OCZ Vertex 2E or Intel X25-M?

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Hi all,

I've been pretty set on getting an SSD for a while now, and I think I'm decided that the time has come.

I'm looking at getting an OCZ Vertex 2E or an Intel X25-M, but I cant decide between the two.

The main issue I have is that the OCZ appears to be overall faster than the Intel, and relatively cheaper.

Vertex 2E Read@285, Write@275
X25-M Read@250, Write@70

If these specs are correct, isnt it pretty much a no-brainer?
One of my friends recently bought the X25-M and says its awesome, but the raw speed of the OCZ sways me from his recommendation.

Help, please?

Thanks for any advice.
Also, my setup is in my sig, any comments or warnings are welcome.
 
The intel drive is a fast drive no doubts, but its been about for some time, where as the Vertex is a lot newer, with a far better controller on it, hence the speed difference.

Both are a good buy, but it would be hard to say get the intel one over the vertex, only reason you may want that would be for the extra hard drive spac (80gb), compared to the lower spaced vertex, unless you are looking at the larger vertex's then this dos'nt matter.

So to sum it up the vertex is the better to get.

OCZ Vertex 2E 60GB 2.5" £99.99 inc VAT (normally £107)
OCZ Vertex 2E Bigfoot 90GB 3.5" £154.99 inc VAT
Intel X25-M Mainstream 80GB 2.5" £159.99 inc VAT
OCZ Vertex 2E Bigfoot 120GB 3.5" £189.99 inc VAT

So as u can see, the smaller drive is by far the cheapest, if you where looking at the intel, and are willing to spend that money, id say go for the 90gb one thats slightly cheaper, faster and more space. Or if you can stretch to the 120Gb that would be better space wise, but is £30 more though.

Just to let u know the bigfoot is the same drive as the normal one, just its in a bigger 3.5" case, normal is 2.5"case. Hope this post helps you, your mate has got a very good drive, nothing at all wrong with it, just the Ocz beats it for Value for money really.
 
Thanks for the great breakdown, that's MUCH appreciated.
I'm resolved to spend enough for the 120GB as I want to have enough space that I wont need to buy a bigger SSD within a few years. The performance of the OCZ also assures me that I'll be happy for a few generations of SSD to pass by as I'll probably rebuild my PC within the next year.

If you can help me a little more though, I have another question which I didn't consider...

Can I take the 2.5" drive out of the 3.5" case if I desire, or is it permanently like that?

Also, my current setup is running from install with AHCI, do I need to reinstall anyway or can I clone over?
I saw some others on the forums here are having to reinstall to reconfigure their BIOS to AHCI, but I set mine like that from the beginning before my current install.

I'm running Samsung drives at the moment.

Thanks again.
 
If you're looking at the OCZ Vertex 2E 120GB, note that the 2.5" version (which would possibly give you more flexibility in the future) can be had for £175 at the moment (not here though).
 
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If you're looking at the OCZ Vertex 2E 120GB, note that the non-BigFoot (which would possibly give you more flexibility in the future) can be had for £175 at the moment (not here though).

Thanks for the advice, a £15 saving is a saving worth saving. :D
 
Is anyone aware if I can port my Windows 7 64-bit installation over or if a re-install is required to take advantage of the SSD?
 
Is anyone aware if I can port my Windows 7 64-bit installation over or if a re-install is required to take advantage of the SSD?

Re-install recommended. But you can clone your current drive. You just need to be aware of the issues surrounding partition alignment, as tools like Acronis True Image don't get it right (a lot of the times) for SSD's (NB. even TI 2011 is not fully SSD friendly, regardless of what it says on Acronis's home page!) and this "will" have a major impact on the drives performance if it gets the alignment wrong. Plus to get the best out of the VERTEX drive, you need your SATA controller to be running in AHCI mode. So if your current installation isn't, then you've got other steps involved to sort this first. All round, clean install looks to be the way to go. This is what I shall be doing. Plus the current recommendation on the OCZ forum's, is to flash the firmware in the SSD to the latest version ... before installing the OS (do this with the SSD attached as a secondary drive on your current suystem BEFORE installing the OS).

