Which 120gb SSD?

Mint_Sauce · 8 Oct 2010 at 11:50

I have the OCZ Vertex 2E 120gb bigfoot drive sitting in my basket but before hitting the buy button wanted to make sure it was the 120gb drive of choice.

Are there better 120gb SSD drives out there? It will be used as my OS drive.

Thanks.

MrBlobby · 8 Oct 2010 at 12:47

Wouldn't two 60gb in a raid 0 array be better ?

Mint_Sauce · 8 Oct 2010 at 14:45

I don't know, does it kill trim or anything important raiding them?

Greebo · 8 Oct 2010 at 14:50

trim doesn't work in raid 0 though sandforce controllers work differently and apparently they still "clean" themselves up in raid.

Apart from that, nothing else bad.

fretted · 8 Oct 2010 at 15:02

Does this question not depend if you have SATA3 or not?

Mint_Sauce · 8 Oct 2010 at 15:23

I have SATA3 but intend to upgrade the rest of my system earlyish next year. I guess at that point I may also upgrade the SSD as well since it's likely they would have increased in size and performance a fair bit.

Is it best to get 2x64gb drives and raid 0 them for my SATA 3 or just opt for the single 128gb? Which SSD is the favorite? I see a lot of people are using the C300s.

bifday2k · 8 Oct 2010 at 15:41

The sandforce controllers use garbage collection, when the drives/system is idle so no need to worry about non trim.

But 2 radied 60gb drives only gives you 60gb of storage, id still say just get the bigfoot, larger capacity, and ok slower then radied ssd's but still more then fast enough.

Mint_Sauce · 8 Oct 2010 at 15:44

If it's raid 0 it will be generally be twice as quick but maybe SSDs work differently?

I currently have an 8 port Perc 5i raid controller running a raid 5 array (5 x 500gb drives), I could plonk the two SSD drives on that as a seperate thing if it's beneficial.

HazardO · 8 Oct 2010 at 15:59

bifday2k said:
The sandforce controllers use garbage collection, when the drives/system is idle so no need to worry about non trim.

But 2 radied 60gb drives only gives you 60gb of storage, id still say just get the bigfoot, larger capacity, and ok slower then radied ssd's but still more then fast enough.

2x 60G drives in RAID 0 =120G logical drive.
The only downside is that RAID0 in my experience is unreliable if done in software (intel's matrix storage is partially software RAID). If you really want RAID0 I would recommend a dedicated hardware RAID card.

Mint_Sauce · 8 Oct 2010 at 16:03

HazardO said:
No SSDs don't work differently 2 60G drives in RAID 0 =120G logical drive.
The only downside is that RAID0 in my experience is unreliable if done in software (intel's matrix storage is partially software RAID). If you really want RAID0 I would recommend a dedicated hardware RAID card.

I have an 8 port Perc 5i in my machine with 3 ports free. I don't think there's any reason I couldn't add the two SSD drives on to that for my OS.

However, I'm not sure if I can be bothered with the hassles of raiding, especially with SSDs and a Perc 5i with the 'tape trick'. I think I'd prefer to just plonk in a single 120gb SSD and be done with it.

So back to my original question,

which is the best 120gb drive around in the £140-£200 range?

HazardO · 8 Oct 2010 at 16:16

If you don't mind a disappointing write speed, the C300, if you do want fast write, the OCZ vertex 2 bigfoot.

Mint_Sauce · 8 Oct 2010 at 16:20

Ok, the bigfoot it is then. Thanks everyone!

bifday2k · 8 Oct 2010 at 16:22

Id agree, if i was updating my SSD, it would be either the C300, or the bigfoot id be choosing from.

If i had to make the choice personally i would go for the bigfoot drive, as Hazard said, it has a much better write speed, top quality controller.

FabienO · 8 Oct 2010 at 16:37

Bought a bigfoot yesterday on the today only deals. Not installed yet, but can't wait to get that bad boy in.