64Gb SSD

will0812

will0812

will0812

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23 Nov 2009
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Hi, i wana put a SSD in my new build, for windows and a few games etc, First of all how much space does a Windows 7 install take up roughly? cos id like ~40GB free for apps. However the main point of this thread is which is the best 64GB SSD ?

On the product descriptions the Kingston V+ has Some of the best read / write speeds, and is the cheapest. But i have looked at a few reveiws and they dont seem to like it that much, and i dont really know what makes a SSD good.

So what SSD would you recommened?, preferibly for under £200.

Thanks
 
I asked the very same thing last week was stuck between a choice of 3 most kept advising the intel 80gb if you have the extra cash its the one i went for and its a great drive.

Not had one stutter or anything from it as some of the cheaper drives can do everything opens pretty much straight away, am even thinking of getting another to use for games i can't believe how much faster they load.
 
Thats the drive i have i was looking at other drives with higher write speeds but most reviews i saw said as drunkenmonkey has said the small read/writes is its strong point, when they release there new firmware it will have trim support also, the key thing to remember is when you have installed everything the write side won't be so important its the read then.

I came from normal harddrive and the difference is superb everything just loads no waiting for stuff, for example i always found itunes rather slow to load but its straight in on ssd. You also have to remember its 80gb the intel one so gives you 16 gig more to play with over other drives all depends how much you want to spend.
 
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The intel mx25 80gb ssd is the way to go. Its really quick with the small read/write, and for the price, you can't resist. The write speeds don't matter tbh, you will only see the difference installing a game really. For the crucial ssd which is 64gb, its £170. I would rather pay £22 for the extra 16gb and the 50mb read.

The intel is the best gb for buck.
 
Yea Jabbs you make a good argument there, Installing stuff doesnt bother me that much, i just want the system to be really responsive, and also an etxa 16 gig is loads when were talking about 64/80gb so i think i will go with the intel, Whats the news of the new firmware? what does it do / whens it out?
 
If you've got 40GB of apps to go on top You're probably going to want the 80GB Intel, Win 7 takes up ~12GB by itself, then you've got whatever space you use for the page file to consider.

The intel gets you that bit more breathing room to work on large files (FRAPS, video editing etc)

If you want to be really cunning, get a couple of Kingston 40GB drives and put them in RAID 0. Best performance and cheaper than a single 64GB drive.
Unfortunately OCUK don't stock them yet but they are available in the UK.
 
Zarf said:
If you want to be really cunning, get a couple of Kingston 40GB drives and put them in RAID 0. Best performance and cheaper than a single 64GB drive.
Unfortunately OCUK don't stock them yet but they are available in the UK.
Click to expand...

This. If you're not phased by the inherent risks of running in RAID0 then it's the cheapest/fastest option at the moment. You're talking about £140 for 80gb capacity versus about £190 for a single Intel X25M

OC need to start stocking them...I've bought 4 now, and OC is normally one of the first places I'd look.
 
It's not hard to setup, most motherboards support it - but that would be the first thing to check if you think this might be an option for you. You just change an option in the BIOS and a new RAID config screen will be available during the POST. From there you can assign the 2 disks to a RAID0 and that's it. Windows will see it as a single drive, i.e. 80gb (2x40gb) or just under.

The risks are that data is striped across the two disks, so a bit of data is on one, a bit of data is on the other. This is to improve the performance, but if one drive fails all data is lost.

The other aspect with RAID0 on SSDs is that the firmware and drivers don't currently support TRIM, which cleans up your drive as you use it. Compare it to the equivalent of an automated defrag for SSDs. I'm sure this will come in time, but it won't be here as soon as the individual drives. To be honest I run some of these in RAID0 and some of the Crucial's in RAID0 as well, and I'm not missing TRIM and they do tend to get used :D
 
Hmm ok all sounds interesting, there is meant to be a TRIM update for the intel 80gb soon isnt there? Anything happening with the kingston drives with TRIM support? Also how much faster are the drvies in raid 0? because 1 v 1 The intel drive is quite a bit faster than the kingston i believe.
 
The Kingston 40gb is a baby Intel X25M G2, with half the channels. In RAID0, the read performance is better and the write is just behind a single 80gb Intel.

I'd expect Intel to provide the revised firmware to Kingston and we'll see an update in due course (but not seen anything confirming that).

Check this thread out, some links to reviews and I've posted my RAID0 results...
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18071012
 
Ok looks really promising. Thanks for all your answers, seen you all over this forum :P quite useful to me who knows nothing. Not going to build for 2-3 weeks so will keep a look out and probably go for 2 of these as they are cheaper :)

With the Raid though, would you say performance is doubled? or maybe 50% greater? or what sort of performance increase are we talking about.
 
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It will depend on the tests you run, and the stripe size you set your RAID0 up for - so it all starts getting a bit more complex.

But in general terms it's roughly double, usually a bit under. So for sequential a single Kingston 40 is advertised as 170 read and 40 write, 2 of them in RAID i'm seeing 350 read and 80 write. The Intel is advertised as 250 read and 70 write. They were the easiest figures to compile, but sequential speed is not the whole story.

TBH the only SSDs I'd still avoid at the moment are the ones using the JMicron (some of the other Kingston drives use these) controllers. The Intel, Samsungs (Corsair P series) and Indilinx based (OCZ Vertex, Crucial M225, Corsair X Series) drives are all pretty much the same experience in Windows for normal use, and the numbers will tell you one thing but you won't be able to tell them apart. So don't get hung up on this :)
 
Yea your probably right, considering im getting a full system upgrade as well as going from a basic HDD to a very good SSD/SSD's i doubt that i will even care as it will be massively faster than what im using atm, But i will definately go for intel x25-m or two of these :)
 
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