120GB : "OCZ Vertex 3" vs "Crucial M4" vs "Corsair Force Series GT"

[ungovernable]

I'm buying myself a SSD drive for my desktop computer. It will be used as a boot disk for Windows7 and all installed programs.

My budget is around $200-$230 so i'm looking for a 120GB

I've narrowed my choices down to these 3 drives:

OCZ Vertex 3 VTX3-25SAT3-120G 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227706

Crucial M4 CT128M4SSD2 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148442

Corsair Force Series GT CSSD-F120GBGT-BK 2.5" 120GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233191


I know that benchmark stats doesnt equal real life experience, so that's why i'm asking help from the community to help me make my choice.

I'm also open to other suggestions that would match my budget

Thanks a lot !

 

[dominyon]

As far as speed you probably wouldn't notice much of a difference between any of them in real world, everyday use. I personally have a crucial M4. They will all be considerably faster/more responsive than a standard mechanical drive. The crucial has the best reputation for reliability/compatibility of all 3 followed by the corsair and lastly the OCZ.

 

[buzznut]

Hard to beat the Vertex III for speed, but I've actually heard about more problems recently with the Corsair Force drives.

I suppose all things being equal (price, etc) then I'd go for the m4. When I bought my Vertex III, the m4 was a little slower but newer firmware has brought it right in line with the best desktop drives.

You might find this article an interesting read:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/5147/the-ocz-octane-review-512gb

 

[JackNaylorPE]

I'd grab the Mushkin Chronos Deluxe or Vertex 3 Max IOPS
$210 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226225
$190 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227714

The Crucial is 2 tiers down in performance.....the corsair is down one more at tier 6

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-price-ssd,3070-6.html

Tier 3
Mushkin Chronos Deluxe 120 GB
OCZ Vertex 3 Max IOPS 120 GB
Patriot WildFire 120 GB
Samsung 830 SSD 128 GB
Other 120 GB second-gen SandForce SSDs with Toggle NAND

Tier 4
None

Tier 5
Intel SSD 510 120 GB
Crucial m4 128 GB

Tier 6
Adata S511 120 GB
Corsair Force GT 120 GB
Kingston HyperX SSD 120 GB
OCZ Vertex 3 120 GB
Other 120 GB second-gen SandForce SSDs with Sync ONFi NAND

 

[ungovernable]

Yeah i have read a lot of reviews, most of them says the same thing as you guys:
- Corsair is fastest speed BUT technical support is really bad
- Second place is Crucial M4 (i already own a 60GB one and its good) but i have read that performences goes down when the disk is 75% full. I've also heard that some of them are made with cheaper parts and heard a lot of RMA stories
- OCZ has a lot of bad reviews, it's my last choice so far

At first my choice was Corsair but maybe i should go with the Crucial M4... The only thing that bother me is the low write speed compared to other brands...

Corsair = Up to 515MB/s write speed
Crucial M4 = Up to 175 MB/s (SATA 6Gb/s) write speed

 

[inzone]

I have the Corsair force GT and have had no problems with them at all , and I have two 180gb in raid 0 for my C drive.

 

[inzone]

Yeah i have read a lot of reviews, most of them says the same thing as you guys:
- Corsair is fastest speed BUT technical support is really bad
- Second place is Crucial M4 (i already own a 60GB one and its good) but i have read that performences goes down when the disk is 75% full. I've also heard that some of them are made with cheaper parts and heard a lot of RMA stories
- OCZ has a lot of bad reviews, it's my last choice so far

At first my choice was Corsair but maybe i should go with the Crucial M4... The only thing that bother me is the low write speed compared to other brands...

Corsair = Up to 515MB/s write speed
Crucial M4 = Up to 175 MB/s (SATA 6Gb/s) write speed

Yes , that is the thing I never understood about the M4 is the slow write speeds for a sata3 drive and that's why I went with Corsair.

 

[ungovernable]

Newegg has a LOOOOT of negative feedback concerning Sandforce-based Corsair SSD... It's kinda scaring me :/

Does anyone know if it's REALLY fixed with firmware 1.3.2 ?

