Warm... Crucial M4 128 GB for $141 shipped

[PTNL]

Found at NewEgg.

 

[Evil Scooter]

Shows as $159.99 with free shipping to me

 

[odditory]

As usual always check Amazon before you get anything from newegg - the regular 128GB is $139.99 and with Transfer Kit its $141.99 .... And these aren't sale prices these are just the leading edge of price drops in going rate

http://www.amazon.com/Crucial-2-5-I...JLB6/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1335548079&sr=8-2

 

[PTNL]

Shows as $159.99 with free shipping to me

I see that now as well.

/thread

 

[DTN107]

Buy it from staples.com with $25 off coupon.

Open up live chat and have them price match Amazon.com.

 

[astrob0y]

Amazon has the 256GB for $261.99, can get Staples to price match it and use a -$30 coupon to bring it down to ~$231.99! That's a pretty good deal!

 

[jermany755]

The bare drive version is only $125. oO

Linky

 

[Liqq]

$119@ Tigerdirect using the coupon code with free shipping, just bought one

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=365475&CatId=5300

 

[lathode]

So damn tempting for RAID0... But I wouldn't notice a real difference would I? Although I could upgrade the 64gb m4 I have in my X220... then again I don't really need it... Hmm...

 

[Evil Scooter]

The bare drive version is only $125. oO

Linky

Darn that's tempting. I really wish Intel would get off their duff's and add more native SATA3 ports to their chipsets. Only having 2 is inexcusable IMHO. I'd love to get two more of the 64GB model for a total of 4 in RAID0 but am limited by the two SATA3 ports. So I'm on the hunt for a pair of 128GB's and the prices are getting very attractive.

 

[d7a7z7e7d]

You don't want to RAID SSD drives due to lack of trim support. You'll end up with two drives that are slower than a single drive.

 

[lathode]

You don't want to RAID SSD drives due to lack of trim support. You'll end up with two drives that are slower than a single drive.

I thought the garbage collection would take care of that? Eh, good enough reason to save my money.

 

[PTNL]

The bare drive version is only $125. oO

Linky

Back in stock. I just pulled the trigger. Hopefully tomorrow I won't have a "cancelled order" email waiting for me from the 'Egg.

Edit: Also, the 256 GB version is on sale for $250. Thanks to blueyedsoul for the heads-up.

 

[SJetski71]

Buy.com: 128GB M4 for $109 using this $10 coupon

 

[d7a7z7e7d]

I thought the garbage collection would take care of that? Eh, good enough reason to save my money.

The only drive with decent garbage collection is the Corsair Performance Pro and they aren't cheap

 

[pwrusr]

sooooo tempting

 

[Evil Scooter]

You don't want to RAID SSD drives due to lack of trim support. You'll end up with two drives that are slower than a single drive.

My two current 64GB Crucial M64 drives in RAID0 disagree with you.

Screenshot from September 2011:

Screenshot from 5 minutes ago:

I imagine if I did a manual free space wipe I could probably get what loss there was in performance back. I simply have not noticed any difference. If you can locate a single drive that can deliver over 800MB/s over a SATA3 interface I'm sure you'd easily find lots of buyers.

 

[d7a7z7e7d]

My two current 64GB Crucial M64 drives in RAID0 disagree with you.

...

I imagine if I did a manual free space wipe I could probably get what loss there was in performance back. I simply have not noticed any difference. If you can locate a single drive that can deliver over 800MB/s over a SATA3 interface I'm sure you'd easily find lots of buyers.

The Crucial M4 still uses the Marvell 88SS9174 controller (like the Corsair Performance Pro) so it is much better suited for RAID than SandForce but is still considerably behind the Performance Pro in environments without TRIM (i.e. RAID) as seen here:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/storage/display/marvell-ssd_7.html

Look closely at the difference between the "After 30 Min. Idle" numbers, you'll see that the garbage collection of the Performance Pro is nearly as good as trim.

Also, in regards to the drive taking a sudden performance drop once all blocks are full, take a look at this:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/storage/display/kigston-hyperx-ssd-raid0_4.html#sect0

There is no question, if you're going to RAID SSD's, get the Corsair Performance Pro if you can afford it. Or, wait until Intel releases their RAID TRIM driver fix.

 

[Evil Scooter]

The Crucial M4 still uses the Marvell 88SS9174 controller (like the Corsair Performance Pro) so it is much better suited for RAID than SandForce but is still considerably behind the Performance Pro in environments without TRIM (i.e. RAID) as seen here. . ..

There will be some degradation over time, no argument there. But saying:

You'll end up with two drives that are slower than a single drive.

Is complete rubbish and misleading.

 

[d7a7z7e7d]

It isn't rubbish and it isn't misleading at all... Two SSD drives in RAID that are dirty and do not support trim and have inefficient GC are slower than a single drive with trim. This is a very real issue here.

I'm not here to deter from the thread so we can continue the conversation via PM's if you'd like. Feel free to shoot me one if you need to see more benches.

 

[Evil Scooter]

It isn't rubbish and it isn't misleading at all... Two SSD drives in RAID that are dirty and do not support trim and have inefficient GC are slower than a single drive with trim. This is a very real issue here.

I'm not here to deter from the thread so we can continue the conversation via PM's if you'd like. Feel free to shoot me one if you need to see more benches.

I don't feel it's deterring from the thread at all. Most users appreciate the input as do I. Myself being an owner of a pair of the 64GB model of this very drive, my real world usage from the last 6+ months shows none of the performance deterioration that could occur under the worst case scenario conditions your links show. I'm not saying it's not a real issue. It surely could happen under those conditions. But it's hardly representative of what the vast majority of users would experience. It should also be noted you can use freeware utilities to manually TRIM drives free space if performance degrades. I appreciate your input but simply disagree with your blanket assessment.

 

[RooK]

This drive for $1/1gb is just plain smoking - after you realize how much time you sat around waiting for your hard drive, you'll realize...

well... its just going to make you very impatient when working with spindle drives.

If you have the money to spend on one, do it. Use it as your boot dev and you can install about 5 or 6 choice games. Install bulky older, load fast games (such as left for dead2) on your regular drive.

Install things like starcraft2, battlefield 3, etc, on the SSD to really see how slick the load times are.

 

[Evil Scooter]

^^^ I use mine for the OS, utilities, applications and frequently played online games. Map load times in BF3 put me in game faster than most players, $1/1gb is just plain smoking.

 

[pwrusr]

This drive for $1/1gb is just plain smoking - after you realize how much time you sat around waiting for your hard drive, you'll realize...

well... its just going to make you very impatient when working with spindle drives.

QFT!!

I have the 830 samsung 256GB drive in my main computer. it just SMOKES anything I've used before.

At work I'm stuck with a P4 @ 2.4GHz, 1GB ram and a 2003 era hard drive.