Owc Mercury Electra 120 gb or M4 120

[Homeboy2]

Hi all,

I'm looking to buy a SSD and I have narrowed it down to an OWC Mercury Electra 120 gb or a Crucial My 120gb.
The Crucial M4 can be had for 180 and the OWC is 200. The M4 has a 415 write and 175 read, and the OWC has 550mb read and 523mb write. My comp is mainly used for web surfing and light gaming. My questions are,

1. Is there any real world difference in performance between the two making the OWC worth 20 bucks more?
2. The OWC claims the same performance for the 64gb as the 128gb. Is this possible? If so I might go with the 64gb.
3. I have a p8500 processor on an Asus motherboard, the MB is shot so I'm replacing it with this
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130556 a board that states it has Sata 3.
Will this create a bottle neck for the OWC with its over 500mb read and write? I plan to replace the board and processor when Ivy Bridge comes out so if there is a bottleneck it will be solved then.

If anyone has suggestions for a better SSD for around $200 I would appreciate it.
TIA for any help.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

It does not sound as if you are doing anything that would require a high end, high speed ssd. That being the case you will not notice any difference between the two ssd's.

It is theoretically possible for a 64GB ssd could have the same performance as a 128GB ssd. It is a braand new ssd and I only have one technical review listed in the ssd database. Here is a link to the technical review:

http://thessdreview.com/our-reviews/owc-mercury-electra-6g-sata-3-ssd-240gb-review-value-performance-and-an-untouchable-guarantee/

The motherboard you are thinking of buying is rather old. It only has SATA 2.0 3Gb/s capabilities so yes the SATA 3.0 6Gb/s ssd's would take a performance hit. However, whether you would actually notice it depends on what you do with your computer.

Right now I would recommend the Crucial M4. Crucial just issued a firmware update which not only fixed a problem but also improved performance. The ssd's with SandForce Controllers are experiencing multiple issues and problems. Not all of them have been addressed and fixed. In fairness I should mention that most ssd's have experienced some sort of problems. The three safest ssd's right now are the Intel 510, Crucial M4, and Samsung 470.

 

[Homeboy2]

Actually this motherboard will be here tomorrow, I only bought it because its cheap. It will hold me over till I build an Ivy Bridge system next year. Thanks for the help Johnny.

 

[Homeboy2]

Best answer selected by Homeboy2.