SSD suggestions?

mrjack

VIP Member
I've been considering buying an SSD for quite a while now, but I've been out of the loop for a while when it comes to SSDs so I'd like some suggestions/input.

I'll be installing the OS, most miscellaneous software and some games on the drive.

I've been looking at the Crucial M4 128GB (132€), Samsung 830 128GB (119€) and Intel 330 120GB (110€) drives. The preferred budget is around 150€ or under. The prices I posted are from Jimm's.
 
Last edited:

Benny Boy

Active Member
All three of the ones you listed are known for reliability and of those 3 if it were me, would look at the 330 and the 830 since thier specs are a bit higher. Also Intel 520 series. Can you filter the link to show only Sata III and up to your price point?
 

tech savvy

Active Member
Out of the three you posted, the Samsung. But IMHO, I wouldn't get any of those. Instead, look into the Corsair Force 3 or the GT series, they offer better performance and longer life expectancy at around the same price.
 

spirit

Moderator
Staff member
All of those drives are faster than the Corsair Force 3/GT according to Anandtech SSD Bench. I have the Crucial M4 myself, great drive, but I'd say the 830 is probably the best of the bunch.
 

harry clemance

New Member
personally im a sucker for the intel drives so my vote would go for that, but if you could go to the 520 i would suggest that instead, if this is your first ssd then you will be incredibly happy if you went with any of those drives :)
 

mrjack

VIP Member
All three of the ones you listed are known for reliability and of those 3 if it were me, would look at the 330 and the 830 since thier specs are a bit higher. Also Intel 520 series. Can you filter the link to show only Sata III and up to your price point?

Jimm's (filtered by my max budget and based on whether the product mentions SATA III)
 

Benny Boy

Active Member
Last edited:

mrjack

VIP Member
The Intel 520 has a 3 year warranty according to the product page. I might have to send an email and ask about that since all other sources claim a 5 year warranty. It is probably just the warranty time that they cover while the manufacturer covers 5 years.
 
Last edited:

Benny Boy

Active Member
The Intel 520 has a 3 year warranty according to the product page. I might have to send an email and ask about that since all other sources claim a 5 year warranty. It is probably just the warranty time that they cover while the manufacturer covers 5 years.
The other day when I saw your post about the 5yr, I went to Intel site and looked around a bit. On the 5yr they have something on the drive that will tell them the how much data iirc that has gone through it. Like precaution for use as servers and such where MLC doesn't last as long as SLC. In a desktop that wouldn't/shouldn't be a prob.
 
Last edited:

paulcheung

Active Member
Out of the three you posted, the Samsung. But IMHO, I wouldn't get any of those. Instead, look into the Corsair Force 3 or the GT series, they offer better performance and longer life expectancy at around the same price.

I think it is bit too early to make this statement as all the drives are claim to have over 100 years MTBF and the drives are only here less than 5-10 years. Ratio of failures maybe.
Cheers
 
Last edited:

mrjack

VIP Member
I'm inclined to get the Samsung 830 128GB and will put in my order once they have them in stock (they are currently out of stock). In the meantime I'm waiting for my Dell U2412M and two Western Digital Green 2TB drives to arrive.

Thanks for the feedback.
 

wolfeking

banned
The 830 is a great drive if you want it. It runs lightning quick in my M90. Not so much in the desktop, but I think there is a issue with the chipset as that would explain a lot of my issues Ive been having. Got to check it out more later, but like said its lightning quick in Sata II mode.
 

mrjack

VIP Member
I've read that you should always leave 20% of the drive's total space unused, but I haven't found out if that 20% has to be a part of the partition(s) or if it can be left as unpartitioned space. Can I make one big partition that is 80% of the drive's size and not need to worry about not filling the partition? Will it matter, from the controller's perspective? I probably won't be filling the SSD, but if I can minimize the amount of stuff the keep track of then all the better.
 
Last edited:

Benny Boy

Active Member
From the controller's perspective, no, it won't matter.
20% is a good guidline imo. Plus the makers build in some flash to be used at life end as cells wear out.
 

mrjack

VIP Member
So I should be able to just leave 20% as unpartitioned space and the controller will be able to use it when/if needed? I'm just trying to make sure, since it might not have been as obvious to the manufacturer that this might be a scenario that could occur.
 
Last edited:

Benny Boy

Active Member
So I should be able to just leave 20% as unpartitioned space and the controller will be able to use it when/if needed?
That's what I do. I won't ever get close to 80% capacity but if for some reason I did, I'll know about it.

If you want 20% inaccessible by youtheuser you could let the installer align/assign file sytem/install os to all space, then shrink the volume.

I'll do sone reading up on a couple things because I want to know the details surrounding why, but unlike a hdd that will have a certain area of a disk unused - ssd flash is by cell so I'm concluding that that 20% partition could be made up from cells from diff flash at any given time. And, as the controller manipulates data from cell to cell, that 20% may just be a minimum total of currenty empty cells(or blocks of data).

edit: I do know it won't matter. 20% is 20% whether it has a partition or not as far as the controller is concerned.
 
Last edited:
Top