ssd recommendations?

[keviny1]

Figured i would try and make the jump to ssd, but im still a bit iffy on which to get, where i heard a lot of crashes and other hiccups  are happening. I was thing about getting http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148357 and have a dual boot with linux and windows 7. Then use the HDD that i am currently using for different apps and programs. ( i would put the ones i use the most on the ssd though). Does this seem reasonable, or any other recommendations?

[datora]

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Given the reviews on the feedback tab, I'd say it's a pretty good bet.

There have been several discussions in this technology forum that have either been about SSDs or were about builds and SSDs were discussed as part of the topic.  Have you read any of them ..?  Skim the last four or five pages of this forum &/or use the search function.  When I have more time I'll post three or so of the more interesting topic links.

On the PLUS:

 - it's Crucial, one of The Reliable namebrands
 - the read/write performance numbers sure do look good
 - it's SATA III - does your mobo do the SATA 6.0 Gb/sec thing?


On the MINUS:

 - it's a bit small; me thinking ~90-120 GB is the sweet spot, esp. for dual-boot rig
 - bit pricey: seen this going in the ~$90 (U.S.) range - watch for sales/deals/shellshockers

 - seriously, do you need SATA III?  SATA II SSDs give a lot & can be better deals.  Connected to SATA III controllers on a mobo, you don't get all that much extra (and pretty much nothing to notice) with a SATA III over a SATA II.

If you found a 120-128 GB SSD @SATA II for ~$100-$110 (Canadian or U.S.), you'd get pretty much all the performance boost and have more room to stretch out in.  If you were running only one OS, the 64 GB would be quite do-able, and the SATA III might even help you a bit more in Win7 than linux .... but you might get a bit cramped for dual boot.  Unless you eventually got a second one of these completely, which might (?) be in your budget if you wait for something like this to show up for $80 or $90 ...?

[Freedom Kira]

If you're going with SATA III, I would look for ones that are rated in the high 400s/low 500s for sequential R/W.

And man, you're just one day late. There was a 256GB WD as a Shell Shocker for $200 (reg. $490) just yesterday.

[kitamesume]

theres really no "best" manufacturer out there, you just have to go with deals/sales and reviews. its pretty much a hit or miss bet.

[NaRu]

I would stay away from OCZ because my friend had 5 of them and they all failed on him. He got them replaced using the warranty and they also failed. The drive vanish from the system or has forgotten the data on them. I had one of them and it failed on me as well. First it crashed so I reinstalled windows. Things started out fine but after few system updates files and software started to become corrupted. I have installed windows 4 times thinking maybe it was something I was installing. I didn't have anything installed and I have stopped installing updates to see if it will happen again. After 2 days it did.

Stay away from OCZ. I recommend Intel drives.

[fohfoh]

I personally would go for the Intel M series. But I haven't looked into them for a while now. I have no idea regarding the newer intel ones though.

[kureshii]

I would stay away from OCZ because my friend had 5 of them and they all failed on him. He got them replaced using the warranty and they also failed. The drive vanish from the system or has forgotten the data on them. I had one of them and it failed on me as well. First it crashed so I reinstalled windows. Things started out fine but after few system updates files and software started to become corrupted. I have installed windows 4 times thinking maybe it was something I was installing. I didn't have anything installed and I have stopped installing updates to see if it will happen again. After 2 days it did.

Stay away from OCZ. I recommend Intel drives.

Might want to mention which drives those were. OCZ has gone through at least 3 SSD controller chips (and even more firmware versions), and simply lumping them all into one basket without considering if they were from a single batch is pretty careless. Might even explain why they all failed, if they happened to be from a bad batch.

I personally would go for the Intel M series. But I haven't looked into them for a while now. I have no idea regarding the newer intel ones though.

The M-series was pretty great—a year ago or more. But now, their 80MB/s sequential write looks downright shameful even compared to mechanical drives. If you’re going to get an Intel SSD, the newer ones (320, 510 etc) sport more reasonable write speeds for the kind of money you’ll be putting down.

Figured i would try and make the jump to ssd, but im still a bit iffy on which to get, where i heard a lot of crashes and other hiccups  are happening. I was thing about getting http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148357 and have a dual boot with linux and windows 7. Then use the HDD that i am currently using for different apps and programs. ( i would put the ones i use the most on the ssd though). Does this seem reasonable, or any other recommendations?

Depending on price, the C300, despite being one generation old now, can be a pretty good deal for the price. The SATAIII interface is put to good use in reads where it would be bottlenecked by a slower SATAII interface. Anand notes some issues with TRIM not recoering sufficient performance under very heavy writes, but it is probably unlikely that you will encounter this often under typical use.

Before you make the leap to an SSD, you should note that they are fundamentally different from HDDs, and come with their own set of advantages, problems and issues. There is a lot of misinformation and FUD out there concerning SSDs. Though the technology is not new (flash storage is already more than a decade old by now), its introduction into consumer desktop space is pretty new, and new strides are still being made. A lot of information that was true of SSDs 2–3 years ago is no longer true, and there is a lot of concern about SSDs that apply only to cheap inferior offerings.

