I've had the pleasure to be working with the Crucial C300 128GB and OCZ Vertex 3 120GB for several days. I can only keep one so I decided to run several 'real-life' tests to help me figure out which one will stay.
I connected each drive to the 2 available SATA3 ports on my Gigabyte UD5 board. The C300 was installed a few days before the Vertex 3. I installed the same programs on each drive and each was aligned, tweaked and configured per the following thread:
Win 7 SSD's Setup and Secrets
The results are somewhat as expected. The Vertex 3 wins most of the testing, however, in many cases by negligible margin as we are talking about a difference of mere seconds.
The Vertex 3 dominated in Application installation and start-up times. For example, completing the installation of Autodesk Revit MEP in about 5.5 minutes, over 3 minutes faster than the C300.
The Vertex 3 120GB benchmarks spread out all over the internet are indicating that the 'random read' performance is much slower than the C300. Many people are basing their buying decision based on this metric alone.
I have no clue how to go about scripting, so I used 'robocopy' to automatically search a specific folder for files with specific characteristics and copy them over to a separate folder. I'm assuming this test will somehow be similar a database action and would test the 'random read' performance of the drive. Oddly, the C300 won this test my just a few seconds. Therefore, a different type of test may need to be conducted. If anyone has any ideas, please let me know.
Attached is the tabulated results with more details on the tests conducted.
While working on each drive, neither felt slower than the other. They both had a incredible 'snappy' feeling. Honestly, if I didn't have a stopwatch in my hand I would not be able to tell one from the other.
In conclusion, I would suggest purchasing the drive that's within your budget. I myself have decided to keep the Vertex mainly because I've always liked to have the latest and greatest
If anyone has any specific comparison testing they would like to see, please let me know and I will do my best to accommodate you.
Hope this helps someone out there with their decision.
Good luck.
I connected each drive to the 2 available SATA3 ports on my Gigabyte UD5 board. The C300 was installed a few days before the Vertex 3. I installed the same programs on each drive and each was aligned, tweaked and configured per the following thread:
Win 7 SSD's Setup and Secrets
The results are somewhat as expected. The Vertex 3 wins most of the testing, however, in many cases by negligible margin as we are talking about a difference of mere seconds.
The Vertex 3 dominated in Application installation and start-up times. For example, completing the installation of Autodesk Revit MEP in about 5.5 minutes, over 3 minutes faster than the C300.
The Vertex 3 120GB benchmarks spread out all over the internet are indicating that the 'random read' performance is much slower than the C300. Many people are basing their buying decision based on this metric alone.
I have no clue how to go about scripting, so I used 'robocopy' to automatically search a specific folder for files with specific characteristics and copy them over to a separate folder. I'm assuming this test will somehow be similar a database action and would test the 'random read' performance of the drive. Oddly, the C300 won this test my just a few seconds. Therefore, a different type of test may need to be conducted. If anyone has any ideas, please let me know.
Attached is the tabulated results with more details on the tests conducted.
While working on each drive, neither felt slower than the other. They both had a incredible 'snappy' feeling. Honestly, if I didn't have a stopwatch in my hand I would not be able to tell one from the other.
In conclusion, I would suggest purchasing the drive that's within your budget. I myself have decided to keep the Vertex mainly because I've always liked to have the latest and greatest

If anyone has any specific comparison testing they would like to see, please let me know and I will do my best to accommodate you.
Hope this helps someone out there with their decision.
Good luck.