Is an M4 really THAT good?

Dan2kx

Dan2kx

Dan2kx

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Joined
8 Feb 2007
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674
Hi Guys,

Im tempted to buy a new SSD to use for games only, my current (HyperX 240GB) is getting nearly full, which means i have to be selective with game installs...

I bought the HyperX because it looked to have pretty good stats, but everyone seems to get M4's, why is this? they appear on paper to be slower to write and have lower IOPS etc?

Is it just down to peoples "exeperiences" with the sandforce controlers? i havent had any problems since january with the HyperX...

If i was to get another (240/256) which should i go for?
 
Dan2kx said:
they appear on paper to be slower to write and have lower IOPS etc?
Click to expand...

IOPS aside why does the write speed of the SSD matter?

Everyone goes for the M4 because in the read tests it's always near the top.
The read speeds are what matters most on the SSDs unless you specifically have a need for fast writes and the write speed is significantly bad.
 
Everyone buys them because they're popular. IMO they're the most proven SSD on the market at the moment, especially the 128gb. They seem to sell more units than any other SSD but have (I think) the lowest RMA rate.


Few people really care that it's 3% slower than another drive, because it's 300% faster than their old HDD and more reliable. (I think, not googled anything for this post. Usually do but too lazy today.)
 
Dan2kx said:
Ok, so its only 5MB/sec slower on read (than my current)

but what diffrerence do the IOPS make then?
Click to expand...

Have a look through http://uk.hardware.info/reviews/2824/48-sata-600-ssds-round-up and see where the M4 is compared to your SSD in most read tests (There's a few HyperX SSD's and I don't know which one you have).

In general it's usually at the top in the majority of the read tests, and that's what matters for most users an all round performer in reading.

No one really cares how much faster their SSD can install a program or game, it's the responsiveness when they load it up that matters.

IOPS is just how many operations the drive can handle per second, it's usually something useful in servers I suppose where multiple parts of the drive are being accessed.
 
What's the read speed on your Hyper? Googling around shows 525mb/s but the M4 is 550mb/s with the latest firmwire... so I don't see how it's slower?
 
Had a look at the mega thread (sticky), I think the Samsung is better than the M4 on reads (apart from the top end slightly) and better on writes.

Might get one of them, I'm sure they have gone up in price today tho...? Does that mean they might be on TWO?
 
- They are reliable
- I've used micron/crucial ram for years
- I've had 3 firmware upgrades so far, each one improved performance

Good enough for me...
 
What would be the best way to configure the drives? As in which for games/ which for OS? I'll use the remaining OS disk as a working folder for video processing I expect - but that probably won't make much difference either way!?
 
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Competitive speeds
Competitive price
Proven reliability
Faultless Warranty service

Those are my reasons.


Sure everyone wants a 512GB vertex 4 or 480gig Intel 520, but the M4 is top notch for the reasons i posted above.
 
Yes, I'm only on SATAII so speed is maxed out on my system whatever drive i get on the market these days. But the M4 i never have to worry as it's bullet proof, unlike OCZ i wonder if my PC would boot-up at all
 
Anyone know what firmware the Overclockers M4s are using?

I'm also considering an M4.

However, I note that the Overclockers product description lists them as using firmware 0309, which is now rather out-of-date.

Does anyone know if this is the case, or is the product description no longer correct?
 
johnmreynolds said:
I'm also considering an M4.

However, I note that the Overclockers product description lists them as using firmware 0309, which is now rather out-of-date.

Does anyone know if this is the case, or is the product description no longer correct?
Click to expand...

Shouldn't be hard to update it to the latest version if it is though.
 
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