Samsung or Vertex SSd's (3 of them @ 120/8gb)

Swiftlegend · 12 May 2009 at 20:24

Hi, i've currently got an i7 920 @ 3.8ghz and 1 velociraptor. It isn't that quick tbh. So i am going to invest in 3 ssd's because i think 3 120/128gb in raid 0 will benefit me significantly. However i can't decide between the ocz vertex series and

the samsungs (P22-J i think). Any suggestions would be appreciated and figures and as i don't have a clue about raid which is the best way to do it to get the most performance? Thanks a lot

Kearney_1988 · 12 May 2009 at 21:00

Dont think many people have taken the plunge with the samsungs yet. I know that FaceplantSi has 3 vertex's in raid0 so he might be able to help ya out there. personally ive got 2 in raid0 and getting about 450MB/s read times cant remeber the write at the moment tho.

Swiftlegend · 12 May 2009 at 21:04

wow well that sounds really good thanks, edging to vertex

Zarf · 13 May 2009 at 02:34

PB22-J's should be comparable performance to the Vertex for a smaller pricetag, Vertex has the edge in community support though.

brocksta · 13 May 2009 at 17:16

Zarf said:
PB22-J's should be comparable performance to the Vertex for a smaller pricetag, Vertex has the edge in community support though.

Agreed. OCZ forum is an excellent source for info.

I've been working with SSD's at work and i did a lot of reading before choosing the Vertex. Personally from the reviews i found it was rated the highest. Only current drawback is the loss of data when flashing drive to latest firmware, however reports are that the new firmware being relased later this month will sort that issue out.

FaceplantSi · 13 May 2009 at 18:08

Vertex's get my personal vote too (of course), but the new Samsung's and the Corsair's are supposed to pretty decent too (the Corsair uses the Samsung controller apparently).

If you need assistance with RAID setup then we'll need to know what mobo you have - although as you have i7 it's obviously X58 so it should have the Intel ICH10R controller which is about as good as you can currently get for onboard RAID.

Anyway, give us your specs and budget etc and we can help you better.

Oh, and good choice going for SSD's by the way!

Ninja Please! · 13 May 2009 at 19:21

An advantage to the Vertex's is the ability to flash it to newer firmware. As new as this technology is, I think it could be very useful to be able to do so especially if it's going to help it's performance.

If/When the samsungs make a new firmware for their drives you would have to buy a new one as opposed to just upgrading your current one.

Like I said, it may be moot point or a non issue, but with technology this new, you never know.

Ninja Please! · 13 May 2009 at 20:55

Plus OCZ rocks! They sent me a bunch of free stuff when I just asked for a case badge. THAT'S customer service, going above and beyond when you most certainly could have said no, and saved the time and the money.

When will more companies realize that by giving away freebies you create walking billboards for your company, and lifetime customers? Hey if there are any major hardware companies reading this right now, we want T-SHIRTS! (we are too poor to buy clothes after spending money on your stuff

)

FaceplantSi · 13 May 2009 at 20:55

Ninja Please! said:
An advantage to the Vertex's is the ability to flash it to newer firmware. As new as this technology is, I think it could be very useful to be able to do so especially if it's going to help it's performance.

If/When the samsungs make a new firmware for their drives you would have to buy a new one as opposed to just upgrading your current one.

Like I said, it may be moot point or a non issue, but with technology this new, you never know.

I agree entirely - another plus for the OCZ Vertex, but there still seems to be quite a few people around who say they cannot be bothered with that firmware 'hassle' which I find strange seeing as people here are normally more than happy to flash their mobo's bios to gain functionality or performance, and after all this is the Overclockers forum!

Swiftlegend · 13 May 2009 at 22:46

ok well i think im going to go with vertex's, but raid wise is it better on board or using a card? Also my mobo is Asus Rampage II Extreme Intel X58, and budget wise isnt too much of a concern as long as it is reasonble unlike the new z drives (1tb = >£2500 which i wouldnt pay yet) Thanks a lot again

Greenlizard0 · 13 May 2009 at 22:56

Ninja Please! said:
Plus OCZ rocks! They sent me a bunch of free stuff when I just asked for a case badge. THAT'S customer service, going above and beyond when you most certainly could have said no, and saved the time and the money.

