. And it seems that from release time, intel ssd price went downy by 50% in my country.

And now I understand why so many people say, SSD is a must have in high end PC. Even windows installation was breeze comparing to my caviar black.... Games load faster, I hear no more evil scratch of a header, and Im glad I finally convinced myself to upgrade.
 
The Samsung 830 is really great all around, Crucial M4 is a bit dated IMO, Corsair Perf Pro & Plextor M3 are both Marvell controller based and really good but tend to be expensive. I'd say go for a Samsung 830.
 
The Samsung 830 uses an in house controller from what I read. It is probably the best drive on the market right now, followed by the Crucial M4. You pay a small premium per GB on the Samsung when not on sale.

Its also worth mentioning drives will start appearing soon with Marvell's new controller the 88SS9187. OCZ uses the chip already in their Vertex 4, they shipped it with beta level firmware but when updated the drive is a beast and pretty cheap. Since you game, here is what the Vertex 4 can do against its predecessor .

read test
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsGx6ttaou4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkD3yQODMSw
 
At the moment, I've got a system drive that I suspect will kick the bucket fairly soon (it's started that nasty head grinding noise quite loudly of late) and I'm looking at 3 of the above drives (Samsung 830 256GB, Kingston HyperX 3K 240GB and the OCZ Vertex4 256GB).

That being said, they're all sitting around the 220 mark (excluding the MIR for the Kingston)
Samsung at US$224
Kingston US$200 (with MIR at Newegg)
OCZ at US$220 @ Newegg

I guess what I'm really wondering is whether the extra $20 for the Samsung/OCZ would net me any appreciable performance advantage versus the Kingston or what the breakdown would be between the Samsung and OCZ solutions if it would.
 
Last edited:
alienate said:
Its also worth mentioning drives will start appearing soon with Marvell's new controller the 88SS9187. OCZ uses the chip already in their Vertex 4, they shipped it with beta level firmware but when updated the drive is a beast and pretty cheap. Since you game, here is what the Vertex 4 can do against its predecessor.
Click to expand...

I believe OCZ uses their own Indilinx controller in the Vertex 4.

Adelante said:
I guess what I'm really wondering is whether the extra $20 for the Samsung would net me any appreciable performance advantage versus the other two solutions.
Click to expand...

"Appreciable" performance advantage, probably not outside of benchmarks. Some workloads vary depending on the controller. Quality and reliability probably vary a bit. But BTW there's the SanDisk Extreme 240 GB listed on slickdeals.net for $160 + FS. It's equivalent to the HyperX. (edit: oops, out of stock.)
 
grambo said:
They claimed as much, but it turns out it is a Marvell controller with custom Indilinx firmware: http://www.anandtech.com/show/5741/ocz-confirms-octane-and-vertex-4-use-marvell-based-silicon
Click to expand...

It is indeed Marvell silicon, but whether it's the 88SS9187 or the older 88SS9174 has not been confirmed. (However from the spec sheets and whatnot it appears that it is the 87.)

Also the Vertex 4 is really very good, but much more so for write-heavy workloads.

Adelante said:
At the moment, I've got a system drive that I suspect will kick the bucket fairly soon (it's started that nasty head grinding noise quite loudly of late) and I'm looking at 3 of the above drives (Samsung 830 256GB, Kingston HyperX 3K 240GB and the OCZ Vertex4 256GB).

That being said, they're all sitting around the 220 mark (excluding the MIR for the Kingston)
Samsung at US$224
Kingston US$200 (with MIR at Newegg)
OCZ at US$220 @ Newegg

I guess what I'm really wondering is whether the extra $20 for the Samsung/OCZ would net me any appreciable performance advantage versus the Kingston or what the breakdown would be between the Samsung and OCZ solutions if it would.
Click to expand...


The Samsung is easily one of the most reliable drives on the market, and it is very fast in real-world workloads. The Vertex 4 is indeed fast, but the reliability is still somewhat questionable. It seems to be way better than SF-2xxx series drives so far though.