And for Crucial M4, a lot of users are saying they are experiencing freezes and system hangs

 

[dominyon]

Yes , that is the thing I never understood about the M4 is the slow write speeds for a sata3 drive

OP, try not to get caught up with numbers and benchmarks. Truth is if you are just doing normal everyday stuff with your PC such as gaming, web browsing, e-mail, etc. you will never see a difference. You could have 3 computers in front of you each with one of the drives in it and you could never tell which is which. If you do something like rendering/editing huge files, databases, file serving, etc. then you might.

 

[guanyu210379]

I would prefer to have more reliability instead of pure speed.
I trust only Intel and Crucial if it is about reliability.
So, among those 3, I would choose m4...see also my system in the signature

 

[JohnnyLucky]

if reliability is a concern, then the Samsung 830 is worth considering. The Samsung 470 has a stellar record for stability and reliability. There were no major issues. So far it looks like the new 830 is another winner for Samsung. The current price at newegg.com is $209.99 for a 120GB model.

 

[perfectblue]

In terms of proven reliability, Crucial M4 is unbeatable.

But the current samsung 830 series is a stunner! Perfectly working on all the rigs I have come across. So that would be my next choice til the PCIe based SSD prices come lower.

 

[ungovernable]

Yes reliability is definatly the most important thing, i hate to RMA something i paid so much for.

I thought about Intel SSD but they cost so much

I tryed looking for a Samsung SSD but i can't find any for sale... checked 3 websites... I'm from Canada, any idea where i could buy one ?

 

[JohnnyLucky]

First place I checked was newegg.ca but they do not have Samsung ssd's.

Found them at tigerdirect.ca:

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/Category/guidedSearch.asp?CatId=5298&sel=Mfr%3BMfr_758,Detail%3B17_158_69334_69334

 

[ungovernable]

Thanks.... Sounds very interessing, but i think it is new ? There are not much customer reviews on the internet (only 14 reviews on newegg.com)

It is Sandforce-based so i hope it doesnt have the same problem as Crucial SSD...

Bad reviews on Crucial drives scared me, so my final choices would be either Crucial M4 or this Samsung drive (better write speed than Crucial M4 but its a new SSD so we cant tell if its reliable)

But i checked the samsung 470 series user reviews, and it has almost no bad reviews.... So i guess it's something i can trust... Does anyone know if the Samsung 470 series was also Sandforce-based ?

Crucial M4 has a lot of bad reviews about system hanging for 30seconds and random freezes, so maybe i could give a try to the samsung SSD...

 

[JohnnyLucky]

Samsung ssd's do not use SandForce Controllers. Samsung designs and manufactures all of their own ssd components including their own controllers.

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.

 

[alpha0meqa]

Dumb question, but - you can use laptop SSD's with Desktops?

 

[nikorr]

Dumb question, but - you can use laptop SSD's with Desktops?

Yes.

 

[nikorr]

OCZ have fixed their FW problem, didn't they?

 

[XMSYellowbeard]

In reply to the question above, both firmwares 1.3.2 and 1.3.3 solved a vast majority of user issues we have seen with the Force 3 and GT series.

Also, take Newegg reviews with a grain of salt. Most people posting there have not updated firmware and also have not done come to us for support before reviewing the drives.

 

[revengerlee]

I have a Intel X-25M 80G, any comment on upgrading to above 3 choice ?

tks

Yes reliability is definatly the most important thing, i hate to RMA something i paid so much for.

I thought about Intel SSD but they cost so much

I tryed looking for a Samsung SSD but i can't find any for sale... checked 3 websites... I'm from Canada, any idea where i could buy one ?

 

[ungovernable]

I ended up buying the samsung SSD i was recommended, love it so far, except that my motherboard is only SATA2 so i will upgrade it in the following days to get better speeds

 

[skaz]

Out of the three and assuming you can find a decent deal I would choose the Crucial M4. Main reason: Reliability. OCZ has an insanely bad rep from what I have seen all over the internet in regards to the quality of their drives. Doesn't matter how good of a deal you get on the fastest drive if the drive fails soon after.

EDIT: Just saw you recent post. I have a samsung 830 and love it. Samsung is another one that is up there with crucial in regards to reliability. I'm using one as my main for OS and main programs. It's hooked up to my sata3 marvel controller right now and working great. I may hook it up to my sata2 intel controller though for testing purposes as I have heard that even though its sata2 the intel controller is better. Enjoy man!

 

[Mfusick]

get the MAX IOPS vertex3

 

[Badelhas]

get the MAX IOPS vertex3

Is it really worth it over my old Vertex 1 60gb?