Need Advise on SSDs

[bhalton26]

Hey all,

I'm currently in the market to get a good SSD for my system, but having trouble finding the write one. Right now, I'm running Win7 on a Western Digital 1TB 7200 6.0 GB HDD and lately after 3-4 boots, my motherboard will not recongize the HDD and prompts me to load a system boot disk. So everytime this happens I have to open the case to reseat the SATA and PowerCable in order for it to boot to Windows. It's annoying, so I want to invest in a realiable name brand SSD, like Corsiar or Samsung for example. Please took a look at my current system build (which is only a year old) to present a few links to a recommended SSDs on Newegg or any other realable source thats truthworthly. I will used the new SSD to run windows and other programs, and will use the Western Digital to install all my games. **Also will replace the SATA cable in the morning and hope thats the issue, but still want a SSD to boost my PCs performance**

AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition Thuban 3.2GHz
ASUS M4A89TD PRO/USB3 AM3 AMD 890FX
ASUS Radeon HD 6950 2GB -- Upgrading to two of these soon - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102957
CORSAIR CWCH50-1 High Performance CPU Cooler
CORSAIR HX Series CMPSU-750HX 750W
CORSAIR DOMINATOR 16GB DDR3 1600 CAS 7 (7-8-8-24)
LITE-ON Black 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R x2
Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB 6.0GB -- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136533
NZXT Phantom Black Steel
Windows 7 64 Ultimate

**As you can see, I'm a Corsair and Asus Fan **

 

[bhalton26]

Other thoughts : Hoping my 750 PSU can handle the two new Sapphires 6970s in XFire

 

[danraies]

What capacity and/or what is your price range? As a broad suggestion I recommend the Samsung 830.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-review-benchmark,3115.html

 

[bhalton26]

Size : 100-200GB
Price : $100-250

 

[danraies]

Size : 100-200GB
Price : $100-250

My vote is the 128GB Samsung 830.

 

[vollman1]

^ +1 for 830 128GB That's what I am looking to get.

 

[bhalton26]

OK thanks guys, now all i need is to find out if this mobo (ASUS M4A89TD PRO/USB3 AM3 AMD 890FX) can take SATA III...already know it can handle SATA II

 

[danraies]

OK thanks guys, now all i need is to find out if this mobo (ASUS M4A89TD PRO/USB3 AM3 AMD 890FX) can take SATA III...already know it can handle SATA II

It has six SATA 6.0gbps ports.

 

[morne]

Get a Corsair Force 3 120GB , read : 550mb/sec / write 510mb/sec
My SSD im going for and after that get another in Stripe

 

[RetiredChief]

^ and High Sequencial performance does what for OS + Program drive??

Recommended SSD - Concur with Samsung 830, 2nd choice is the Curcial M4, both 128 Gig. Should be 200 +/- 20 bucks.

IGNORE Sequencial benchmarks as this is the least import matrix - It's the 4K Random read/writes that are important. Sequencial performance is important on a storage drive working with "LARGE" file structures. If looking at benchmarks 1) PCMark vantage, closest to real life. followed by AS SSD wich unlike the "advertized Benchmarks" uses compressed data. Not real life but closer than benchmarks using data that is readily compressed.

Have pair of 128 Gig M4s in laptop - working great. Just replaced my agillity III (poor choice) with the Samsung 830 last week. SF22xx based SSDs have excellent benchmarks but in real life very LITTLE difference between M4/830 and are less probmatic and probably more reliable. The 830 is said to rival Intels SSD on reliability.

 

[cadder]

Size : 100-200GB
Price : $100-250

We won't be there for probably another year or more. Right now a good 120-128GB drive is $200 or just under.

Based on what I have seen I would echo what other people have said and recommend the Samsung 830 or the Crucial M4. (Personally I own a Samsung but not the 830, and an Intel 320, but neither one of these went into a machine that could take advantage of the fastest drives available.)

 

[danraies]

I used to exclusively recommend the Crucial M4 based on its outstanding reliability. Sandforce drives like OCZ and Mushkin drives benchmark faster but all that speed doesn't matter if you're hampered by glitches or failures. I own an M4 128GB and it's been incredible. I resisted the change for a while, but I now recommend the Samsung 830 because it seems to be plenty reliable and it's faster than the M4.

 

[bhalton26]

Corsair Force Series 3 CSSD-F120GB3A-BK 2.5 seems to be faster according to the Specs - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233206

SAMSUNG 830 Series MZ-7PC128D/AM 2.5" 128GB - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147134

But I guess the Samsung is still a reliable brand.

 

[bhalton26]

Also a HUGE difference in price

 

[RetiredChief]

^ Benchmarks are called sythetic for a reason. The difference, espeacially in Sequencial performance, often does not amount to a hill of beans in real life performance.

 

[danraies]

Advertised specs are useless. Go compare benchmarks and that's a little better - you'll find that the 830 benchmarks pretty close to sandforce drives. Still, though, there will be no noticeable speed difference between the Corsair Force 3 and the Samsung 830. In your actual applications we're talking negligible differences that you wouldn't ever notice.

The Crucial M4 is cheaper than the Corsair Force 3 if that's a concern.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148442

 

[RetiredChief]

seems not a big dif between using on sata II vs using on Sata III, let alone between say M4 - 830 - sf22xx sata III drives on a sata III controller.
Check out: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/sata-6gbps-performance-sata-3gbps,3110-7.html

 

[bhalton26]

Thanks Guys