SSD for HP bus machine - HP branded/warrantied SSD or Samsung

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HardwareJay

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I'm putting new HP business machines in the office, to be running Windows 7.

I've always had great results with HP warranty support on our business machines (well, "almost" always). Generally, they'll overnight a new drive with little or no questions asked if I have an issue.

I'm trying to decide between putting in an HP branded/warrantied SSD or a larger and cheaper Samsung.

The dealer is admonishing me that the HP SSD is "designed by HP (which I seriously doubt) and certified to be optimally reliable and compatible with this specific HP machine."

Cost for the HP branding and warranty? $630 on promo for a 256 GB SSD.

On the other hand, Samsung SSD drives on NewEgg are a "lot" lower in price. I can get a lot more storage for that kind of money. For instance, Samsung 840 Pro 512 GB SSD is $419. And the reviews are pretty stellar. "However," a good 5% or so of the reviews are horror stories about failures, about necessary hardware not provided, about compatibility, and about no warranty support if it's outside the specific range of CPUs (etc?) that it's warranted to be compatible with.

I'm one to go with reliable, compatible, and great warranty/service since these are business machines and it's a small company where each machine counts. And it is a "one-time" expense, but man to put in 256 GB of SSD versus, say, twice that for the same money, is a tough choice.

My time is very valuable/costly, too, though -- which either translates to "a larger SSD is worth it because it saves me time," or it translates to "more reliable is worth it because it saves me time."

I would sure appreciate comments.

Thanks!

 
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mbreslin1954

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I've owned a dozen SSDs over the past three years and only had one fail on me, the others are still going strong (not all are three years old by any means). I wouldn't think the higher price was worth it for support. With all the savings you get from buying Samsungs from Newegg, just get an extra SSD and you'll have your instant spare and still save money.
 
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HardwareJay

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Thanks. Yeah, I did that math in my head, too -- two drives for the price of one means the first "replacement", if needed, is already covered.

But when you say one failure out of twelve, that's a lot. And what about the question of whether the limited range of compatibility these Samsung SSD drives are known for doesn't "well"-cover the HP business machine I'm getting?

Plus, I have to allow for the fact that the "time" of restoring a system after a drive crash costs me the price of quite a few SSD drives no matter how I slice it. Again, I'm running a business, which has to bear on weighing these considerations.

I do appreciate your sharing your advice, of course. I'm just presenting the rest of what I'm also trying to weigh.

At this point, I just don't know how much to expect the HP-branded drive to be "less likely" to present any issues.

 
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mbreslin1954

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I doubt the HP drives are any better than Samsung drives. The extra you're paying for is for fast replacement of failed drives, basically upgraded warranty. I'm not familiar with any limited compatibility of Samsung SSDs, but if you are then you probably want to stay away from them and go with HP.
 
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HardwareJay

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A few of the one-star reviews I saw on NewEgg for various sizes of the Samsung SSDs (non-pro models at least -- I'm not so sure about Pro) have talked about limited compatibility and even reported that Samsung makes that fact very clear to the point of refusing to provide warranty support for, well, non-Intel chipsets for one as I recall.

I sure will be displeased if I go the HP route and still have to ask them to replace it. I think if that happens I'm going to "insist" on a full refund and go with Samsung.

Anyone else here have any opinion at all on whether there's any basis at all to expect even a slightly higher likelihood of problem-free with the HP branded SSD?

Thanks!

 
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HardwareJay

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I think another question I should ask myself (and solicit opinions on -- consider it solicited) is whether 256 GB will be enough. That's as big as HP offers. I'm planning to go with 256 SSD and, oh, 1 TB HDD (or two 500 GB HDDS in RAID0). SSD for OS, apps, and maybe swap, HDD(s) for data.

It'll run Windows 7 and, well, a bunch of normal business apps with a little video and audio editing capability thrown in. No CAD etc, and no games.

I see about 140 GB used up on my current desktop running Windows 7 and about three quarters of my business apps. But this will be new machines and I hope to not have to revisit this issue for at least two or three years, and I don't know how much I may or may not wish that SSD was 512 GB or find that 256 GB was plenty.

If I decide to go with 512 GB at this time, Samsung seems the default way to go. I would of course go with the Pro.

Oh, and there is that "compatibility" thing but maybe they were inaccurate in what they assumed was the problem (I'm sure I saw others but maybe that was for smaller or non-Pro models): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147194

"Other Thoughts: Look elsewhere. This is the only SSD I have found to force replacing an entire motherboard and processor to achieve optimum performance. Look elsewhere for bulletproof system compatibility."

"Not compatible with DELL M4700 Bios."

"Not compatible with Intel B75 Chipset. Windows 7 will not install properly BSOD, Drivers will not install. Random Shutdowns"

Another thought is that I'm wondering (and saw some other reviewer also wondering) if the current state of the SSD technology may be such that the larger the drive the higher the failure rate and vice versa.

Comments welcome.

Thanks again!





 
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HardwareJay

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Whoa. HP does have a 512 GB SSD drive... for the trivial price of a cool thousand dollars even. Vs Samsung Pro on NewEgg for about $420.

So... is there any reasonable basis at all for expecting the HP-branded version to be less likely to be problematic (than a Samsung) when put in an HP machine where the dealer says "When I look up compatible accessories it shows this model of SSD, meaning it's certified and guaranteed by HP (we'll ignore his also saying "designed by HP") to be fully compatible, optimized and reliable to work with this particular HP machine."

Thanks again!

 
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HardwareJay

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Okay, so... I won't say that I just spoke with a tech at HP workstation tech support who is an exceptionally good man who gave me candid advice and is an excellent example of why I buy HP and speak so highly of their tech support (at least for workstations), but I won't say that I didn't either.

Seems they get virtually no reports of compatibility or performance issues with Samsung SSDs and there are lots of business customers using them.

(And of course they don't "design" their own SSDs as the dealer tried to tell me.)

Also seems very clear now that the only way to go is with "at least" a 512 GB SSD for OS, apps and swap since anything less (meaning 256 GB) is really borderline for Windows 7 plus apps and would be flirting with running out of space way before it's time.

Cool. Decisions made. Thanks for helping me think it through.

Jay

 
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