Crucial or Samsung SSD

[rugman1969]

I have an Asus p7p55d pro mobo. I am looking to upgrade my hdd to an ssd
(Crucial CT128M4SSD2 m4 2.5" Solid State Drive - 128GB, SATA 6Gb/s)
or this
(Samsung MZ-7PC128N/AM 830 Series 2.5" Solid State Drive Kit - 128GB, SATA III, 6Gbps,)

Anyone hve any experience with ssd's? This one in particular? My mobo is a Sata2 I believe, and I know the advertised read/write speeds will be different on a sata 2, but I am looking for reliability issues, installing OS, firmware updates for ssd or mobo. Any recommendations or info will be helpful. Also, would I need to change anything in bios? Do I need any special cables, brackets etc... thanks

 

[monsta]

The crucial m4 SSD's are great and very popular, they are very good, but the Samsung appears to be an excellent choice for SSD. They are fast , reliable and appear to have less issues than other SSD's.
It will run fine on a SATAII pc , you will notice a big difference in performance even tho its not running at Sata III, boot up times are quick, programs and game maps load much faster.
In the Bios you will need to change your storage controller to use ACHI, once you have done that then install the SSD for optimal performance.
You don't need any special cables , just use a SataII cable that came with your mobo. Some SSD's come with brackets.

 

[RetiredChief]

Have both. pair of 128 Gig M4s in Samsung RF711 laptop. Just last week replaced Agility III with 128 gig Samsung 830.

From a performance perspective - very little real life diff between the two. Don't sweat the Sata II, It's not a big deal in terms of real life performance. High Sequencial benchmarks do not translate into a noticable difference for a OS + Program drive.

Reliability.- Samsungs 470 rivals Intel. The word on the 830 is that it should also be up there with Intel. Real Life 5 yr results are not in yet. I have 10 SSDs from 7 diff manuf dating back to Intel G1 - Not had a single failure. Only one prolem child, the Agility III which was there poor FW which resulted in capatability. issues.

 

[rugman1969]

Thanks. Did you have to update the firmware with either before installing? If so, how do you do it?

Have both. pair of 128 Gig M4s in Samsung RF711 laptop. Just last week replaced Agility III with 128 gig Samsung 830.

From a performance perspective - very little real life diff between the two. Don't sweat the Sata II, It's not a big deal in terms of real life performance. High Sequencial benchmarks do not translate into a noticable difference for a OS + Program drive.

Reliability.- Samsungs 470 rivals Intel. The word on the 830 is that it should also be up there with Intel. Real Life 5 yr results are not in yet. I have 10 SSDs from 7 diff manuf dating back to Intel G1 - Not had a single failure. Only one prolem child, the Agility III which was there poor FW which resulted in capatability. issues.

 

[RetiredChief]

Yes I updated the firmware. It came with 0006 and a month or two latter they came out with 0009. Think there is a newer FW out. And method/instructions are at curcial web site. Will check.

OK latest firmware is 0309.
Here is a Link for M4. Use the pulldown to select the Model (ie 9.5mm m4) - download and read the Guide.
http://www.crucial.com/support/firmware.aspx

Guide, Basically, you down load an ISO and create a bootable CD with the firmware on it.
and boot to the CD or DVD.
http://edge.crucial.com/firmware/m4/0309/ProductFlyer-letter_m4-firmware0309_01-12.pdf

Comments 0009 Improved performance over 0006, 0309 fixes a "5000 hour bug" I believe.

 

[rugman1969]

Best answer selected by rugman1969.