RevoDrive x4 120GB vs Vertex 2 120GB

[blazer9131]

Hey guys,

Alright, so here's my current build:

http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=20574848

I didn't order the parts yet, cause I keep running into different things. After a long conversation on the "new" build section, I decided on getting a SSD vs the Rampage 3. Now, I chose the Vertex 2; I've heard great reviews on it, and I was almost 100% sure of getting it. However, I just saw the RevoDrive X4 120GB. Here are the two drives:

RevoDrive:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227578&cm_re=ocz_revo_drive-_-20-227-578-_-Product
Vertex 2: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?cm_re=ocz_vertex_2-_-20-227-590-_-Product&item=N82E16820227590

Both are 120GB. The price difference is pretty small, only 50 dollars. I'm willing to spend that extra 50 if the RevoDrive is worth it. What do you guys think? Or should I hold out on getting an SSD till the 3rd Gen's come out?.. Also, I realize the PCI-e one does not support TRIM because it's in RAID. What's the significance of that? Should I be worried about normal usage (windows + most used programs + 2-3 games) on the SSD, if I want to keep the system for about 4-5 years?

 

[boiler1990]

I'm assuming you plan on using the SSD as your boot drive.

The OCZ Vertex was the best of the first gen SSDs, and the Vertex 2 still holds that title among the 2nd gens. Although the Revo Drive is much faster, I don't know if all motherboards support booting to PCI-Express; that would be something important to look up.

As far as usage goes, you'll be fine in the long-run. The only thing that really "wears out" a SSD is writing data, but reading it (running the programs on it) won't do anything to it. Regardless, the SSD will last a lifetime.

 

[sub mesa]

I would wait for newer SSDs to arrive; should only be one or two months now. The existing SSDs would have significant price drops. This is not the best time to buy an SSD!

But if you must, i would rather have a small Sandforce SSD than a Revodrive under Windows. The biggest problem of the Revodrive is not absence of TRIM; but rather that you have to use the crappy Silicon Image fakeRAID drivers. If you're on Linux or BSD this is a great SSD though and you also have TRIM capability; but not on Windows.

 

[blazer9131]

Yup, I believe the sabertooth is able to boot from PCI-e.. There's a guide on the OCZ forums on how to do it =D. I am pretty "tech savvy" so I'm sure it won't be too much of an issue for me. Just need to familiarize myself with these new terms. Last build I did was 6 months ago =(.

And thanks for the last statement. That was the most important thing for me. I don't care about insane speeds if the drive won't last longer than 2-3 years. That cleared things up pretty well.

So, how does not being able to TRIM affect the drive?

 

[sub mesa]

Not that much, actually. The Sandforce controllers have decent amount of spare space (more than Intel SSDs) plus they can create more spare space when using compression; if at least some of your data is highly compressible, this would lead to more spare space available to the SSDs. The more (dedicated) spare space you have, the less you need TRIM. TRIM essentially gives you more spare space by returning used-in-the-past-but-now-not-used-anymore blocks to the SSD again, able to use it as spare space again because it knows that block is not in use by the OS anymore.

Under Windows your benchmark scores would be quite bad and degrade quickly though. But on Linux or BSD this is not much different than buying two or four sandforce SSDs and RAID0-ing them. Under Linux/BSD the Revodrive is not ONE drive, but rather a SATA controller with 4 sata ports and on each sata port a 60GB Sandforce SSD; so you see 2 or 4 SSDs of 60GB each, 2x60 for the 120GB model and 4x60 for the 240GB model. The physical NAND is 128GiB and 256GiB.

 

[blazer9131]

Alright, that's awesome actually. What I'm thinking of doing is Installing windows, maybe a browser and my most used/startup apps, and 2-3 games. I'm sure I'll keep BlackOps on it for a long long time, and probably Fallout NV. The last game would be my "I'm checking this game out" game... All my other currently installed games would go on my various HDDs. So the only thing that would write would be updates to the apps/windows, game patches, and copying a game every 2-3 months. I don't think that's alot of writing data.

I also heard moving the page file to the SSD would increase speeds of loading some things, is that recommended?

Final thing: So not having TRIM isn't an issue. If I can spend the extra 50 and have to know-how to setup a PCI-e drive, I should go for it?

 

[sub mesa]

While TRIM perhaps isn't a big issue, the fact that you're using stupid Silicon Image RAID drivers when using this Revodrive, is the biggest problem; many Windows-users are unhappy about its performance.

Really you should wait with buying an SSD, third generation SSDs are coming; just wait a couple months until february and existing SSDs would also get cheaper.

 

[blazer9131]

Best answer selected by Blazer9131.