Salt-City_Slasher

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I have been reading through the forum about SDDs and I want to get one. To be practical I would only need 64gb or so but I only wanted to spend around $150.
I have read that the OCZ Agility or Intel X25 are recommended so I was wondering if there are any others to consider??
 

sub mesa

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I highly recommend you opt for the Intel X25-M 80GB G2 instead. It is much faster in random I/O and though unproven, it may also be more reliable; there are some reports of OCZ SSDs dying without apparent cause; though it is too early to draw any conclusions.

Still i think you get much more value for the slightly more expensive Intel SSD.

Use Windows 7 or modern Linux so you can use TRIM on the SSD. I also recommend you do a clean/fresh install.

If you have Vista or XP you would need to create a smaller partition to keep some space unused - this space will actually be used by the SSD internally, and is an alternative to TRIM. If you don't do this and you also don't have TRIM, your SSD might slow down and reduce lifetime.
 

Salt-City_Slasher

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I found the X25-M Mainstream 80gb, this does look pretty good, it's probably one of those things that you shouldn't get cheap with. Well it's actually not that much more, it's only $220 so I might as well spend an extra 50-70 getting the real deal.
 
I have both Intel X25-M and Kingston SSDNow V Series SSDs in my desktop and HTPC, respectively. The Intel feels faster and I highly recommend it, but it also cost me almost $100 more that the Kingston. I'm very happy with the Kingston even though it is on the slower end of the SSD charts. It is still a lot faster than the WD Black platter drive it replaced though.

The selling points for me on the Kingston were its very low price and it comes with either a notebook upgrade kit that comes with a USB enclosure, or a desktop upgrade kit that comes with a 2.5" to 3.5" adapter to mount in a case.

I don't have any experience with the OCZ Agility to share.

Edit: The retail version of the Intel X25-M comes with a 2.5" to 3.5" adapter too, which adds to its value.