Another SSD thread- sorry

[[WU-TANG]GZA]

Hi Guys,

Wanting to get an SSD to boost my computer up. Primary use for PC is gaming, browsing, transferring large files quite often (1-8gb).

I have narrowed it down to a few. Which can you guys recommend?

OCZ Vertex Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Hard Drive SATAII 64MB Cache 250MB/s Read, 180 MB/s Write = circa £290

Corsair Performance Series 128GB SATAII Solid State Hard Drive 128MB Cache
= circa £300

Intel X25-m Solid-state Drive, 80gb Sata Ii 2.5, Mlc, High Performance, 34nm Product Line = circa £200

Corsair Nova 128GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive (CSSD-V128GB2-BRKT) £292.99 on OCUK. Having look at the read/write looks pretty darn good.


My first thoughts are to the Corsair drive due to the size and the 128mb cache (REALLY a benefit?) and being the cheapest £/GB drive of the three with the Intel being the most expensive.

Are they all going to perform more or less the same and therefore getting the most storage is the way to go? Is one of these like an old model that should be avoided? The £/GB is marginal so....

I will use this drive as a boot drive (W7 64bit) and to install Microsoft Office on it and some steam games. I would guess that 80GB would be just about enough really for OS + 2 or 3 games.

I've read very good things about the Intel drives and some things about the Vertex but practically nothing about the Corsair drive. It's a lot of money so I don't want to buy a dud.

Also, if anyone wants to reply wait a few months for prices to come down, pls don't. I've kept a cheeky eye on SSD for like 18 months now and they're not THAT much cheaper now. Plus, I would and always have paid more for the benefit of getting it now rather than waiting.....

P.S I am noob so pls try to keep it layman friendly

Thanks

 

[Ziggy4]

If you only plan on having Office and those 2 or 3 games then 80 GB should be plenty with some overhead. You won't see a huge difference between gaming on an SSD and a fast HDD though, so if you do start to struggle for space you could move some of your less played games off to HDD. I can highly recommend the Intel drives based on my own experience but that's not to say the other alternatives you've listed would not serve just as well. I'm sure others will pop in to add their own suggestions. One word of caution though. I wouldn't base the decision entirely on sequential read / write speeds. The random read / write is arguably more important for an OS drive. Search around on the net. There are plenty of reliable review sites with comparison charts, including more useful real world benchmarks. The Intel and Vertex drives are typically among the best performers overall.

 

[[WU-TANG]GZA]

Hi Ziggy,

Thanks for your thoughts. Yes I did know that random is very important. I just meant for transferring the larger files won't take minutes anymore will take seconds/1 minute which will be nice.

OK yea I've read most on the Intels and they're all good. Is that model that I pasted a good model/old model. I'm sure it's not the best model cos they still cost as much as a new rig!!

Cheers.

 

[Ziggy4]

Yep, that's the latest Intel G2 with 34 nm being the clue. The older G1 models had 50 nm memory.

cos they still cost as much as a new rig!!

Ah, but a good SSD will make you feel as if you have a new rig!