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Colasanto said:
Indeed it is. Not that it matters but it also got 7.9 (max score) on windows assessment.

But the bench speaks for it's self, imagine getting two in raid 0 ;)
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Haha! Thats what I use at home ;)

Cant update FW unless out of raid so not got around to backing up, formatting, updating and reinstalling yet.. takes too long for what will be maybe 5-10% better performance on an already 1GB/s + transfer rate :D
 
Andrew Moore said:
Haha! Thats what I use at home ;)

Cant update FW unless out of raid so not got around to backing up, formatting, updating and reinstalling yet.. takes too long for what will be maybe 5-10% better performance on an already 1GB/s + transfer rate :D
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You don't have to faff around with all that, just switch controller mode to ACHI, flash each drive separately, then switch the controller mode back to RAID.

I'd back up the data first as a precaution, but it does work, people on other forums have done it.

As for the Intel drives, they are Sandforce controllers, but I'm assuming with Intel firmware on them, they should be a fair bit more reliable than the OCZ Sandforce drives.
 
Broken Hope said:
You don't have to faff around with all that, just switch controller mode to ACHI, flash each drive separately, then switch the controller mode back to RAID.

I'd back up the data first as a precaution, but it does work, people on other forums have done it.

As for the Intel drives, they are Sandforce controllers, but I'm assuming with Intel firmware on them, they should be a fair bit more reliable than the OCZ Sandforce drives.
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Thats what I am thinking and masses faster too it would seem :)
 
~Divine~Wind~ said:
128 Gb M4 or 2x 64Gb M4s?

Is Raiding worth it?
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Read speeds would be increased but write speeds would be no better. There's no TRIM support either on the raid so with that in mind the fact the writes will be sub 200MB/s would put me off massively.

Better off with a single 128GB M4, a Performance Pro of perhaps an Intel 520series.
 
How about the Corsair Force GT?
I'm guessing similar performanceto the Vertex 3 as they're SF/sync NAND, but I'd rather go with Corsair for the support/customer service (at the same price point).

I would also like to see more reviews/benches of the Samsung 830 series, as I'm not clued up on the benefits of Toggle NAND, but I expect these to be on a par with the M4 for reliability/stability (or even close to Intel).

Tricky Question : What's the difference between sync/async/toggle NAND in terms of reliability/longevity?
 
Awesome guide, here's to hoping you are going to keep this updated over time. I will make sure to refer to this next time I am in the market for an SSD.
 
Thanks this is very useful, Kingston really need to address their version numbers to something more simplistic. I keep thinking the old stuttering drives from a few years ago and were they 100, 100+ etc etc :p
Someone in marketing needs a slap. But again, thanks for these scores - easily a good few hours work.
 
Was interested in the Intel 520 to run as a Steam drive until I found out it is over £200 and rumoured to be using a SF controller....
 
DennisMenace said:
How about the Corsair Force GT?
I'm guessing similar performanceto the Vertex 3 as they're SF/sync NAND, but I'd rather go with Corsair for the support/customer service (at the same price point).

I would also like to see more reviews/benches of the Samsung 830 series, as I'm not clued up on the benefits of Toggle NAND, but I expect these to be on a par with the M4 for reliability/stability (or even close to Intel).

Tricky Question : What's the difference between sync/async/toggle NAND in terms of reliability/longevity?
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I'd also like to know about the Corsair GT... since I have one.
 
Force GT performs along the same lines as the vertex 3 and the Kingston HyperX

I shall start increasing what is reviewed as time goes by leaving EOL lines for reference to those who are looking to upgrade.

60gb and 240gb drives will be tested over time too. :)
 
Any P67, Z68 or X79 with intel sata 6gb/s will perform within a percent or two of those scores.

AMD will be slightly slower as they use a micron controller.
 
i am confused, why force 3 is the worst of them all? also, other day it did 6.5 secs boot, which is amazing i recon, clean install with main drivers for the rig. After format and installing intel achi drivers it became slower, 9 seconds, well confused about ssds

just wanted to add, when formating surely force 3 comes top of m4? as write speeds are much higher, or am i wrong? i am a bit of a format freak you see :D
 
CivilDrone said:
i am confused, why force 3 is the worst of them all? also, other day it did 6.5 secs boot, which is amazing i recon, clean install with main drivers for the rig. After format and installing intel achi drivers it became slower, 9 seconds, well confused about ssds

just wanted to add, when formating surely force 3 comes top of m4? as write speeds are much higher, or am i wrong? i am a bit of a format freak you see :D
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The way the M4 handles files and file types is different due to the controller used. The Marvell is superior in just about every way imaginable over the Sandforce which is why both the M4 and Performance Pro appear around 1.5-2x as fast in most scenarios except for how fast a large file can be written.
 
Intel 320 all the way forget artificial benchmarks in real world useage & reliability they are still the best option as they use the Intel controller. 5 year warranty as well on retail kits. Its the controller which makes the difference not sure why Intel did not develop a 6Gb solution though but the difference between most SSD's is virtually unnoticeable outside of a stopwatch anyway ;) although I would avoid anything based on a SF controller as they can be unreliable & the data compression flatters to deceive outside of benchmarks even with manual TRIM the performance I found on a Vertex 120SE is very poor & outperformed in day to day useage by my 2 year old Intel 80GB :eek:

I can boot W7 in under 20 secs from cold including bios post on an Intel 320 series 120GB with hibernation disabled & 12 CPU threads :eek:
 
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