Cheap SSD? And what interface

[RONNCC]

My motherboard is the MSI 890FX-gd70. I would like to get a cheap SSD so i can use it locally (move files on and off depending on usage) because it is obviously faster than any harddrive. So I would boot off it and just move games onto it when i play them. Otherwise im going to try and use a really cheap Raid array.

What SSD should i buy? I want a decent size (for OS, system files, some program files and for moving game & music files on and off depending on usage) but i would like it cheap because as is well known. SSD is really expensive. Also! what is the hybrid-SSD about?

And what interface should it be connected to? I am planning to use my PCI ports i think for crossfire-ing in the future and for wireless and such. Should i try to use the SATA ports? or what exactly?

Thanks!

 

[DoomsWord89]

It may not be the cheapest of SSDs but the Intel X-25 series is pretty decent.
It has TRIM support and is available throught most electronics retailers (BestBuy, Ultimate Electronics, ect).
Or and older series OCZ should do just fine.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

That MSI motherboard supports SATA III and comes equipped with SATA III ports on the motherboard. Technical reviews were very favorable.

You'll want a SATA III solid state drive. Connect it to one of the SATA ports on the motherboard.

As malmental correctly pointed out, a recommendation will depend on your budget.

 

[RONNCC]

well first do i have SATA II ports? 2nd. which is faster? 3rd. Whats the price difference? 4th can i have recommendations for the SATA III for now? Thanks

 

[JohnnyLucky]

1. No, the motherboard does not have SATA II ports. The motherboard has SATA III ports. The SATA III ports are backward compatible with SATA II. You can connect either a SATA III or a SATA II ssd to the motherboard.

2. SATA III at 6GB/sec is faster than SATA II at 3GB/sec. I'm trying to keep things simple. It's actually a lot more complicated.

3. Right now the prices at newegg.com range from a low of $44.99 for a Kingston SATA II, 8GB, ssd to a high of $3,050.00 for an OCZ SATA II, 1TB, ssd

4. SATA III ssd's are fairly new. Right now newegg.com only offers 9 Crucial CS300, SATA III ssd's. Prices range from $121.99 for 64GB capacity up to $559.00 for 256GB capacity:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100008120%20600038519&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&Order=PRICE&PageSize=100

 

[RONNCC]

er. why do the Sata III's on new egg have slower read and write (sequential) times and speeds then the OCZ's (SATA II)

 

[JohnnyLucky]

I was just trying to keep things simple. As I said it's a lot more complicated especially since there are many other processes besides sequential read and wirte. You'd better read the latest Tom's Hardware review:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/samsung-470-sandforce-best-ssd,2783.html

 

[JackNaylorPE]

The speed of an SSD will depend on the speed of the interface (SATA II / III) , the controller (i.e. Sandforce) and the chips themselves. The C300 is the fastest SSD in reading exceeding the limit of the SATA II interface. The Vertex 2, can't touch the SATA III C300 in read speed but beats it in write speed for example.... as the lucky guy said ....it's complicated ... I gave ya the abridged version .... wanna know more, anandtech gas about the best SSD coverage anywhere.

 

[RONNCC]

The speed of an SSD will depend on the speed of the interface (SATA II / III) , the controller (i.e. Sandforce) and the chips themselves. The C300 is the fastest SSD in reading exceeding the limit of the SATA II interface. The Vertex 2, can't touch the SATA III C300 in read speed but beats it in write speed for example.... as the lucky guy said ....it's complicated ... I gave ya the abridged version .... wanna know more, anandtech gas about the best SSD coverage anywhere.

but according to this the VERTEX is actually faster then the Crucial RealSSD C300 256GB and it (the Crucial) also have ... horrible .. write results compared to the rest.

How is Sata III giving it an advantage?

 

[JohnnyLucky]

Rather than get into technical stuff, synthentic benchmarks, and advertising hype, let's take a look at something different. An important factor is how a ssd behaves and performs in the real world using real world applications. Most tests and benchmarks do not do that. It would be great if we could access a report explaining how ssd's perform during real world applications that are of interest to us. Personally I want to find out how ssd's perform when using photo and video editing applications.

Anand Lal Shimpi has written quite a few ssd reports and reviews over at Anandtech. A review and tests that he did last July are of particular interest. His review included a variety synthetic benchmarks and a suite of PCMark Vantage tests. The PCMark Vantage tests come closer to benchmarking real world use. There were a variety of PCMark Vantage tests including productivity, video, and gaming benchmarks.

Here's a link to the page with the PCmark Vantage benchmarks:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3812/the-ssd-diaries-crucials-realssd-c300/4

BUT WAIT! There's more! Anand also ran the "storage bench tests". He used a light load and a heavy load of real world applications. The results are really interesting:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3812/the-ssd-diaries-crucials-realssd-c300/6

Looks like Crucial SATA III is the way to go for now. That will probably change in a few months, especially when new controllers are ready for mass production.