Adding an SSD

LEK-89

LEK-89

LEK-89

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Hi All,

I've finally decided that I want to add an SSD to my rig. Now I am totally new to SSD's and all I know is that they are a hell of a lot faster than our older generation HDD's and that they are very expensive lol!

Now, a big question answered is that my budget is only £140. I know that from looking on the OcUK website that my budget should just about cover 128GB but failing that, I will have to settle with 64GB!

I have one main question - the higher the read/write speed, the better? I have had a quick search on here already and the one SSD that keeps coming up in posts that is one of the best ones to go for at the moment is the Crucial RealSSD M4, but the read/write speed of this one is only 415MB/172MB. Another one which catched my eye and apparently offers a 500MB+ read/write speed is the OCZ Agility 120GB version.

Could someone give me advice on both of these drives, or recommend me another one to go for?

Thanks all - Liam
 
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SandForce drives (like OCZ's) use data compression to achieve faster data rates. The Crucial M4 is still plenty fast and actually outperforms the Vertex 3 in a few benchmarks. It was also more reliable when the drives first came out (the OCZ drives had quite a few issues) - not sure if this is still the case.

Anyway, this comparison is taken from another post of mine:

128 GB M4 Advantages over 120 GB Vertex 3
- £55 cheaper
- 8 GB more space
- No compression (which means it's better suited to incompressible files)
- More reliable at the moment (due to SandForce 2xxx issues)
- Capable of higher IOPS
- Much faster incompressible 4k reads (especially at high queue depths)
- Much faster compressible 4k reads (especially at high queue depths)
- Faster incompressible 4k writes
- Faster incompressible sequential writes

120 GB Vertex 3 Advantages over 128 GB M4
- Faster compressible 4k writes
- Faster incompressible sequential reads
- Much faster compressible sequential writes
- Faster compressible sequential reads
- Higher quality NAND (probably, means Vertex 3 might last longer)
- Better garbage collection (apparently, so Vertex 3 is probably better in RAID 0 where TRIM doesn't work)

Main source: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums...0-vs-510-vs-320-vs-x25-M-vs-F120-vs-Falcon-II
 
So it's a bit of a tough one when comparing them 2 if I am right?

You said that the M4 was £55 cheaper compared to the Vertex 3, last time I looked their was only a £6 price difference? :S

Liam
 
Dunno if this helps but I just went from a Samsung 7200rpm sata disk to the M4 as a system drive and the difference is crackers, really, REALLY QUICK! :D
 
LEK-89 said:
So it's a bit of a tough one when comparing them 2 if I am right?

You said that the M4 was £55 cheaper compared to the Vertex 3, last time I looked their was only a £6 price difference? :S

Liam
Click to expand...
I was using OcUK prices: M4 is £140, Vertex 3 is £195. The Vertex 3 can be had for £180 elsewhere though, so that makes it £40 difference.
 
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I think I am set on the Crucial M4, and I was about to order the 128GB version from OcUK last night until I noticed that they are out of stock until next week at least argh!

I may wait it out until next week when more stock is in hhmmm.

Liam
 
For £140 go for the M4 for the reasons stated. If you can push up to £170 get a Mushkin Chronos Deluxe. They held them back for 3 months while they sorted out the BSOD issue and are said to be sandforce problem free, besides which they offer they highest available read/write/iops stats on spec and sport toshiba toggle memory. They are basically vertex 3 max iops at £50 off. I'm buying one next week and if you like, and haven't bought yours by then (M4 being a week off), I'll post my benchmarks and impressions when I've got mine.
 
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