SSD now or in 3 months?

[Hockeyguyinoc]

Looking at getting an OC Vertex 2 120gb price is $260. Seems like a good deal for the price.
Anything else out there better for around the same?
Any reason to wait until the end of the year?

I'm currently running:
i7-920
6gigs ram
wd Caviar black 640gb
windows 7 ultimate

 

[foscooter]

First, you really don't need a SSD that large, 60GB sould be plenty for a OS and Programs. Store all you data/media on the WD HDD.

Second, if you are willing to wait, I would. The Intel Gen3 should be out later this year (Oct?), so prices MAY drop, and better products available.

But, you can still get a SSD now, as they are still great products, the Vertex 2 is one of them, and will be much faster at program loads over your current HDD.

Just like anything, new products are always coming out, but the current ones are still "good enough."

 

[Hockeyguyinoc]

Thanks for the information!

Maybe I'll just get a cheaper drive for now and wait for the Intel's Gen 3.

How are the WD or Kingston drives they hit sub $100 price tags for 60gb often? Is it worth just paying the extra $30-35 and getting an Vertex 2 or agility 2 at the same size?

As for storage I have a server I work off of and anything I download would go to the 640gb drive once this is installed. I don't even use my current setup as a storage drive it is strictly for os and programs, everything else is on another drive.

 

[2real]

Sorry to butt in but, if you like to play games wouldn't the 120GB be a better choice? games around 8-10GB these days and you'd have to do a lot of swapping... but then again you can store the back ups on the data HDD

 

[Hockeyguyinoc]

2real-good point.

I do play a lot of video games(FPS and MMORPGs), programing in C++ and C#, minor video editing(home videos), graphic art design and website design.

So I have a crap ton of programs installed. Unfortunately I'm not at home to see my hard drive usage to really tell how big the basic install is. That is why I have been shooting for 120gb though previously. Can't afford anything bigger for sure.

 

[2real]

2real-good point.

I do play a lot of video games(FPS and MMORPGs), programing in C++ and C#, minor video editing(home videos), graphic art design and website design.

So I have a crap ton of programs installed. Unfortunately I'm not at home to see my hard drive usage to really tell how big the basic install is. That is why I have been shooting for 120gb though previously. Can't afford anything bigger for sure.

I know I have at least 200 GB of games installed. I'm not playing every single of them though. Unfortunately, Steam does not let you have multiple file installation locations (from what I'm told). So, I guess you could steam back up to your HDD and load it up whenever you want to play a specific game.

 

[Hockeyguyinoc]

Thanks for the information. I think a good portion of my games I could care less about as I tend to play CS, Quake, WoW the most so it will benefit me to have those on my drive. I guess I can wait for the rest to load lol.

 

[2real]

Thanks for the information. I think a good portion of my games I could care less about as I tend to play CS, Quake, WoW the most so it will benefit me to have those on my drive. I guess I can wait for the rest to load lol.

haha yea I think that's the route i will take as well

 

[mark_k]

I would only buy a SATA 6 Gb SSD and if your mborad does not have SATA 3 then get the AUSUS U3S6 USB 3.0 & SATA 6Gb/s Add-on card.

ASUS Model U3S6 USB 3.0 & SATA 6Gb/s Add-on card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813995004
Crucial RealSSD C300 CTFDDAC128MAG-1G1 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148348

 

[Hockeyguyinoc]

mark_k-The problem I have with the CTFDDAC128MAG-1G1 is that it has some significant differences from the CTFDDAC256MAG-1G1 when it comes to writes. Most average users are getting better performance overall from SF-1200 based drives at that capacity. In all it will cost me $41 more for less performance. The 256GB version is hands down the king right now but very out of my price range.

 

[mark_k]

Make sure you looking at small writes and large writs when you do the compare.
If you can hold off there will be some better SSD in the next couple months.

I still would hold out for Sata 6 Gb SSd's

Good luck please let us know what you get.

 

[Hockeyguyinoc]

mark_k yeah I'm thinking holding out might be a good/best idea. Though I wouldn't mind giving a cheap drive a spin. I can get very impatient haha.

It was the $260 price point for the vertex 2 120GB drive that got me a bit excited. Since my drive will be close to full unless I start picking through apps I use the most I was seeing the writes being a huge issue when rewriting over old data. The 256gb Crucial is so fast it doesn't seem to matter. The 128gb Crucial seems to be about half the write speed making it more of an issue.

