Thinking of getting a SSD

Dark Light · 11 Apr 2012 at 18:55

Thinking of getting an SSD

My HDD died last week and I am currently unable to use my system, I need a new drive. I was thinking of getting a HDD, but HDDs are stupidly expensive and aren’t that great in any case. So that leaves SSDs, I am wanting a drive at around the £100 mark.

It is of my opinion that this is not a good time to get a SSD as the 3rd gen Sandforce controller is just around the corner and the prices of SSDs are predicted to fall rapidly over the next 12 or so months.

However, I do not currently have anything and I need a new drive. So, is this an ok time to get an SSD and if so what SSD would you recommend. The Corsair Force 3 does look to be the cheapest half decent SSD at about £100 for the 120GB module.

Also, if I got a SSD I would need a SATA III controller, does anyone know where I could get a cheap decent SATA III controller that isn't pci-e x1?

Rusty0611 · 11 Apr 2012 at 19:58

Stretch your budget if you can and and get the Crucial M4 128GB SSD. But more the point, you'll fill that up extremely quickly without a normal HDD for programs/storage....

I would get a mechanical hard drive now if you haven't got one at all. Having an SSD only is not really viable nor sustainable. You don't need a controller, you can just plug it into a SATA II socket if you don't have SATA III. The speed difference between SATA II and III is fairly large but not at a level you'll notice in general gaming/browsing/working IMO. Definitely not worth forking out for an external controller.

Rusty0611 · 11 Apr 2012 at 19:59

YOUR BASKET
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) £77.99
Total : £86.69 (includes shipping : £7.25).

Would be a better purchase for the money (over an SSD) if you don't have a HDD at all to use.

Dark Light · 11 Apr 2012 at 21:33

Rusty0611 said:
Stretch your budget if you can and and get the Crucial M4 128GB SSD. But more the point, you'll fill that up extremely quickly without a normal HDD for programs/storage....

I would get a mechanical hard drive now if you haven't got one at all. Having an SSD only is not really viable nor sustainable. You don't need a controller, you can just plug it into a SATA II socket if you don't have SATA III. The speed difference between SATA II and III is fairly large but not at a level you'll notice in general gaming/browsing/working IMO. Definitely not worth forking out for an external controller.

What’s so good about the M4?

As for a normal HDD, I could live off 120GB without any problem until I can get a 2TB drive for like £50. I don't pirate anything, store music or use loads of software, all I will have on that drive is Windows 7, Steam and a few games, Visual Studio pro and Windows Phone SDK, Eclipse and Android SDK and Dropbox, which is currently 2.2GB.

welshdragon · 11 Apr 2012 at 22:02

M4 is very reliable due to mature firmware and good hardware. As are Intel ssd's tbh. To be honest an M4 at £120 is a no brainer.

wazza300 · 11 Apr 2012 at 22:17

dont be put off other ssd's though,have no issues with my corsair gt

Dark Light · 12 Apr 2012 at 22:13

wazza300 said:
dont be put off other ssd's though,have no issues with my corsair gt

What do you think of the Force 3?

wazza300 · 13 Apr 2012 at 01:23

Dark Light said:
What do you think of the Force 3?

its ok but uses cheaper asynchronous nand,when drive is above half full the performance drops off a lot compared to ssd's that use synchronous nand,they are unaffected

vertex 3
crucial m4
corsair gt
intel 520

all use better synchronous nand

snave · 13 Apr 2012 at 14:07

I bought the OCZ Agility 3 120GB which is now on this site for under £100 and I really cannot recommend it enough. Installed windows from scratch in around 7 minutes and boot times are about 30 seconds, noticed a huge improvement with load times in Swtor too. I would never even consider running a PC without a SSD now and for £100 really you cannot go wrong.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-076-OC

Dark Light · 14 Apr 2012 at 00:37

What about the Vertex 4?

wazza300 · 14 Apr 2012 at 00:58

vertex 4 should be fine

Dark Light · 14 Apr 2012 at 17:27

How would the M4 be at SATA 2 vs other SSDs, like the SandForce SSDs?

Broken Hope · 14 Apr 2012 at 18:34

The 128GB M4 for £106 on today only is a no brainer tbh.

Dark Light · 15 Apr 2012 at 00:21

How does the Vertex 4 compare with the M4 for the 128GB version?

OptimaLnrg · 15 Apr 2012 at 02:11

Vertex 4 is still very new so no issues are showing up yet.

You should be aware that it uses a different controller to most drives (most current gen use sandforce gen2), M4 uses a marvell, vertex 4 uses an indilinx everest (ocz bought indilix).

OCZ get a lot of flack for reliable on their SSDs, but I'm pretty sure they also sell a hell of a lot of SSDs, so they may well have a large market percentage. Bare in mind lots of the past issues were caused by sandforce firmware outside of ocz control - one of the reasons they're gone indilinx to keep it in-house. Yet.. I still swapped out my agility boot for an intel.

Nevertheless, M4 has solid reliability, and crucial has made regular firmware updates to the drive (I think I read the latest can be done from windows so it's easy for a novice user?)

Intel 520 is indestructible.

Not sure about the corsair options. Honestly, for me I wanted the intel or the crucial and decided the intel was better for me.

Dark Light · 15 Apr 2012 at 21:44

Would like to get the M4 on sale, but I am not paying all that postage.