Force 3 or M4

gropingmantis · 15 Oct 2011 at 11:15

The time has come for me to finally get an SSD.

But which one? I know that the Force 3 is faster than the M4 but have they ironed out all the issues that the SF-2200 controller had at release? Which is more reliable now on the latest firmware?

Talking about the 128GB being used for OS and programs.

opethdisciple · 15 Oct 2011 at 14:52

Im sure the Force 3 is a fine SSD.

But I can only comment on my experrience.

The M4 is great, had no problems with it.

I saw a review recently that gave it 92% (looking to see if I can find it again)

You cant go wrong withthe M4. I went for it for its reliability.

Howling · 15 Oct 2011 at 15:21

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18329538
I've had no issues with it.

TFC · 15 Oct 2011 at 17:04

+1 for the M4, it's fast and no problems

gropingmantis · 15 Oct 2011 at 18:56

Is installing the new firmware largely painless on the M4 as the speed boosts you seem to be able to get are pretty tasty. I am guessing that for an OS drive having a fast write speed is not hugely important? And so speed wise they are pretty much on a par and in terms of reliability I guess the M4 wins out?

Howling · 15 Oct 2011 at 20:08

gropingmantis said:
in terms of reliability I guess the M4 wins out?

How did you come to that conclusion? Since the early CFS3s there's been zero problems with them, was just the initial trouble with the SF controllers.

gropingmantis · 15 Oct 2011 at 20:19

Howling said:
How did you come to that conclusion? Since the early CFS3s there's been zero problems with them, was just the initial trouble with the SF controllers.

So all the issues people were having with the SF-2200 controllers is all ironed out now then?

liamcrane · 15 Oct 2011 at 20:31

Do you have to plug an ssd into a sata 3 port? my board only has sata 2 i believe and i am also really keen on getting an m4 drive

Avathar77 · 15 Oct 2011 at 20:31

Well I wouldn't say "Zero" oreblems.
If you read the forum there are many many people every week here poping up with SSD related errors.
Not from a specific make though!

Since Howling posted his results with the link to his thread, here is my AS SSD results. I am sure there are many out there with better results.
My one is for OS drive.

Howling · 15 Oct 2011 at 22:08

Avathar77 said:
Well I wouldn't say "Zero" oreblems.
If you read the forum there are many many people every week here poping up with SSD related errors.
Not from a specific make though!

Since Howling posted his results with the link to his thread, here is my AS SSD results. I am sure there are many out there with better results.
My one is for OS drive.
*snip*

Have ATTA bench for it too? By all accounts AS SSD is a pretty bad benchmark, I just did it 'cause I happened to have it. Curious how it compares.

SheepBeast · 15 Oct 2011 at 22:19

force 3 is faster, you say? since when?

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/400?vs=425

Howling · 16 Oct 2011 at 01:39

SheepBeast said:
force 3 is faster, you say? since when?

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/400?vs=425

Who said that exactly? O.o

gropingmantis · 16 Oct 2011 at 08:40

I did...turns out I was wrong.

M4 ordered! Thanks guys.

Snapshot · 16 Oct 2011 at 10:07

gropingmantis said:
Is installing the new firmware largely painless on the M4 as the speed boosts you seem to be able to get are pretty tasty.

Completely trivial. I followed the instructions on the web site and it took a whole couple of minutes.

liamcrane said:
Do you have to plug an ssd into a sata 3 port? my board only has sata 2 i believe and i am also really keen on getting an m4 drive

SATA is backwards compatible so a SATA3 drive will work on a SATA1 port but much more slowly than it would on SATA3, of course. I've used a SATA2 Vertex2 SSD on both SATA2 and SATA3 ports - the M4 on a SATA3 port is noticably better....

dmxdex2020 · 16 Oct 2011 at 11:48

How is the M4 better. On paper the force 3 beats it badly.

Why are the write speeds on the M4 so low compared to the force 3?

Do the M4 also have garbage collection?

gropingmantis · 16 Oct 2011 at 12:00

dmxdex2020 said:
How is the M4 better. On paper the force 3 beats it badly.

Why are the write speeds on the M4 so low compared to the force 3?

Do the M4 also have garbage collection?

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/400?vs=425
Well this was posted just a bit further up which seems to say that in read operations the M4 walks all over the F3 so I guess it depends what is more important to you. Reads or Writes.

All SSDs have GC.

IvanDobskey · 16 Oct 2011 at 12:01

Don't regret buying my M4 one bit. Great SSD, highly recommended here.

dmxdex2020 · 16 Oct 2011 at 12:01

O cool thanks for that. So if i raid these up i can use trim and or the gargabe collection?

Well the reason i would be getting an ssd is for oblivion and fallout those types of games that load data on the fly. I want to reduce my hitching and stuttering which i have bee told that ssd do fix. I assume its down to having a higher read speed?

gropingmantis · 16 Oct 2011 at 12:10

dmxdex2020 said:
O cool thanks for that. So if i raid these up i can use trim and or the gargabe collection?

Well the reason i would be getting an ssd is for oblivion and fallout those types of games that load data on the fly. I want to reduce my hitching and stuttering which i have bee told that ssd do fix. I assume its down to having a higher read speed?

TRIM wont work in RAID but GC will and that should be sufficient. I don't know about games I always thought that SSDs offered little or no advantage in games other than fast level load times.

dmxdex2020 · 16 Oct 2011 at 12:24

gropingmantis said:
TRIM wont work in RAID but GC will and that should be sufficient. I don't know about games I always thought that SSDs offered little or no advantage in games other than fast level load times.

Games that load textures on the fly like oblivion an ssd pretty much eliminates then from what i have read.