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aleksancevski

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Hello, I have a recently built SB desktop and I have been looking at putting a SSD in the mix. I have a ASUS z68 pro, 8gb gskill ram, 500 gb caviar blue in computer. I have been looking at benchmarks and I realize sandforces are a good technology but they do have a few limiting factors that are a turn off. I have looked at the toms "Best SSD for the money" and I keep looking at the 128gb Crucial M4 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148442). But now OCZ has released the 128gb Octane (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227767). ALSO, Corsair recently released their 128 gb Performance Pro (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233226).

They all seem to be focusing in on the pros of the M4 so which should I get? There aren't a lot of benchmarks for the last two in the 128gb category so I imagine performance will be weaker than their larger capacity siblings. Should I just wait a little longer for benchmarks to come out? Or just buy the M4 today and be done?

Im mostly going to use the computer for general use, some gaming (nvidia 560 ti) and some movie transcoding and around $200 would be my price range.

Im also up for any other suggestions.
 
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I won't guarantee anything but, the non-SandForce drives have a better reliability. Sandforce would probably be as reliable but some mysterious glitch has plagued the drives with a couple (or few) consistent compatibility issues for which the Z68 chipset is a regular victim. It don't matter how fast the drive is, if don't work, it ain't worth a damn! For me, the possibility of encountering this problem and the hassles and delays they pose mean I will probably get an M4. I think it has the best price/performance + reliability.

Yes, Corsair does use sandforce...

groberts101

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for that price range and usage requirement?.. all of those SSD's would do the trick as that stuff is mostly GPU/CPU intensive and not bottlenecked by the disk as much.

Personally... I would be looking at the 120GB Max IOPS or equivelant Widfire models with their toggle nand and the major low end grunt provided with small files/multitasking. They outperform or match the larger 240/256GB versions in many tests and the prices have fallen back to reality.
 

Myfartsdontstink

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From the fair amount of reading I've been doing lately on this matter, I'm leaning toward a non-Sandforce controller ssd. Especially since it appears there is a high number of problems with SF controllers and Intel z68 chipsets. Even with the latest firmware, rev. x.x15 I believe, that was supposed to fix it, many are still complaining about bsods and general lockups. I don't know if it's SF's or Intel's fault but, it really doesn't matter, something eludes the ability to guarantee an ssd with a Sandforce controller and z68 will be stable.

Both the Intel 510 series and Crucial's M4 appear to be free of this pervasive problem. They both have also recently released new firmware that has improved speeds for both. There is only about 1 or 2 reviews with the new firmware but they show improvements. Also, Corsair just released a fast drive on a Marvell controller, the "Performance Pro Series". Personally, I'd go with proven stability over slightly higher numbers that you won't notice in the real world. Downside, they are a little more expensive than Sandforce drives.
 

mikeny

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SO you can't go wrong with Crucial, Corsair, or Intel? I'm also looking for a SSD and would rather have reliability than have to deal with possible Sanforce issues.
 

raptorxrx

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Corsair uses Sandforce. Samsung, Crucial, or Intel is what I've heard.
http://www.johnnylucky.org/data-storage/ssd-database.html
Somebody has this in their siggy and it's really useful.
http://www.johnnylucky.org/data-storage/ssd-database.html

(thanks to guy with this in their siggy)

I'm buying a Crucial M4 128 this holiday season.

Oh wait. Forgot those new Corsair "Pro" drives. I know absolutely 0 about them. We'll have to see if they are reliable. I don't believe they use Sandforce though... We'll see!

Edit: They use a Marvell, so they don't have the comprehensiblity issues. Doesn't say much about reliability as they haven't been out long.
 

Myfartsdontstink

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I won't guarantee anything but, the non-SandForce drives have a better reliability. Sandforce would probably be as reliable but some mysterious glitch has plagued the drives with a couple (or few) consistent compatibility issues for which the Z68 chipset is a regular victim. It don't matter how fast the drive is, if don't work, it ain't worth a damn! For me, the possibility of encountering this problem and the hassles and delays they pose mean I will probably get an M4. I think it has the best price/performance + reliability.

Yes, Corsair does use sandforce controllers but they also use Marvell, at least in their new ssd mentioned last post.
 
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mikeny

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thank you!
 
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