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SSD Suggestion?

2K views 30 replies 18 participants last post by  reb0rn 
#1 ·
For my new pc I have been thinking of adding an SSD for the OS(Windows 7 Home Premium). I still haven't build my new pc but I will need to decide because I will start building soon.

I am looking for fast boot times, and reliability.

Which of these would be best to get:

Intel 320 Series: 80GB SATA II MLC
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820167047

Crucial RealSSD C300: 64GB SATA III MLC
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820148357

Crucial M4: 64GB SATA III MLC
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820148441

Corsair Force Series: 60GB SATA II MLC
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820233124

Plextor PX-M2 Series: 64GB SATA III
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820249009

Thanks in advance.
 
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#3 ·
For the price, I would get the M4. It's definitely the best performer
 
#5 ·
M4 is faster (maybe, who knows, the 64 gb drives and the 80 gb Intel haven't been benchmarked) but the 320 is definitely the most reliable. The Intel also has full disc encryption, and of course more space.

The 320? I don't own the 80gb model, but the 120 is plenty fast enough. Haven't had a problem, but I've owned it less than a month. So far, so good. WEI is a meaningless metric, but I get a 7.7.
 
#7 ·
#9 ·
Save your cash...it really is a waste. I have a 64GB OCZ V2 and it the most worthless thing I've ever bought for my PC.

With leaving 25% un-alocated (supposed to increase life span), I have room for Windows and two games on it. Currently I only have Mass Effect 2 installed on it and the game load times are still the same. I tried Final Fantasy X with an emulator with the ROM on the SSD and I did not get any noticable performance increases there either. I am going to try some other games yet...but I am not really expecting anything. Games that are on my regular RAID 0 array (all of my steam games) get nothing from the OS being on the SSD of corse or if they do...I can't notice it. HL2 loading points are still as annoying as ever.

The only thing that a SSD can do for you is shorten your boot times and it REALLY shortens the boot time. After the POST I am in windows in a few seconds. However, how many times do you restart your machine in a day? I typically turn it on once unless i am messing around with drivers or windows updates. Does that one time really matter?

If you get one large enough to hold everything you need to it would be nice to have your SSD hidden away some where. Then you can open your case and say "Look, no hard drives"

If you want to go ahead and get one go for it by all means. It was rather fun to see windows start up so fast the first time. However, I don't want you to think you will get an amazing boost from installing a SSD. As soon as I can get around to it I probably will be selling mine, but right now I am too busy to mess around reformatting or copying over to another drive...
 
#10 ·
Plugging the Intel drive into a SATA 6GB/s port won't do anything, it'll just run at it's normal speed. The difference in performance between SATA 3GB/s and 6GB/s is only noticeable in benchmarks.

I disagree with the post above (maybe something is wrong with his) An SSD is the best upgrade you can do. Everything is so much faster
 
#12 ·
The C300 64GB is probably the best bang for the buck. You get great speeds running in either SATA2 or SATA3 mode. I've got a C300 running in an old 2008 laptop and it actually feels faster than my Intel x25m running in my sig rig (both running in SATA2).
 
#14 ·
my vote goes for the m4... it's great

getting the specified 415 sequential reads and surpasing the specified sequential writes at 100 mb/s

boots in 15 seconds.

Best purchase since i switched to 1155

Quote:
Originally Posted by Captain1337;13828118
So which one is faster M4 or C300?

Can anyone explain me the read/write speeds and what is read and what is write?
the m4 is faster.... where it counts

write: it's basically how fast data is transferred "written" to the drive ex: installing windows 7, or transferring a file from an external storage device.
read: how fast you read that data on the drive, ex: opening up a browser or a word file... basically most of the normal things you do in an OS involves reading something.

m4 is faster with reads (usually more important) not so much in writes (not as important... you don't write to your disk as much as you read from it... in most cases)
 
#17 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Captain1337;13828118
So which one is faster M4 or C300?

Can anyone explain me the read/write speeds and what is read and what is write?
M4 is faster than the C300 because the M4 is belongs to the latest generation of SSD from Crucial. The M4 was released this year and you could say it aims to replace the C300 completely.

Read/write speeds are pretty self explanatory - these figures refers to the maximum data read/write speeds, and all this happens on a daily basis on any machine - data is read when you load an application because it needs to load the files, etc and data is written when you install or copy over files.
 
#18 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Darco19;13828280
Read/write speeds are pretty self explanatory - these figures refers to the maximum data read/write speeds, and all this happens on a daily basis on any machine - data is read when you load an application because it needs to load the files, etc and data is written when you install or copy over files.
They're not completely; look at 4k read times, they matter as much as or more than sequential.
 
#21 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by tw33k;13813347
Plugging the Intel drive into a SATA 6GB/s port won't do anything, it'll just run at it's normal speed. The difference in performance between SATA 3GB/s and 6GB/s is only noticeable in benchmarks.

I disagree with the post above (maybe something is wrong with his) An SSD is the best upgrade you can do. Everything is so much faster
Incorrect. Only the programs/games installed on the ssd will see speed increases. This is why I typically only recommend larger ssd's (150gb+) to new builders. I'm going with an Intel 320 160gb next week...
 
#22 ·
IMO, I don't think you'll regret it if you go with almost any SSD unless they're known to have problems. (Some have fixes/recalls)

In my experience, the M4 made everything noticeably faster for me, not just boot times. This is real time, I don't mean only benchmarks.

Works 100% so far in the month I've had it, no slowdowns what-so-ever. I'm not sure why in the Newegg reviews some users get "freezing up or stalling" issues, I've never had that problem.
 
#23 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Darco19;13828280
M4 is faster than the C300 because the M4 is belongs to the latest generation of SSD from Crucial. The M4 was released this year and you could say it aims to replace the C300 completely.

Read/write speeds are pretty self explanatory - these figures refers to the maximum data read/write speeds, and all this happens on a daily basis on any machine - data is read when you load an application because it needs to load the files, etc and data is written when you install or copy over files.
You would think that (newer= must be better, faster) but.. From Anandtech's M4 review: "I'm not sure whether to call the m4 an evolutionary upgrade in performance or a shift in performance. Write speed is faster across the board, but read speed took a definite hit compared to the C300." http://www.anandtech.com/show/4253/the-crucial-m4-micron-c400-ssd-review/12

Quote:
Originally Posted by Majin SSJ Eric;13829036
Incorrect. Only the programs/games installed on the ssd will see speed increases. This is why I typically only recommend larger ssd's (150gb+) to new builders. I'm going with an Intel 320 160gb next week...
I thought that as well, and it holds true if you have Windows doing nothing in the background. However, multitasking got much faster/smoother with the SSD. I didn't have "hitching" in games due to disc access before, but that's because I had a habit of closing -everything- before gaming. That's no longer necessary. Also, Alt/Tabbing was quick before, but now it's instantaneous.

It's not so much "speed increase" as it is a more smooth experience. Personally, I wouldn't recommend larger SSDs to new builders simply because the cost is frightening. When you can get the 160gb Intel you're going to buy for $100-120, then we're talking.
 
#24 ·
I am currently looking into purchasing a ssd but I need reliability and space. I'd also like to increase my systems speed over what I currently have. I've done a little research and am beginning to settle between the Crucial RealSSD C300 or the Intel X25-M.

I am a bit apprehensive though after reading some of these newegg reviews of a lot of people having drives arrive doa.

Any advice
 
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