OCZ Agility 2 180 gb or Intel X25 GB 160 same price HELP

[wt66]

Newbie here guys,

have got a toshiba qosmio x500 (canadian x505 with blu ray burner, i7-720 quad core, 6 gigs of ddr3 and an Nvidia 3600m). The laptop currently has dual 5400 rpm 500 gig drives. it has windows 7 pro.

I want to upgrade my OS to be on an SSD drive, but i'm torn about what to get. There are currently 3 options i have found for a decent price (canadian prices, mind you)...

1) OCZ Agility 2 Extended 180 gig- $450 canadian
2) intel 25X G2 160 gig - $460 canadian

or as a distant 3rd, but smaller

3) OCZ Vertex 2 128 gig - $310 Canadian

Yes i can get that agility 2 cheaper than the intel.
i am leaning towards the larger drives just for the fact that i can put more stuff on there. I mainly use the computer for Music, movies, browsing the net and gaming (starcraft 2 is awesome btw)

I am going crazy researching, there is just too much info, and nothing that i'm asking about specifically. SO MUCH info out there on SSDs, and the tech improves so fast. Help!

what do you guys think?

 

[wt66]

40 views and no votes at all? not wanting to help out the noob?

 

[Drakoes]

The intel one should be the best one but $460 still seems to be a bit too much - you could get something else like a high end GPU for that price.

I recommend the Crucial C300 128GB and it's blazingly fast (it almost fully saturates SATA II speeds since it's intended for SATA III) and I love it - newegg has it for just under $300 - http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148348

 

[RetiredChief]

Voted for C300, with reservations.
You listed the vortex, was that the vortex-2??, if so, for me and my use I would have picked it (120 gig @ 279 after rebate - new egg However you can probably find the 120 gig C300 for the same price).
Intel Highest cost, poorest performance.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/3812/the-ssd-diaries-crucials-realssd-c300/2
Looking at the 4 K random read/writes which is the more important feature..
.. For reads - C300 winner, intel & Votex 2 very close & would know the diff.
.. For writes - Winner = Vortex 2, intel big loser here.

Does your laptop have space for a 2nd HDD, if so then the 120 gig would be the most cost effective (performance vs cost).

In my case (Do not game), I found the 120->128 gig plenty. Do NOT have 2nd bay, but augment with external. Plan on using either (1) 32 to 64 gig USB3 thumb drive or (2) I have a spare 128 gig WD blue SSD plugged into the esata port, or the USB3 port. Already have esata and just ordered the USB 3 expresscard.

 

[Guest]

all 3 drives are very good. i think the crucial drive has the fastest 4K memory write.

the intel x25-m and agility 2 have about equal read speed but vertex writes much faster.

 

[foscooter]

I just posted this on another thread:

First of all, what OS are you running? And what mobo?

Windows 7 has a feature called TRIM, that will help the drive "self optimize." This keeps the drive from "...lose performance as they age/used more,..."

And on Intel based motherboards (X58 or P55 chipseets), the ACHI function also helps, kinda.

My suggestion would be go with a little smaller SSD, say 60-80GB, and get another HDD for data/media. Install the OS and Program Files on the SSD, and all your "data" on the HDD. "Data" could be your libraries like My Documents, Download, Music, Pictures, Videos, etc.

As for a SSD suggestion:

Intel X25-M 80GB
OCZ Vertex 2 60GB
OCZ Agility 2 60GB

Check the read/write perfomance of these. Yes, Intels writes are slower, but once the OS is installed, reads are what really matters.

As for a data/meda drive:

Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA II
Seagate 7200.12 1TB SATA II

Sorry I didn't give any links or prices, I don't what's out there in Canada (i.e Newegg.ca?)

Any help?