Don’t believe everything you read, and make your own judgements based on objective information. The majority opinion can sometimes be misleading, and I would advise you not to plonk your money down too hastily.

[Sosseres]

From Hardware.fr (via a Swedish site, can't find the original, in percentages where lower is better):

RMA rates for SSDs sold April to October 2010 and returned due errors prior to April 2011.

[kitamesume]

does that mean Intel makes the most reliable SSDs?

[Sosseres]

does that mean Intel makes the most reliable SSDs?

In that check, yes. Might be different in some other one.

[kureshii]

That graph would be useful if it actually split return rates by product lines. The early OCZ SSDs (Core, Core V2 etc) had known issues (lack of TRIM support, which no doubt contributes a lot of returns), and I would not be surprised to find them comprising most of these returns. However, OCZ currently has 17 product lines for SATA SSDs alone, covering SATA II and SATA III, 3 different controllers and more than 5 different NAND sources (25nm &34nm Intel, 34nm Micron, 34nm Spectek, 32nm Hynix, etc). Assuming that each of these products has the same return rate is sheer naïvete.

If you want an inkling of the kind of issues you might get from buying a particular SSD, search support forums and similar places, don't extrapolate blindly based on general numbers.

[Sosseres]

On the PLUS:

 - it's Crucial, one of The Reliable namebrands

That is why I posted that graph. I bought intel when I bought mine a couple of weeks ago (also replaced 3 storage drives with 2 new 2TB ones).

[kitamesume]

one of the rare full egged SSDs http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820167049

[zat0x91]

I'd personally go with 120GB so you could at least have ~70GB of free space after a Windows 7 installation.  80GB works too, but I would feel to cramped with only that little room for applications.  Since your motherboard probably doesn't have SATA3... It'd be pointless to get a drive that it's performance is more than ~300MB.

one of the rare full egged SSDs http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820167049

Too bad Newegg reviews don't mean shit.  

Try reading people's experiences on various reputable forums like Xtremesystems or Overclock.net   I just installed my OCZ Vertex 3 (Newegg reviews for that are hilarious) yesterday and I've had no problems.  Probably because I bothered research on several forums if there were issues - which flashing to the latest firmware and secure erasing shortly after fixed.

[kitamesume]

yea i know they could get weird at times but having no RMA posts would still be good.

[zat0x91]

Nothing is 100% perfect and there's always the chance of you needing to RMA due to it being DoA or whatever.

Reviews left by 6 specifically in your link is a good representative for the total sales?  Yeah right.

[kitamesume]

i meant having no RMA reports is still a good thing, not specifically that link....

[xShadow]

Nothing is 100% perfect and there's always the chance of you needing to RMA due to it being DoA or whatever.

Reviews left by 6 specifically in your link is a good representative for the total sales?  Yeah right.

Usually people bitch when their stuff is dead on arrival, to whomever will listen. Going to the reviews section and seeing no people bitching is definitely a good thing. People with negative experiences are probably more likely to leave a review.

What you probably should have instead called attention to is the fact that we don't know how many people actually bought the thing, since we only have 6 reviews. For all we know, 15 people bought it and all of those weren't DOA, and 6 of those 15 (40%) decided to actually report in. Maybe not quite 15, but... yeah. Reliability needs more than 6 vouches. I prefer going to a 4 egg item that has only few DOA reports out of hundreds of reviews as opposed to a 5 egg item that has 6 reviews.

[Mcgreag]

I have a OCZ Vertex 3 240gb which has worked flawlessly since got it 2 months ago.
3.5% RMA is not overly high, mechanical harddrives are in the 2-3% bracket for good manufacturers. How many of you don't buy harddrives because they have similar fail frequency?

[datora]

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Quick off-topic on the newegg reviews

(click to show/hide)

I've written ten or twelve reviews for products there in the past year using three different accounts (I purchase through other people's accounts when building/maintenancing systems).  Not one of those reviews has been published.  Most were 5-egg reviews that were very positive, with a couple being 3- or 4-eggs with constructive criticisms.  I've also seen several comments in the feedback sections mentioning that other people have attempted to publish reviews and that newegg did not publish them.

When I look at ratings, I look at the total percentage of 4- plus 5-egg reviews.  If it is ~85% or higher, I generally consider that as a pretty solid product.  HOWEVER, with the caveats: 1) I want to see more than ~30 ratings and 2) I skim & read the feedback, specifically looking for postings that appear to come from pretty clueless individuals ... if I see a trend in either fanbois or technically illiterates, I adjust the percentage a bit and read through much more carefully.

The fun thing is, the community in general is quite helpful and literate, so you can pick up a lot of tips & hints ... but then you need to use those advices and exercise some google-foo.

Just some info to keep in mind.