Samsung 830 = guaranteed safe bet
Vertex 4 = Probably a bit faster than the Samsung, but there is a lot more risk involved


So it depends on whether or not you want to take that risk.
 
Thank you everyone for your input. I'm not usually much of a gambler, but I figured there's a first time for everything and went with the OCZ.

If it blows up in my face or whatnot, oh well... there's a first time for that too.

/threadhijackforpersonalgain
 
http://www.behardware.com/articles/862-7/components-returns-rates-6.html

- Crucial 0.82% (as against 0.8%)
- Intel 1.73% (as against 0.1%)
- Corsair 2.93% (as against 2.9%)
- OCZ 7.03% (as against 4.2%)

Crucial has taken top spot from Intel thanks to a notable increase in Intel’s returns rate. We should say that this time, the Intel sample is only just above the minimum required and that some of the Intel returns are linked to the 8MB bug which has since been resolved. The OCZ rate has got a lot worse, going up to 7%, and only OCZ has models with rates of above 5%:

- 15.58% OCZ Vertex 2 Series SSD 240 GB
- 13.28% OCZ Vertex 2 Series SSD 160 GB
- 11.76% OCZ Vertex 2 Series SSD 80 GB
- 9.52% OCZ Vertex 2 Series SSD 120 GB
- 8.57% OCZ Vertex 3 Series 120 GB
- 7.49% OCZ Vertex 2 Series SSD 60 GB
- 6.61% OCZ Vertex 2 Series 3.5" SSD 120 GB
- 6.37% OCZ Vertex 3 Series 240 GB
- 6.37% OCZ Agility 3 60 GB
- 5.89% OCZ Vertex 2 Series SSD 100 GB

The Vertex 2s have the worst scores but the Vertex 3s have nothing to be proud of either. Note that over the coming period, the Vertex 3s are doing much better thanks to developments in the firmware, with a rate of just 1.01% for the Vertex 3 120 GB as things stand.
Click to expand...
 
I've been happy with my Vertex 4 for the past couple of months. No issues or anything. It's fast. TBH I would have purchased the Samsung 830, but it was out of my budget range at the time... Stupid GTX 670 decided to come out right then, so I dropped all my SSD money on that thing. Whoops. :rolleyes:
 
So seeing what someone posted, Samsung has their own controller. Does any one have these in a RAID0?
 
I don't have 830s in RAID, but they have good GC. I have several though, and they have no comparability issues with RAID cards or expanders.
 
Really any SSD will do unless you are writing files to it constantly. The access times are so marginal in difference you can't really tell a more expensive drive to an entry level drive
 
Well damn, there goes Microcenter putting on a sale. Crucial M4 256GB CT256M4SSD2 on sale for $189.99. Looks like M4 in RAID

Thanks everyone for all your inputs
 
AirPower4ever said:
Well damn, there goes Microcenter putting on a sale. Crucial M4 256GB CT256M4SSD2 on sale for $189.99. Looks like M4 in RAID

Thanks everyone for all your inputs
Click to expand...

Amazon has the 240GB Mushkin Chronos Deluxe for $199.
 
I highly recommend Mushkin!

I sound like a fanbot but they are the only company I use for RAM and SSDs.
I have no issues with them.
 
I got a Samsung one and its been perfect since day 1! I just ordered a crucial 256 on sale... I hope I'm not disappointed seeing as Samsung set the bar high for my first SSD.
 
Been busy, but got the Crucial M4's in RAID0. Fast, though I knew going in that boot up would take a bit longer due to the RAID controller needing to be activated. But wow!

@DragonFyr - Mushkin, located in Colorado. Hmmm, maybe next test build might need to get one and try out along with a Samsung one. I just need more toys. Thanks for all the replies!!!
 
i just bought a crucial M4


because at the time I bought it was was $50 less than the samsung 830, So far I'm very pleased with the crucial's performance.... is it the fastest ...guess not is it fast? YES


I had a bad experience with Corsair and SF when I tried getting a SSD last year which left a bad taste for both SF and to some extent corsair ....So i pretty much just ruled SF based drives out of consideration

the damn Samsung came down in price right after I bought my M4...lol... oh well
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top