Is right now a good time to buy a 120gig Vertex 2?

[fomoz]

hello, i'm thinking of buying a 120gig Vertex 2 ($229 CAD), but i'm wondering if i should instead wait for Vertex 3 to come out?

my motherboard only supports SATA II, so is it worth waiting for Vertex 2 prices drop when Vertex 3 comes out, or should i just buy one now?

btw right now i have a single 500gig Samsung Spinpoint F3 and when i get the SSD i want to get a second 500gig spinpoint F3 at the same time for a raid 0 setup.

 

[Ubrales]

Playing the price drop game is a never ending one. Instead, look for sales events during special sales (New Year, Easter, Christmas, etc.) - here we look for Black Friday (day after Thanksgiving) deals; always superb deals!

I strongly suggest RAID 1 over RAID 0. More info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID
Of course, in RAID 1, the total capacity of two 500 GB HDDs will be 500 GB.

 

[LordConrad]

With the current price drops and rebates offered, I think now is a good time to buy. Don't use RAID 0 for any type of long term storage as one failed drive will lose all of your data. RAID 0 is best for high-speed temporary storage, such as video editing.

 

[WyomingKnott]

Take a look at this thread from a very unhappy Vertex owner first, and make sure that you avoid the revision issue or whatever it is: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/266504-32-need-help-vortex

 

[fomoz]

thanks, i know what the risk of raid 0 is. i keep all my long-term files on an external drive

 

[fomoz]

hmm should i get an 80gig RevoDrive (1st gen) instead? It's $254, i would use it as my boot drive. would i get a performance increase compared to the Vertex 2 if i mostly need it for processing data in Excel.

edit: would i even be able to use one? this is my mobo: http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3571#sp

i don't have a PCIE_X4 slot, only PCIE_X16 running at 4X (it's longer than PCIE_X4 from what i can see) or am i confusing something?

 

[JohnnyLucky]

If you are interested in a raid array and faster speeds, then you may want to consider PCI-e based ssd's instead. The PCI-e based ssd's are available with multiple ssd's in a raid 0 array one on card. The drives fit in either a PCI-e x16, x8, or x4 slot on a motherboard.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100008120%20600038515%20600110115&IsNodeId=1&name=Consumer



Here is a link to an excellent technical review of a PCI-e based OCZ RevoDrive X2 published last month by Tom's Hardware:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ocz-revodrive-x2-pci-express-ssd,2802.html

There is one more thing I should mention. There are some motherboards that have only two PCI-e x16 slots but no x8 or x4 slots. The PCI-e x16 slots are backward compatible with x8 and x4 devices. As long as you only use the primary x16 slot it has all 16 lanes available for the primary slot. That primary slot is usually for a video card. However, if you add a second device such as a video card for Crossfire or SLI or a video card and a ssd, then both x16 slots are reduced to only 8 lanes each. Both slots have to share 16 lanes. The video cards will suffer a slight performance hit of about 2% to 5%. There may also be motherboards with more than two PCI-e x16 slots that also reduce the number of lanes available from 16 to 8 if mutiple devices are used. Please check your motherboard manual or manufacturer's web site for more information about your specific motherboard. Hopefully you'll have all 16 lanes available in all the PCI-e x16 slots.

*** NOTE - I looked at your motherboard specifications. You're in luck. A PCI-e based ssd with multiple drives in Raid 0 wil definitely work providing either your secondary PCI-e x16_2 slot or your PCI-e x8 slot is free.

We should see the release of new ssd's with improved performance between now and May. The prices of older models should be dropping. The new drives would still command a premium price. I've looked at industry forecasts. I don't expect a drastic drop in prices of new drives until the year 2015.

 

[fomoz]

when you copy/paste a post, it kills the links. it's ok tho, i found your previous posts here: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/266487-32-intel-series and here: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/266489-32-sata-transfer-rate

can you pls provide me with links to the industry forecasts you looked at?

 

[JohnnyLucky]

OOPS! My bad! Links are now fixed.

Here is the link to the facts and forecasts over at Xbit Laboratories:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/storage/display/flash-ssd-forecast.html

 

[fomoz]

OOPS! My bad! Links are now fixed.

Here is the link to the facts and forecasts over at Xbit Laboratories:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/storage/display/flash-ssd-forecast.html

great, thanks!

 

[JohnnyLucky]

UPDATE

Your original question was about purchasing an OCZ Vertex 2 ssd.

I was just over at the OCZ web site and forums. OCZ changed from 34nm to 25nm NAND in their Vertex 2 series ssd's without any sort of press release or major announcements. In addition OCZ did not change the model name, product number, or description to reflect the switch. The Vertex 2 is still SATA II (3 Gb/s) too. Seems the 25nm NAND drives are not performing to customer expectations. I got the impression the new 25nm Vertex 2 performed worse than the original 34nm Vertex 2. OCZ may have been first to market with ssd's using 25nm NAND but that's all they can claim.

Intel on the other hand has simply delayed introducing ssd's with the new 25nm NAND. They are still working on manufacturing production quality 25nm NAND. The new Intel 510 series that will be introduced later this month will use the 34nm NAND. Looks like Intel is playing it safe and sticking with reliable components for the time being.

 

[fomoz]

too late, i ordered one yesterday lol!

 

[JohnnyLucky]

The latest info from OCZ indicates they will replace any of the 25nm NAND Vertex 2 drives. They will cover shipping costs both ways and they will not charge for the pricing difference.

I'll try and find out what the replacement ssd is when I get a chance in the morning.

 

[fomoz]

hi, can you please tell me if my bench score good considering my system? is there a setting i need to change to improve performance?

im running win7 x64, AHCI on, SATA0-3 native on.

 

[Tom55116]

The Intel X25-M is the fastest "OS" drive. Just look at Tom's Hardware charts
for random 4k reads.

For "used state" the Intel is second only to the Crucial C300. On SATA3.0 Intel
even beats the C300. Only when the C300 is driven by a SATA6.0 does it beat
the Intel.

I will buy the X25-M on March 1st if the new Intel 510 is not significantly better
on random 4k reads.

 

[LordConrad]

For "used state" the Intel is second only to the Crucial C300. On SATA3.0 Intel
even beats the C300. Only when the C300 is driven by a SATA6.0 does it beat
the Intel.

Since the SATA 6 specification doesn't exist yet, I assume you are referring to SATA II (3Gb/s) and SATA III (6Gb/s). Let's try to be precise so people don't get confused.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

^5 +1 what Lord Conrad said.

Officially it is SATA (1.5 Gb/s), SATA II (3.0 Gb/s) and SATA III (6 Gb/s).

 

[mark_k]

I think Johnny pissed farther than LordC.
JohnnyL you win that contest....lol....

Seriously thanks for setting this straight guys. I find myself also using short cut manes when typing replies. Maybe we all should take the time and be more precise during this time of transition.