The Samsung 830 256GB is the absolute "sweet spot" when it comes to performance and reliability in my opinion. The 512GB is more expensive than 2x256GB and doesn't have quite the same speed as one 256. The new 840 Pro does certainly look very nice, but it is simply too new for me to cconsider purchasing, although if it carries on the reputation of the 830 in terms of reliability, I might have to buy one in Summer '13.
If you want to have a good balance of performance and storage space, here's what I would do...
- Samsung 830 256GB ($150-170) for primary drive (boot/OS/main programs)
- 2x Western Digital Velociraptor 600GB ($99 each) in RAID0 for games/large sequential files/etc
- 1x WD Blue 1TB EZEX ($80) OR 1x WD Green 2TB ($90-110) for storage and backups (photos/music/etc)
- 1x 1-4TB External Hard Drive ($70-250) via eSATA or USB3.0 for Backup Use and Mobile Storage (Seagate Expansion 1TB USB3.0 is $80 @ Micro Center)
- A few 16GB-128GB USB3.0 Thumb Drives for everything from flashing new BIOS to quick backups that can be kept off-site
I am working on setting up my data "infrastructure" just like above, as I have a need for speed but at the same time, I would never feel safe without at least one reliable backup drive, ideally two (an external HDD for daily backups and thumb drives for once a week backups kept off-site, as well as the internal drive hosting a few backup images).
I have been extremely tempted to snag a few of the WD Velociraptors as they are half-off at Newegg, and $99 for a 600GB 10krpm drive is a fantastic price. I typically prefer the RE series, such as the RE4, but the VR's are essentially enterprise drives and are extremely reliable, not to mentionvvery fast. Most benchmarks that I have seen put a pair of those 600GB models in RAID0 at 300-330MBs Read and 315-330MBs Write (Sequential), with the 4K Random speeds being about 50% higher than any 7200rpm drives I've seen (although, the RE4's can come fairly close).
You would end up with 256GB+128GB of Solid State storage plus 1.2TB of extremely fast Mech Storage as well as 2-6TB of regular speed Mech Storage (internal + external). I am very tough on drives, as I do a lot of audio editing which requires a lot of random AND sequential Reads/Writes, so for me at least, speed is worthless without absolutely impeccable reliability and a good backup system in place.
I wwould also suggest that you hang on to the C300, and use it as a "scratch disk" or STEAM drive or something like that. Sure, the benefits of SSDs in games are less than in other circumstances, but if you have the drive there is no reason not to enjoy the fast loading times! Plus, while I am not certain, it does feel like with the game you're currently playing being on an SSD, there is a noticeable difference in "stuttering", at least with a single GPU with 2GB of VRAM, perhaps because it allows for the textures to be loaded from SSD to RAM more quickly? I could be wrong, but even so, you are eliminating (or at the very least, hugely reducing) the single greatest bottleneck in your system.
I hope that you enjoy your 830 256GB! I suggest a fresh install of the OS, and while the SamsungMMagician software is the best I've used (of its type), I would still check out The SSD Review and read their "tweaking SSD and Windows 7" guide. It may take a little while, but using AS-SSD and/or CrystalDisk to judge the exact effects of each tweak on your system is not a bad idea. Everyone has a slightly different rig, so I don't believetthat there are any truly universal tweaks that bbenefitevery ssingle system (aside from a handful of common ones ). You will end up getting every single ounce of performance ppossible from the drive this way, and there are plenty of ounces to be had!