When will more companies realize that by giving away freebies you create walking billboards for your company, and lifetime customers? Hey if there are any major hardware companies reading this right now, we want T-SHIRTS! (we are too poor to buy clothes after spending money on your stuff )

Hey dude - any chance of finding out about that wallpaper you have please?

karl01 · 14 May 2009 at 00:23

swiftlegend i just took the plunge and got my first ever ssd got the OCZ Vertex Series 120GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive just finished instailing vista and i am very impressed so fare can load into vista in 20 seconds and i have only one drive in Raid 0 these will fly.

FaceplantSi · 14 May 2009 at 08:39

karl01 said:
swiftlegend i just took the plunge and got my first ever ssd got the OCZ Vertex Series 120GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive just finished instailing vista and i am very impressed so fare can load into vista in 20 seconds and i have only one drive in Raid 0 these will fly.

SSD's scale very well in RAID 0 - and yes they do fly... My ATTO benchtest results for 3 x 30Gb ones

And HD Tach long test results

Swiftlegend said:
ok well i think im going to go with vertex's, but raid wise is it better on board or using a card? Also my mobo is Asus Rampage II Extreme Intel X58, and budget wise isnt too much of a concern as long as it is reasonble unlike the new z drives (1tb = >£2500 which i wouldnt pay yet) Thanks a lot again

Use the onboard ICH10R controller for RAID 0 - an add on card is only really gonna benefit a RAID array using parity such as RAID 5 which isn't recommended for SSD's anyway due to the increased number of writes needed for the parity data.

Setting up RAID 0 is really very easy - go into BIOS and set SATA to RAID mode, then reboot and press CTRL+I on boot to go into the Intel RAID setup. Here you select what RAID type you want (RAID 0), which drives to add into the array and the name of the array, then what the 'stripe' size is gonna be - recommended here is prob 128k.

If you get into difficulties check your mobo manual, or post here again.

EvilOne · 14 May 2009 at 08:45

I would get 3x vertex(30 or 60gb) in raid 0. Im planning to get 2 of these in raid 0 very soon myself! best bang for buck SSD out there atm imo.

Intel performance ones are better, but the price tag is crazy, even after it got reduced.

pioneer2000 · 14 May 2009 at 09:38

Are the 30GB vertex's slower than the 60GB?

marscay · 14 May 2009 at 10:33

Swiftlegend said:
So i am going to invest in 3 ssd's because i think 3 120/128gb in raid 0 will benefit me significantly.

The only reason to raid SSD's is for more storage, in real world usage you really won't notice the difference between 1 or 3 drives......SSD's are all about access time so all you are improving when adding more drives is the sustained transfer rate.

And considering the primary use of these SSD's is for O/S usage where you aren't copying/extracting files regularly, the benefits for more STR are negligible for most users which is why i think the Vertex are still massively overpriced when you can still find the Samsung 100mb/s drives for half the price of the Vertex.

Even the Core/Solid series are perfectly acceptable once tweaked properly although i'd still prefer the Samsungs above them.

marscay · 14 May 2009 at 10:36

EvilOne said:
I would get 3x vertex(30 or 60gb) in raid 0. Im planning to get 2 of these in raid 0 very soon myself! best bang for buck SSD out there atm imo.

Intel performance ones are better, but the price tag is crazy, even after it got reduced.

Samsungs are bang for buck, Vertex is for benchmark whores and users who don't understand the technology properly.

EvilOne · 14 May 2009 at 11:03

marscay said:
Samsungs are bang for buck, Vertex is for benchmark whores and users who don't understand the technology properly.

LOL, guess i fall into that category then

*edit cant find any samsung ssd's that are cheaper then the 30gb Vertex, can you point me in the right direction?*

FaceplantSi · 14 May 2009 at 11:57

marscay said:
... users who don't understand the technology properly.

And this coming from someone using a Perc card in a desktop with a 7Tb RAID5 array? You ever heard of servers or NAS? lol!

JonJ678 · 14 May 2009 at 13:22

pioneer2000 said:
Are the 30GB vertex's slower than the 60GB?

Nope. I believe 60gb and 30 gb both have 32mb of cache, the larger drives have 64. This probably makes a difference somewhere. I bought a 30gb, in the future when (if) prices come down I'll get another and raid0. 30gb is enough, 60gb would be nice, 30+30 in raid is quicker than the 60. Seems sensible.

marscay said:
Samsungs are bang for buck, Vertex is for benchmark whores and users who don't understand the technology properly.

Fool.