Is an M4 really THAT good?

[drunkenmaster]

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

Strictly speaking this is incorrect, sequential speed has very little to do with the real speed of an ssd, sequentials, 160mb's hdd, 500mb's ssd, 4kb random read, 0.5mb's hdd, 30mb's ssd. Sequential is 3 times faster, 4kb random read is 60 times faster, and 4kb reads are much more frequent than sequential reads in the vast majority of usage patterns.

A better drive is a better drive, and a current drive would spank a 3 year old ssd even in a sata 1 only system. I say strictly speaking as, most current ssd's have very similar 4kb random read speeds so real world usage becomes very very similar among all the current drives, the difference in benchmark performance just isn't reflected in real world performance in the slightest.

 

[bledd]

240GB nearly full?

Crikey

Do you have your Documents, Photos, Music, Videos on that drive too?

Clear out things like the Downloads folder, Desktop and delete old System Restore points. Run CCleaner on the drive to clear out old temp files.

 

[bemaniac]

recommend 2 of the samsungs in a raid zero for games as it doesn't matter if your installs all die from drive failure as you can always reinstall em.

 

[Dan2kx]

240GB nearly full?

Crikey

Do you have your Documents, Photos, Music, Videos on that drive too?

Clear out things like the Downloads folder, Desktop and delete old System Restore points. Run CCleaner on the drive to clear out old temp files.

No it's windows, few program's, and the rest all games, my steam folder is about 100gb, think I have 50gb free now cos I reinstalled windows, but that's only about 3 games space! I have 4tb backed up to 4tb NAS for data

I was goin to get a new SSD to dedicate to games, and use the OS drive as a working space (vid edits etc), rather than the mech drives

 

[Dan2kx]

So, final vote then (before TWO ends)... M4 or 830?

 

[moogle]

So, final vote then (before TWO ends)... M4 or 830?

M4, seems to get better scores than the Samsung even in the MEGA SSD thread.

 

[meths]

M4

 

[mayebaza]

M4

 

[Nogimmix]

M4 - so much I might buy another one.

 

[FredFlint]

SSD do not feel like that much of a speed upgrade until you go back to a normal drive. Then it becomes clear how good they are. I got an M4.

 

[koolpc]

M4 here too

 

[Rik1254]

Sam 830 IMO, Im getting the 256 as my next SSD.

The M4 is only as good as it is because all other SSD's of comparable price (OCZ mainly) use the sandforce controller and that naffed up many times for people, whereas the M4 hasnt.
Now the Sam 830 is on the market, that and the M4 are pretty much the same in real world performance, but the Sam 830 is a few £££ cheaper (the 128GB is about £10-£15 cheaper last time I looked).

 

[kedge]

SSD do not feel like that much of a speed upgrade until you go back to a normal drive. Then it becomes clear how good they are. I got an M4.

I agree with this, my only gripe with ssd's is the actual data storage amount usable to the consumer. My Crucial m4 128gb ssd only has 119gb data storage, 9 gb put aside for the actual marvell controller and wharever else is inside the drive before the end user storage.

 

[jaybee]

I have used 3 x Samsung M4's for builds for friends and they have been solid. That says a lot with new SSD tech. They each have required firmware updates to fix the time bomb issue they will have had if left alone, and each one went fine. Crucial support and service is also very good. They look after their customers.
In a market surrounded by plenty of fast drives, the M4 has proven itself and been reliable. Crucial brought good TRIM support and a loyal customer base was formed as the controllers on their stuff seemed reliable.
It's all well and good having a cheap drive with good headline speeds, but when you have issues with it like some of the OCZ stuff has, it's a nightmare, especially since a lot of people are using this as their main OS drive for speed boost.

Personally I just brought one and got a Samsung 830 as they seem to be the new king and also have a good controller, but Crucial M4 was my second choice.

 

[stuie]

samsung 830 was my choice

 

[Tute]

M4 here.

 

[Andy__C]

Really wavering over buying the 128gb and first SSD..... the reputation is excellent.

Is there anything poor to be said about the M4?


Hoping OcUK will match other competitors with price soon!

 

[FredFlint]

I agree with this, my only gripe with ssd's is the actual data storage amount usable to the consumer. My Crucial m4 128gb ssd only has 119gb data storage, 9 gb put aside for the actual marvell controller and wharever else is inside the drive before the end user storage.

I don’t think that’s how it works, The OS uses some of the space for the file system. Different file systems use more/less depending on cluster size and other options. This also happens with normal drives.

 

[moogle]

I don’t think that’s how it works, The OS uses some of the space for the file system. Different file systems use more/less depending on cluster size and other options. This also happens with normal drives.

He's talking about the spare flash that SSD's keep for maintenance and increasing life. The 120GB SSD's do that and have the 8GB hidden (I think), I don't know whether the 128GB ones have 136GB actually and have that 8GB hidden or they just mention it in the specs to make it look better.

It can't be the filesystem, taking up 8GB of space. Could be the conversion to bits to bytes as 128GB -> 122GiB.

 

[Ollie1132]

I would swear by my m4. Its a beautiful ssd