As it is now my home storage for apps is somewhere around 160gb so at 128gb I'm definitely putting apps on secondary storage and could easily fill that drive to capacity. I do want to jump in just thinking I might see some prices at about $1.5 for a gig coming up making the 256gb drives more reasonable to swallow.

 

[mark_k]

mark_k-The problem I have with the CTFDDAC128MAG-1G1 is that it has some significant differences from the CTFDDAC256MAG-1G1 when it comes to writes. Most average users are getting better performance overall from SF-1200 based drives at that capacity. In all it will cost me $41 more for less performance. The 256GB version is hands down the king right now but very out of my price range.

With the 128 it's not a prblem for me becuse I intend to use the SSD for the OS where there will be minimal small writes and the read is just as fast as the 256..

 

[geofelt]

I love the SSD. It makes everything you do seem so much quicker. But, I suggest waiting for the SSD. Gen3 ssd's are due to launch by fall. They will be built on a 25nm technology which will be cheaper. The marketplace is very competitive. You should be able to get a bigger, faster, and cheaper ssd then. In the meantime allocate a 160gb OS partition on your large hard drive and install your OS and apps there. When you get a ssd, clone the partition to the ssd. When initially installing the OS, select AHCI(not IDE or RAID) as the sata mode in the bios. After OS installation, it is very difficult to change the mode without a reinstall. AHCI is necessary for the SSD to use the trim command. The trim command muchly improves the efficiency of file deletes. Currently the delivered Windows-7 driver is the only one that can pass on the trim command. In time, the Intel raid drivers will get updated with that capability.

 

[cadder]

I've been watching SSD prices recently in the 128-160GB range. Unfortunately for me I want to put it in my wife's laptop and having a second hard drive for storage is not an option, so I figure she will need 128GB min.

Prices have been slowly creeping down, I thought they would have dropped faster.

 

[geofelt]

I've been watching SSD prices recently in the 128-160GB range. Unfortunately for me I want to put it in my wife's laptop and having a second hard drive for storage is not an option, so I figure she will need 128GB min.

Prices have been slowly creeping down, I thought they would have dropped faster.

Currently competition is eating into the profit margin. But there is a limit on how low prices can be because of manufacturing costs. When the 25nm chips become abundant, you can get twice the number of nand chips per wafer, cutting the cost in half..theoretically. That time is when I forsee the bigger price adjustments.

 

[elivance]

Currently competition is eating into the profit margin. But there is a limit on how low prices can be because of manufacturing costs. When the 25nm chips become abundant, you can get twice the number of nand chips per wafer, cutting the cost in half..theoretically. That time is when I forsee the bigger price adjustments.

But I won't expect it to be cheaper when they are first released - these companies have put millions into researching and developing the products. They want that paid for, so they need to charge a premium for early adopters of the new technologies.

I want a SATA III SSD real bad, so I'm just waiting to see what our options are in a few months. Right now using my HDD really hurts when I think about these speeds haha.

 

[Hockeyguyinoc]

Best answer selected by hockeyguyinoc.

 

[Hockeyguyinoc]

I love the SSD. It makes everything you do seem so much quicker. But, I suggest waiting for the SSD. Gen3 ssd's are due to launch by fall. They will be built on a 25nm technology which will be cheaper. The marketplace is very competitive. You should be able to get a bigger, faster, and cheaper ssd then. In the meantime allocate a 160gb OS partition on your large hard drive and install your OS and apps there. When you get a ssd, clone the partition to the ssd. When initially installing the OS, select AHCI(not IDE or RAID) as the sata mode in the bios. After OS installation, it is very difficult to change the mode without a reinstall. AHCI is necessary for the SSD to use the trim command. The trim command muchly improves the efficiency of file deletes. Currently the delivered Windows-7 driver is the only one that can pass on the trim command. In time, the Intel raid drivers will get updated with that capability.

Thanks I appreciate your comments this was the information I was looking for. I will do a fresh install anyways but knowing this info is good. Yeah I'm so itching to make the jump to an SSD but 3 months is not that long to wait. Especially for more speed and more storage. I was a bit worried about hearing that there were issues with slowing if you fill up the drive. I haven't heard confirmation on that but if that is true I would definitely want a bigger drive.

 

[Crazeycaleb]

Hockeyguyinoc From what I read it doesnt matter how much space you have filled up because it doesnt work like your standard HHD. One thing I do caution on is if you get and SSD it comes with a program that cleans the drive for you. So DO NOT USE a defrag it is said to reduce the life of your SSD.