Suggested way forward.

- Update firmware on new SSD
- Connect new SSD into system (disconnect all other HD's prior to install)
- Make sure SATA controller running in AHCI mode
- Install OS
- Regarding chipset drivers. Leave the standard Microsoft drivers that W7 installs in place, unless you know that your SATA controller supports the latest Intel RST drivers (version 9.6.0.1014). I've been lead to believe that earlier versions of the
RST drivers prior to this can have problems with TRIM on the Vertex 2.
- Run Windows WEI.

Things not to do.
- EVER EVER EVER do a full format of an SSD. Only a quick format. Or use OCZ's Secure Erase program
- NEVER Defrag an SSD.
- Don't go insane running benchmarks (especially CDM), as this can degrade performance.

Loads of "interesting" posts on the OCZ forums about this etc.

O'yes... should you have a Gigabyte motherboard (like myself), be aware that you may get a SMART error message thrown up every time you boot your PC. You can either safely ignore it, or see if there's a BIOS upgrade for your motherboard that gets rid of it. Though some people have commented that the latest firmware on the VERTEX 2E sorts it.

PS. I'll be picking up a Vertex 2E 120GB myself tomorrow.
PPS. Not pretending to be an expert here. It's just that I've been doing a HUGE amount of research prior to buying one myself.
 
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Mine arrived today, installed already. Here's my WEI and ATTO results (using AHCI, RST 9.6.0.1014, latest nVidia drivers, etc.):

Vertex%202E%20ATTO%20Benchmark.png


Vertex%202E%20WEI%20Benchmark.png
 
If going for the Vertex 2 then update the firmware to the latest ASAP.

Mine arrived with 1.1.1 installed and my machine would BSOD until I turned off disk write caching.

Other than that however the Vertex 2 rocks :D
 
I've been reading about partition alignment.

For others who are unaware, you can check this by running msinfo32 and looking under Components > Storage > Disks.

Under the partition starting offset, this number should be divisible by 4096, and if not, then it is not properly aligned.

I understand that a fresh install through the Windows 7 installer will automatically align the SSD, but if my partition is currently in this configuration, I'm wondering if it will copy over correctly?

For clone backups I use copyzilla, which I've found to be solid open sauce software.

My big worry is, will it damage the drive or just degrade performance?
 
Ive currently the intel x25m, although I dont regret it, im yet to decide if to purchase the new Vertex 2E, main thing is am concerned with is, is the Vertex 2E 4K Read/Writes a lot faster than the intel x25m?
 
n00b alert.

With the OCZ Vertex 2e, which i should be getting this week in anticiaption of a new build at a later date, can I hook it up to my current PC and then flash the firmware via the windows flash update tool I am currently downloading, and then take it out and rebox it?

Is it that simple for me or am I so used to over complicated ways of doing things I expect it to be harder?
 
n00b alert.

With the OCZ Vertex 2e, which i should be getting this week in anticiaption of a new build at a later date, can I hook it up to my current PC and then flash the firmware via the windows flash update tool I am currently downloading, and then take it out and rebox it?

Is it that simple for me or am I so used to over complicated ways of doing things I expect it to be harder?

Might be an idea to have a quick look at the following:

http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/f...-Vertex2-Pro-Vertex2-EX-Vertex2-E-Agility2-E)

Though as DragonQ says "yes, it's that simple".
 
Imma throw in another n00b question.

I can plug in the ssd, boot normally to windows on current hdd. run the exe, select ssd, apply and shut down comp. take out old hdd leaving only ssd in there... on reboot go into bios, turn on ahci, run win 7 installer, format/install.

Am I missing a few steps?
 
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