Vertex 3 vs. Vertex 3 Max IOPS

The more and more I read it just sounds like buying an SSD is an absolute crapshoot. You may get a good one and you may get one that BSOD's several times a day.

I have to purchase a drive as I've just spent $2000+ on an awesome 2600K water cooled system. I'm waiting on fittings so I've allowed myself a few extra days to decide on SSD, but they'll be here Thursday so I need to order a drive today.

Is buying an SSD really a crapshoot, or is there a drive out there that can come close to the Vertex 3 speed with good reliability?

Dude, regardless of an ssd's speed its gonna be a hell of a lot faster and quieter than your mechanical hdd. My recommendation is that you stay away from Sandforce driven ssd's and pick one up that uses the a Marvell controller ie, Intel 320, Crucial M4, Plextor M2p, even some models of OCZ.

What about the Samsung 830? It is in THG's Teir 1 of SSD's and by all accounts is extremely reliable. Has anyone heard otherwise about the Samsung?

The Samsung 830 ssd's have a proven track record without any major issues or problems. It is Samsung's own design.

Here is a link to the ssd database:

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

Scroll down to the Samsung section where you will find links to technical reviews of the 830 that you can read. You will also find links to technical reviews of other ssd's you might be interested in.

I have read several reviews, but I can't say that I really know what it means in terms of real world performance.

It sounds like the Samsung 830 is about as fast as there is for sequential performance, but not real great at random. What are examples of sequential and random transfers? I've read a lot of SSD reviews over time, but I never really know what they mean in terms of real world performance. Obviously a higher bar on the graph is better, but there isn't one SSD out there that dominates in all categories.

Corsair performance pro is good SSD!

http://www.kitguru.net/components/ssd-drives/zardon/cor...

trust me, you will like it!;)

I have the Max Iops and am swapping it for. Samsung 830. You won't see the marginal speed difference (both tier 1) and its supposed to be way more reliable then my BSOD-ing max iops ssd.
Reliability trumps absolute speed for an OS drive in my book.
So annoying to have a drive keep dying on you everyday.
I'm not new to building PCs either. So the max iops is out due to reliability even on the latest firmware, 2.15.

What about Mushkin chronos deluxe? Fastest there is, but is it reliable?