M4, Vertex 3 or Performance Pro

hideki

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hideki

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Ive had a couple of SSD's in the past, all Intel's (X-25/320) which worked without problems.

For a new build I am thinking of one of these:

OCZ Vertex 3
Crucial M4
Corsair Performance Pro

From what I've read people seem to recommend the M4 over the Vertex 3, and the Performance Pro while more expensive than the M4 is also faster.

The second question is one of capacity. I am thinking 128GB is sufficient for a boot drive, are there any advantages of going with a 256GB SSD?
 
I just built a system recently with two M4s 128gbs. I guess the advantage of a 256 is you get more storage for a little under the cost of two drives. Though if you were to go for 2 128gb drives and raid them you'd see better performance.

The problem I encountered before I had my M4s (My Vertex2e) was that using it at as a boot drive it needed to be quick, I needed to compensate a lot by leaving at least 20% as a minimum free to retain the speed. On top of that if I installed the likes of Steam onto that drive all my steam games had to be on that drive to, so I ended up having storage problems with a small drive.

I might of not cleared things up but I would definitely recommend the M4s, firmware flashing them is extremely easy as well. Go for a large sized drive, or two half sizes you are prepared to Raid them. Though if you honestly only want to use it as a boot drive an a handful of programs a 128 would be fine.
 
jallan said:
I just built a system recently with two M4s 128gbs. I guess the advantage of a 256 is you get more storage for a little under the cost of two drives. Though if you were to go for 2 128gb drives and raid them you'd see better performance.
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Only in sequential read/writes... depending on your raid controller, you may even be hampering small I/O speeds in a raid-0 configuration.

For the tiny gains in real world use in sequential rear/writes and potential downfall depending on raid controller... it's not recommended to raid SSDs.

The problem I encountered before I had my M4s (My Vertex2e) was that using it at as a boot drive it needed to be quick, I needed to compensate a lot by leaving at least 20% as a minimum free to retain the speed. On top of that if I installed the likes of Steam onto that drive all my steam games had to be on that drive to, so I ended up having storage problems with a small drive.
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A quick google would have shown you how to create folder links in windows 7 - it's very easy. There's even a tool out now that does it for you - google "steam tool". Simple graphical interface - but it does it's job well. I have steam installed on a 128GB M4 & 126GB of Steam games installed... only ~4GB of that on the SSD itself.

I might of not cleared things up but I would definitely recommend the M4s, firmware flashing them is extremely easy as well. Go for a large sized drive, or two half sizes you are prepared to Raid them. Though if you honestly only want to use it as a boot drive an a handful of programs a 128 would be fine.
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At current pricing - I'd go for the 256GB for convenience.

I've managed with 100-128GB boot drivers (or smaller) for at least 3 years now... if you're prepared to balance your storage, it's pretty easy :)

So... 128GB is definitely enough for the forseeable future - but 256GB will make your life a little simpler :)

Don't waste your time with raid.



As for the drives themselves... yes, M4 seems the most liked drive of those three.

The OcUK special on Samsung 830 256GB drives though is rather good! And you won't see much (if any) difference in performance. I've got one coming as a second drive - still undecided as to whether to switch boot from the 128GB M4 to the new drive or not. The Samsung may be slightly faster in general use.
 
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You can't beat the Samsung 830 right now, its up there with the best performers(its above the M4, probably a little(not noticeable in real world) off the Vertex 4/Corsair pro. But the price, £150 for a 256gb samsung, or £115ish for a 120gb Vertex 4, even more for a performance pro the last I looked. Samsung is as fast, yet stupidly cheap right now.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-150-SA&groupid=701&catid=2104&subcat=1427

Unbeatable basically, 256gb of one of the fastest drives around for not much more than 120gb of drives that really aren't any faster.

Obviously a bit more than a £80 M4 , but still better GB/£ and a faster drive.
 
crinkleshoes said:
Stuff
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I know how to link folders, I just prefer to run my games off a faster drive specifically the FM series of games, that is why they have to be on an SSD for me. I'm not a fan of sitting around for a while waiting for the game to load the database every time I try and do a player search where as on my current raid it is instantaneous.

On both my Vertex2 and M4 Raids I personally have noticed real world gains, I'm not a benchaholic but I find games load a lot quicker, I find maps in games load amazingly fast and considering that is what I use this system mainly for I am more than satisfied with the results. I have also ran both drives as a single OS drive beforehand, the V2 more so.

If you shop around for the M4s you can get the 128GB for a lot cheaper which gives you the option to go for a 256 or raid them if you wish without breaking the bank and in some cases being cheaper. So balance up the odds and like you said "potentially" you might decrease some aspects of performance but there is the potential you won't apparently.
 
Thanks for the feedback guys. I had decided to go with the M4 before the thread but I am now leaning to the Samsung 830.
 
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