Which ~128GB drive for sata II?

[slicedtoad]

My friend has a i7-920 on a sata-II mobo and wants an ssd for a boot drive + photoshop and a few games. All the reviews here are based on sata-III so i'm having difficulty figuring out which drive to recommend.

Sata-II will cap sequential read and write at less than ~300MB/sec, right? What does it do to the other aspects like random read/write?

He doesn't want to upgrade the mobo but a sata-III pcie card might be possible. Not sure if these are any good though.

Any thoughts?

 

[JohnnyLucky]

The Samsung 470 Series would be a good choice for a SATA 2 3Gb/s ssd. The 470 has an established track record and is problem free. Here is a link to the SSD Database:

http://www.johnnylucky.org/data-storage/ssd-database.html

Scroll down to the Samsung section and click on the links to the technical reviews.

I am in the same position as your friend. I do not want to upgrade my motherboard, cpu, and memory just to have SATA 3 6Gb/s capabilities. Last Sunday morning I installed a Samsung 470 256GB ssd. It was a clean install that went smoothly. I did not encounter any problems. No more upgrades for me until the new PCI-e 3.0 standard is well established.

There are some inexpensive PCI-e add-in cards but they do not work well. They typically use an older controller. There are high end, high tech cards but they are expensive. Prices for the good ones start at $1,600.00. They were not designed for home use. They were designed for business enterprise.

 

[gmcizzle]

I have a 920 as well with an ASUS P6T board (SATA II), and went ahead with buying a SATA III SSD (Corsair Force GT). Mostly because they were cheaper at ~$180 at the time, but also because when I upgrade eventually I will definitely have a SATA III capable mobo.

 

[RetiredChief]

As Johnny indicated the "good" Sata 3 pci-e cards are rather expensive. Seams like some of the manuf discontiued the lower end cards to "encourge" upgrading the MB.
Buoght the Asus U3S6 (Usb3 and Sata6 w/Marvel controller) pci-e card for my older P55 MB. Although it has the Sata 6 ports, I use Sata II SSDs so that I can use the Intel Sata II ports which it turns out is faster than an Sata III on the older marval Sata III controller.

Johnny's choice of the Samsung 470 is an excellent choice. I'm not real opposed to some of the older Sata II SSDs. Have the Phoenix Pro, Torqx, and a Intel G2 all sata II and all have been problem free getting on to 1 1/2 years old.

Currently on Newegg 120 gig Sata II vertex (very similar to my Phoenix Pro w/SF1200 controller) for After MIR $120 is awfull tempting.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227551&nm_mc=EMC-IGNEFL101811&cm_mmc=EMC-IGNEFL101811-_-EMC-101811-Index-_-SSD-_-20227551-L04B

PS I will Not buy OCZ due to the way they treated customers who bought the Sata III models. - But to each his own.

PSS Sata III SSDs do work fine in sata II and a couple of years down the road and a new MB it would be a good carry over. My prefernce for Sata III is the curcial M4, or in a couple of weeks the Samsung 830

 

[JohnnyLucky]

Chief - you have a private message

 

[slicedtoad]

the 470 is a bit expensive for it's performance no?
http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-128GB-Solid-State-MZ-5PA128/dp/B003Z6Q8Y8/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1319067851&sr=8-2

the m4 appears to perform better and is cheaper... or am i missing something?

That OCZ drive IS very tempting. What's the chance of a doa/bad unit and how hard would it be to replace? (@retiredchief, are you against them based on principal or because they're a bad choice?)

Also for another $30 you have the vertex 3. The sequential would be limited by sata II but it would still outperform the vertex 2, no? it would also be upgrade proof, though by then better ssds should be cheaper.

 

[RetiredChief]

On OCZ. I do not recomment their Sata III drives, I may change that in a couple of months after I get a Feel for How the latest FW works out. I had no problems with their Vertex-II, although I prefered and bought the Pheonix pro. Although I will NOT buy due to "principles" I still have to call a spade a spade and if in the future (ie a couple of Months) they look Like a good buy, then I will say that. My own preference interms of cost/performance/reliability (NOTE Reliabilty is FIRST, then it becomes cost/performance ratio) is still the marvel based sata III drives.

Johnny
Sorry, I almost never think to click on "messages". They need to stick a Big red flag LOL
Getting screwy in my old age.
Anyway responed.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

The 470 is available from 6 sellers at Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B003Z6Q8Y8/ref=dp_olp_new?ie=UTF8&qid=1319067851&sr=8-2&condition=new

Currently the lowest price is $185.00.

The Crucial M4 is a good choice for a SATA 3 6Gb/s ssd. Fairly good track record and the latest firmware update not only fixed a problem but also boosted performance.

Don't get overly excited about performance benchmarks. They were designed to grossly exaggerate very minor differences in performance. Most of the benchmarks selected for advertising purposes do not reflect real world performance.

 

[slicedtoad]

ok, thanks alot guys. i'll talk to him.

 

[RetiredChief]

Here is a good illustration of what Johnny was saying. PCMark vantage is a benchmark that more closely simulates real wrold performance (Note review was prior to M4): http://www.anandtech.com/show/4421/the-2011-midrange-ssd-roundup/6

Keep in mind that a performance change of >10% is need before you can tell the differnce. It shows that using a SATA III SSD on a SATA II interface that the performance hit is only about 10%. Using the Intel 510 on Sata II and a vertex III on Sata III is only 15.9% faster. The M4 and vertex III are about equal using this test.

 

[nutcase_63]

Crucial m4 is the best deal at this moment

 

[slicedtoad]

Best answer selected by slicedtoad.