My 1st SSD...

jaffacaique

jaffacaique

jaffacaique

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I am considering buying my 1st SSD and I am still deciding between...
Intel 520 Series 120GB 2.5" SATA-3 Solid State Hard Drive [SSDSC2CW120A3K5]
or
OCZ Vertex 4 128GB 2.5" SATA-3 Solid State Hard Drive (VTX4-25SAT3-128G)

I used to read the bench mark tests for new models a few years back and noticed that SSDs in general seem to be much faster than standard HDDs. However they usually seem to be slower at times when dealing with certain file sizes and far to expensive. Now prices are considerable cheaper do SSD's still suffer from the same performance issues like they used to?

I will be using it on Windows 7 as a boot drive and to install all apps.
 
I have the Vertex 4 with the new firmware, it's a beast. The same controller as the Crucial M4 but much much faster.

I would avoid the Intel due to the SandForce controller, but that's my opinion based on a previous SandForce drive of mine having reduced speed when the drive was populated.
 
I would say the vertex 4 is a better choice than the Intel 520.

But there is some variation in choice depending on what you want it for. What kind of things do you expect from the drive, are you going for fast boot times and application starts and gaming, or more professional uses?
 
Thank you for the replies, I will avoid the the Intel SSD then. Allbodies, I will be using the the drive for all my apps such as office etc and also want the fast boot times everyone else is talking about too. As I am not a PC gamer space is not a major requirement for me.

+ Does the Vertex 4 still suffer from the same problems as previous generations like poor performance with certain file sizes when compared to standard drives? This is the main concern I would like some feedback on as this will determine whether I buy one.
 
The Intel 520 is very good. http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18368624

I'm pretty sure they released it a year later than the other sandforce based drives so that they could iron out the issues with it. Has much better write speeds than the Vertex 4 (although not as important as read speeds) and still has a 5 year warranty, so they must be pretty confident it isn't going to break ;)
 
Whenever a see the benchmark tests for SSD drives the 4K read times always seem very low when compared the other results. Is this normal? and under what circumstances would the lower results be noticed under normal everyday use?
 
jaffacaique said:
Thank you for the replies, I will avoid the the Intel SSD then. Allbodies, I will be using the the drive for all my apps such as office etc and also want the fast boot times everyone else is talking about too. As I am not a PC gamer space is not a major requirement for me.

+ Does the Vertex 4 still suffer from the same problems as previous generations like poor performance with certain file sizes when compared to standard drives? This is the main concern I would like some feedback on as this will determine whether I buy one.
Click to expand...

In that case I would say your best bets are the Vertex 4 or Corsair Performance pro. They're actually VERY similar really, same controller just different firmware, pretty much same price, etc.

The Vertex 4 has 2 years more warranty, and since that was one of your original choices then it should be great. Also I believe it does not suffer the issue you mention as it's marvel based instead of sandforce this time, and I don't think they have that problem.
 
Don't get hung up on the worst benchmark of an SSD. The positives far outweigh the negatives and in use an SSD will perform far better and feel much quicker than a conventional HD. It's one of the best upgrades you can make. For you I'd recommend the OCZ.
 
Thank you all for your helpful advice. Just one last question, I have recently restored my PC and created a backup using Acronis True Image. Will I be able to restore this image on to the new SSD?
 
I was looking at doign that too mate, but everyone said to do a fresh install.
You wont regret it either :p

If you are also intending to have RAIDed HDD's make sure the Drives are set to RAID when you install ;)
 
jaffacaique said:
Thank you all for your helpful advice. Just one last question, I have recently restored my PC and created a backup using Acronis True Image. Will I be able to restore this image on to the new SSD?
Click to expand...

You should be able to yeah, as long as the SSD is big enough of course. Acronis does it properly, as I actually did the same thing when I bought a laptop, backed it up and restored to an SSD immediately.

I found windows (7 at least) does something really dumb when you back up with the in-built feature. It backs up the whole drive, not just the data on it, or something along those lines, because the result is you can only restore a windows back up to an equal sized or larger hard drive, regardless of how full the backed up drive was.
 
That is good news AllBodies, it took me quite a while to install everything initially. The thought of having to start a fresh install of everything again when I have an existing Image was kind of off putting.

Thank youi
 
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