SSD for my laptop

r3loaded

r3loaded

r3loaded

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Hey guys, I'm finally now in the market for a medium-high performance 120GB SSD, with a budget of £250-£300. This SSD is going to replace the hard drive in my laptop.

I've done tons of research on this SSD stuff, and here are the contenders I've chosen (in alphabetical order):

  • Corsair P128: £270, Samsung controller, 128MB cache
  • GSkill Falcon: £276, Indilinx controller, 64MB cache. From what I've heard, it's very similar to the Vertex.
  • OCZ Agility: £253, Indilinx controller, 64MB cache. It's like the Vertex but with cheaper NAND flash.
  • OCZ Summit: £316, Samsung controller, 32MB cache, supposedly similar to the Samsung PB22-J
  • OCZ Vertex: £327, Indilinx controller, 64MB cache.
  • Samsung PB22-J: £258, Samsung controller, 128MB cache.

To me, it seems like the Samsung PB22-J is the best deal. It's the second-cheapest of the lot, yet should be faster than the Agility for an extra fiver.

While I have found many reviews of all drives, I haven't found a review which compares all of these together. In particular, reviews of the Samsung are quite hard to come by. My questions are thus:

  • How do the Samsung and Indilinx controllers compare to each other?
  • Do any of the drives here have issues that I may not be aware of?
  • Will they support the SATA TRIM command in Windows 7? I'm aware similar functionality is accomplished for the GSkill and OCZ drives with the Wiper program, but that apparently has issues with 64-bit Windows which currently makes it an unacceptable option for me.
 
Samsung controllers don't currently support TRIM - the Samsung will slow down as the sectors become written to, whereas the Agility will stay fast.
Samsung will probably support trim come Win7 release, but Agility is guaranteed, and supports it already.
IMO any issues with 64bit windows will be sorted out in agility/falcon/vertex before or at the same time as samsungs gain trim functionality.
 
out of that lot, at those prices, get an OCZ Agility.

Nobody really knows how TRIM is going to be implimented in Win7, but with the agility you can run a TRIM utility manually, on top of it definitely being firmware flashable - making it the safest bet.
Samsung have hinted that they will support it, but I've not seen them provide any ability to flash the drives yet.

Don't worry too much about sequential write speeds, it's not something that is really noticable.
 
I've been looking to do the same, however may as well ask it in here. All the SATA drives out there have SATA II technology - will they work with a "SATA I" motherboard?
 
Ok, cheers for that guys, you've been extremely helpful in a short space of time. On the subject of firmware upgrades for the Agility, how will this be done? Can it be done in Windows while the SSD is the current boot drive? I ask this as I have a laptop, with no access to a desktop system. I don't want to have to wipe the drive just to upgrade the firmware either.
 
not had my samsung based corsair S128 slow down on me yet, its only £171 as well

i am not trying to Brake my ssd by doing full formats or filling the SSD to the point there are no free space left (keep 20-30GB free on SSDs) or using CCleaner that wipes free space that does more harm then good

its vertex based SSDs that seem to need the Trim tool more then any thing els

you norm have to wipe the SSD when the firmware is updated at this time (samsung SSDs will get an update when windows 7 comes out ), vertex drives are work in progress still and get updated every month or so, where as samsung are more for every one els who does not want to mess with tools or do firmware updates often

i have not yet managed to get my SSD to slow down yet i have Written more then
300gb to it and most likely more doing other tasks

most of this be moot point once windows 7 comes out and SSD makers add TRIM to ATA spec fully
 
leexgx said:
not had my samsung based corsair S128 slow down on me yet, its only £171 as well

its vertex based SSDs that seem to need the Trim tool more then any thing els
Click to expand...

Yes you have, it's just that it slowed down to its rated speed while the Vertex use the unwritten-to speeds in the spec. :p
Anyway, the X25-M is reputed to be worse affected than the Vertex.

you norm have to wipe the SSD when the firmware is updated at this time (samsung SSDs will get an update when windows 7 comes out ), vertex drives are work in progress still and get updated every month or so, where as samsung are more for every one els who does not want to mess with tools or do firmware updates often
Click to expand...

No, you can now update the firmware without wiping the SSD, although since there's a risk of data loss it's worth making a backup anyway, just in case.
I imagine the Agility firmwary updates will be the same.
 
samsung SSDs will get an update when windows 7 comes out
Click to expand...

Has this been announced ? My Samsung SSD which is similar too this has had a user updateable flash/bios update.

So I'd guess all other Samsung's can be updated too, if the manufacture chooses to release a update. Of course it's possible they will just re-release the same drive under a newer name instead :)..
 
If they don't, they fail at marketing :p

If you don't want to risk it, either accept the speeds may be lower (after all, transfer speeds don't matter that much for regular usage), or get an OCZ Agility.
 
the speeds of my SSD have not dropped yet still doing the advertised speeds (doing around 85MB/s and 75MB/s)

most programs are less then 100MB when loading, all my games load Right away, the faster SSDs just make the game load 1-3 secs faster maybe
 
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