Crucial C300 vs. OCZ Vertex 2 performance vote -- Begin!

[ghb70005]

There are a lot of fans for both OCZ and Crucial.
What do you have? What do you like?

The two drives below are similar in size and price.
Lets vote on the drive with the best performance....


1: OCZ Vertex 2 OCZSSD2-2VTX160G 160GB SATA II

Or the

2: Crucial RealSSD C300 128GB SATA III

What do you think?

I get the impression OCZ takes a well balanced reliable approach while Crucial might have some setup and stuttering issues as it provides raw reading power!

 

[clarkjd]

I have the 90GB version of the Vertex 2. No problems so far..

 

[metalforlife9999]

I just bought the OCZ vertex 2 120gb but that crucial realSSD looks good and you get $30 off with the promo code

 

[ghb70005]

Thanks guys!!!

I'll probably order my build this Saturday, looks like Vertex 2 is winning...

 

[JohnnyLucky]

There's a bit of a problem. There is entirely too much advertising hype and too many benchmarks measuring different processes in different ways. It is very confusing and frustrating. Personally I've spent entirely too much time reading too many technical reviews and articles this past week.

The Crucial ssd's are SATA III drives. The OCZ ssd's are SATA II. Despite the difference they are both very good drives. You can't go wrong with either one. Is your motherboard SATA III capable?

There is something else you should know. Beginning next month new drives with new controllers will be introduced. Preliminary reports indicate excellent improvements in performance and increased storage capacity at about the same price as current generation ssd's. I'm taking a wait and see attitude. Hoping for a Presidents Day sale next month - perhaps a special introductory price.

 

[ghb70005]

Hey JohnnyLucky!

I've read quite a few of your posts, you've been very helpful.
This is a new build with Sata III.

I've seen the comments about the new SSDs but I waited for the Sandybridges, now I really need a new build for work...
But now that I've had a scotch, I'm thinking a spare Raptor could last me for a month...

 

[JohnnyLucky]

If your motherboard has SATA III, then your primary choice today is Crucial. If you wait a bit OCZ and others will be introducing SATA III ssd's. Might get interesting. I'm also waiting to see what the Intel generation 3 drives will be like. Last Spring it appeared as if they would simply be impoved SATA II drives. Then last September news articles suggested Intel "might" go with SATA III providing they could take care of some technical aspects. Since then there hasn't been any new information and there is no release date. Intel may not have the speediest drives but they are the most reliable according to several surveys I looked at.

In the meantime, the hot new item is the PCIe based ssd. PCIe is capable of much higher data transmission rates than SATA. There is an industry push to make PCIe the new standard. It would replace SATA which is rapidly becoming a bottleneck.

 

[ghb70005]

JohnnyLucky,

Your avatar is great, it's distinctiveness makes it easy to spot your posts.

I've seen the PCIe articles too, but I didn't think they were designed as boot-able drives.
Do you know if we're booting from PCIe based ssd yet?

 

[JohnnyLucky]

Yes, you can boot from a PCIe based ssd providing you have a motherboard and BIOS that support it. The ssd technology is developing so rapidly that motherboard manufacturers have not been able to keep up. It's relatively new. If you go over to newegg and take a look at their PCIe ssd offerings, there are only a small handfull from OCZ. The situation is pretty similar to newegg having only Crucial SATA III ssd's. It is new technology and not much to choose from. That will certainly change.

To give you an idea of what it's like to install an OCZ PCIe ssd, here is a link to an excellent review published last November over at Legit Reviews:

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1460/1/

After reading that review it makes me want to wait for the technology to mature.

BTW - That skeleton is located in front of a place in Tombstone - the town too tough to die and site of the infamous gunfight at the OK Corral.

 

[willmalcom]

I have heard the new drives will be a bit less expensive ... any word about this?

 

[JohnnyLucky]

The new ssd's will probably be less expensive in an indirect way. You'll get better performance and higher capacity for about the same price as today's prices. They figured out a way to increase the capacity of a drive.

 

[LordConrad]

I've heard reliability goes down a bit as the chips get smaller. Smaller transistor size equals fewer R/W cycles. Any truth to this?

 

[LordConrad]

BTW, I just put a Vertex 2 180GB in my laptop and I love it. Magnetic disks are only for storage now.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

LordConrad - I don't know. I don't remember reading anything like that. I do have a tendency to forget stuff and get things mixed up. I am a senior citizen and I am aging disgracefully. Perhaps one of the other forum veterans will pop in and be able to answer your question.

 

[LordConrad]

Found it! Okay, this is where I saw it.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4043/micron-announces-clearnand-25nm-with-ecc

 

[JohnnyLucky]

Good show old man!

The last sentence sparked my interest:

"I don’t expect to see the first consumer SSDs to use 25nm NAND (ClearNAND or raw) until 2011. Intel’s 3rd generation X25-M will be one of the first (if not the first) and is currently scheduled to ship in Q1 2011."

 

[LordConrad]

Thanks. Hopefully Intel will use a good controller to offset the increasing error rates. Being Intel, I would be very surprised if they didn't as their focus has always been on reliability over speed. I'll be interested to see the specs of that controller when it comes out.

 

[willmalcom]

Good find gents! Thanks!

 

[JohnnyLucky]

UPDATE - The Corsair Performance 3 SATA III ssd's are now available at newegg:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100008120%20600038519&IsNodeId=1&name=SATA%20III

Prices are higher for the Corsair models. No technical reviews yet.

Other brands will be releasing their new drives between next month and May. Still no release date for Intel.

BTW - Runcore released a 1TB SATA III ssd. I don't even want to think about the price.

 

[LordConrad]

BTW - Runcore released a 1GB SATA III ssd. I don't even want to think about the price.

If you have to ask...

 

[clarkjd]

BTW - Runcore released a 1GB SATA III ssd. I don't even want to think about the price.

I think you mean 1TB...

 

[JohnnyLucky]

clarkjd - OOPS! My bad. 1TB is correct. Fixed it.

 

[Salt-City_Slasher]

Well based on what I have read going from the C300 to Vertex2/Revo to Corsair Performance 3, I have found the C300 to be more suitable for I plan on doing. But the price of a vertex 2 is cheaper and worth it, if your getting a 64gb.

I need a 128gb, so when going to the C300 we got 355/140 read/write, making it only 30$ more than vertex 2, it became clear that a C300 is more for me at this stage. The vertex 2 is has great write speeds, but lacks in the reading department.


After looking into the Revo, I realized that read/write isn't the only thing that matters. To cut to the chase, they both offer extremely good TRIM and grabage support. For 128gb its just a matter if you want SF or Marvell and then if you want sata 2 or sata 3. Because either way they are both going to perform equally.

Unless you take each individual benchmark and average them, your not going to tell based on what I have seen and read.

Pretty much the only question you got to ask yourself is, if you got sata 3 get C300 if not get vertex 2.

or wait until OCZ comes out with the new SSD, and then a line of Crucial, Intel, and the rest of the gang shows up!

 

[doive1231]

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Emcrest-SSD-SandForce-Intel-SSD,12089.html