Reliability AND gaming ssd?

sehcure · 17 Feb 2012 at 19:46

I was specked a m4 for gaming purposes SSD wise, and with their new firmware update it seems like their reliability has upgraded, however I want a SSD that will last a good 2-3 years at least.

With this new target in mind, would a 830 be a better choice? Or even shelling out the premium for an intel?

I'd be looking at a 60gb one and would prefer the price to stay sub £100 - but of course I could go £110 for the intel if it's that much better... :confused:

Thanks guys and sorry for any shortness or mistakes, on the iPad on dodgy hotel wifi in..turkey.

kiel367 · 17 Feb 2012 at 19:47

tbh i bought the m4 256, and its an epic drive, first thing i did was update the firmware, took me about 30 seconds, i would defo recommend these drives

stulid · 17 Feb 2012 at 19:49

Stick with the M4

beejjacobs · 17 Feb 2012 at 19:49

The Crucial M4 and Intel drives are both known to be reliable. The Intel ones have a longer warranty (5 years) but whether that's worth the premium is up to you, the Crucials still have 3 years.

Personally I'd stick with a Crucial M4.

IvanDobskey · 17 Feb 2012 at 19:57

I wouldn't go for the 64gb, really not big enough. By the time you have installed win7, essential programs and a game, you'll have no space left! Go for the 128Gb.

sehcure · 17 Feb 2012 at 19:58

IvanDobskey said:
I wouldn't go for the 64gb, really not big enough. By the time you have installed win7, essential programs and a game, you'll have no space left! Go for the 128Gb.

This is the problem I'm seeing now; if I get a 120 it's going to have to be the m4; so much cheaper compared to a intel 120..

Well if you guys suggest the m4 Ill grab one of those; thanks!

And how much space do you have taken up on your 128 btw?

wazza300 · 17 Feb 2012 at 20:22

why dont you buy the ocz synapse ssd,that way you can use it as a caching ssd along with any size hdd,then you wont need to worry about space,ssd speeds with hdd storage

http://overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-090-OC

its the only ssd that supports all types of mb,currently only z68 supports ssd caching

sehcure · 17 Feb 2012 at 20:26

wazza300 said:
why dont you buy the ocz synapse ssd,that way you can use it as a caching ssd along with any size hdd,then you wont need to worry about space,ssd speeds with hdd storage

http://overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-090-OC

its the only ssd that supports all types of mb,currently only z68 supports ssd caching

I read a review on that, and decided I might as well just buy an SSD..
Unless you think there's much better advantages to it!:/

wazza300 · 17 Feb 2012 at 20:30

i agree but your limited to 64gb or 128gb,with caching your only limited to the size of your hdd,im using caching with a 2tb samsung,bootup time total is 29seconds

when i installed the os on the ssd instead of hdd,bootup time was 13seconds but i only had 28gb left of space with a 60gb ssd,its up to you

regular ssd paired with a z68 board all support caching,but the synapse supports caching on all boards,and all ssd's will let you run the os off them as apposed to caching,hope that made sense

sehcure · 17 Feb 2012 at 20:36

wazza300 said:
i agree but your limited to 64gb or 128gb,with caching your only limited to the size of your hdd,im using caching with a 2tb samsung,bootup time total is 29seconds

when i installed the os on the ssd instead of hdd,bootup time was 13seconds but i only had 28gb left of space with a 60gb ssd,its up to you

regular ssd paired with a z68 board all support caching,but the synapse supports caching on all boards,and all ssd's will let you run the os off them as apposed to caching,hope that made sense

Hmmm. I am on a z68ap-d3.
Well my current samsung spin point 320gb drive boots in 31-4 seconds (using that boot timer I forgot th name of..) and that's only a sataII 7200rpm deal.
If the caching times are only similar Im not sure if I could justify the price.

And yeah I think I've decided on getting a 120gb tbh

wazza300 · 17 Feb 2012 at 20:40

post your current bootracer score,remember im using a 2tb drive thats just over half full,with 60gb in caching mode

with win7 on ssd ^^

with os on the 2tb drive and caching with ssd ^^

if you have a z68 board then any ssd will be fine,its up to you then which way you want to go,as above

sehcure · 17 Feb 2012 at 20:43

Interesting.
And eh can't at the moment; currently in turkey..miles and miles away from my PC!

My boot racer was on the 320gb spin point, but I did only have a fresh install of win7 on it and a game or something so it'd probably slow down after a few months usage..

wazza300 · 17 Feb 2012 at 20:45

it depends how full up the drive is too,speed drops off when nearly full,plus the amount of programs being loaded at start up,not only startups improve programs load faster with caching than they would with just the hdd

ive used the two methods above and apart from boot up times i havnt noticed any difference,both ways feel just as quick

sehcure · 17 Feb 2012 at 20:46

wazza300 said:
it depends how full up the drive is too,speed drops off when nearly full,plus the amount of programs being loaded at start up,not only startups improve programs load faster with caching than they would with just the hdd

Ah I always remove things from startup on my machines from msconfig. I think the only thing I have that isn't a core service is my google updater for chrome..everything else is removed.

shuffle · 17 Feb 2012 at 20:51

Hi, if you're looking for a good gaming SSD and reliability with a 5 year warranty then go for the new Intel 520 120gb. I bought one last week and as I've said Battlefield 3 is a different game from a HDD. Why skimp for the sake of 40 quid, just get an Intel drive.

sehcure · 17 Feb 2012 at 20:56

shuffle said:
Hi, if you're looking for a good gaming SSD and reliability with a 5 year warranty then go for the new Intel 520 120gb. I bought one last week and as I've said Battlefield 3 is a different game from a HDD. Why skimp for the sake of 40 quid, just get an Intel drive.

Yeah, the warranty is what's tempting me.. And the brand sadly; I think of intel as reliable..

Decisions decisions.

sehcure · 18 Feb 2012 at 10:36

New question - most people say 60gb isn't big enough for windows 7 and a game or two; would a 90gb ssd be enough? My mate has an unopened one and said he'd sell it if I wanted...

Duke · 18 Feb 2012 at 10:50

If its a good model and price, yes, if not then I'd recommend the M4 120GB.. very happy with mine.

Broken Hope · 18 Feb 2012 at 11:48

shuffle said:
Hi, if you're looking for a good gaming SSD and reliability with a 5 year warranty then go for the new Intel 520 120gb. I bought one last week and as I've said Battlefield 3 is a different game from a HDD. Why skimp for the sake of 40 quid, just get an Intel drive.

5 year warranty doesn't automatically make it reliable, the Intel 320 series had the 8MB bug which lost people data.

The M4 series currently haven't had any bugs that have lost data, only caused a BSOD after 5200 hours and this was fixed within a week.

kedge · 18 Feb 2012 at 14:35

sehcure said:
New question - most people say 60gb isn't big enough for windows 7 and a game or two.

Depends on the size of the game. I have a crucial m4 128gb ssd but formatted it gave me only 119 gb to use, i have win7 64-bit installed fully updated a few small apps no games and i have just under 100gb free. On my m4 64 gb ssd- formatted only gives you about 59gb free, i have win xp 32-bit -dirt3 and a few smalll sized apps and have 38 gb free space to use.