What SSD should I get?

[William Murphy]

I am looking into getting an SSD for my boot drive since I'm building a new PC. Once windows is installed on the SSD how much space would it use? I am thinking of getting a 120 GB size. I will be using it to install a few games such as BT3 and Skyrim and possible other programs such as steam and word. I already have a 500GB hard drive that I can install and put everything else on. Do you think 120GB is enough? When I stop playing a game that is on the SSD will it be possible to easily move it to the hard drive? Would SRT be a better option since I am looking at getting a Z77 chipset. Does SRTboost boot speeds?

I was looked at OCZ vertex 4. Is it worth getting the more expensice SSDs. Are they much faster?
Here are two SSDs both by vertex, same storage but £35 difference:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/OCZ-AGT3-25SAT3-120G-Agility-120GB-SATA/dp/B004Z0S6SO/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1335387028&sr=8-3
http://www.amazon.co.uk/OCZ-Vertex-128GB-Internal-Solid/dp/tech-data/B007R1FH3K/ref=de_a_smtd

I hope you can answer all my questions

 

[kajabla]

120gb should be fine. Note, though, that Steam will put all of its files in one place. I've got a 120gb myself, and I keep Steam on the hard drive. The difficulty of moving games around will vary by the game. Starcraft, for instance, lives in its own folder, and some games run through helper applications (Origin) that should make management pretty easy. Others won't be as easy, probably, but if you're done with them you can just delete them.
What's SRT?
OCZ's SSDs aren't known for reliability, which is probably the main defining quality of SSDs. All the options out there are fast, and the spectrum of speed isn't broad.
This one's the second-most-reliable around after Intel, which is very expensive: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-128GB-6GBPS-Desktop-Basic/dp/B007BBQPUA/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1335392545&sr=8-3

 

[foscooter]

iRST (Intel Rapid Storage Thechnology) is said to boost boot and launch times, but not as much as they post. I haven't tried iRST on a boot drive.

But I have on my Data & Media drive ('cause I can and had the SSD anyway). My programs do seems to launch quicker when access the data (i.e iTunes, Quicken, Excel spreadsheets, etc.), but for most, it's a waste of money (what I did).

BTW, the cache drive is limited to 64GB, so any drive larger than that is a waste.

So, go with a larger drive SSD, 120GB as your boot drive should be fine. You will want to install the games to the SSD, why wouldn't you want the fastest load times?

The two you have listed are both OCZ, one an Agility 3, one a Vertex 3. Of the two, I'd go Vertex. Agility is the "bottom rung" of the OCZ line.

But my choices are, in order: Intel 520, OCZ Vertex 3, Samsung 830, Crucial, Corsair, OCZ Agility 3, and whatever else. I'm not convinced on the Vertex 4 yet.

 

[RetiredChief]

Performance diference between the higher end SATAT III SSDs is not that big of an issue.
Benchmarks are just that, and in the case of SSDs can be missleading.
1) Most manuf published benchmarks are with ATTO. ATTO uses data that is readily compressable - NOT real world. If Need to look at benchmark differences look for PCMark Vantage (overall score and score for the apps you most use), 2nd best is AS SSD whitch uses compressed data (closer to real world).
2) Most manuf stress Sequencial read/write speeds - Bah HUM BUG. This is the least important parameter for an OS + Program drive. It is the small file random 4k read/writes that are most important.
3) select drive Based on Least user problems. I Know you are not going to buy from newegg (USA) but at least look at user comments when deciding on which drive to buy (Only look at one with 30 or more responses). will post more on this.

My normal recomendations are Intel, Curcial M4 and Samsung 830. Which of these three - which ever is cheapest.

On 120/128 gig SSD. That is the recommended size, also the most popular. My win 7 installations are all around 30 -> 40 Gigs. Add to that the typical size of the games you want to play. Also when looking at the size Substract about 18% to get your usable size. Reason you lose aboyt 7% due to the way manuf count - they use base 10, computers use base 2. Then you must always maintain a minium of 10 % of the drive Free so that Trim and CG can work their magic.

OK Back, fromone of my earlier post: Again I know you will not buy from them, but it is a good source for info sometimes.
Instead look at "user satisfaction" numbers ie at Newegg.
mushkin enhanced chronos - 16%, 1/2 egg and 80% 4/5 egg
Samsung - ........................ 4% 1/2 egg and 94 % 4/5 egg
Curcial M4 - ...................... 5% 1/2 egg and 90% 4/5 egg
Vertex 3 - ........................ 30% 1/2 eggs vs 68% 4/5 eggs

Ref:
Mushkins http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226236&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-RSSDailyDeals-_-na-_-na&AID=10521304&PID=4176827&SID=1sq38npfyjcyu
Samsung 830 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147137&SortField=0&SummaryType=0&PageSize=10&SelectedRating=-1&VideoOnlyMark=False&IsFeedbackTab=true#scrollFullInfo

Curcial M4 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148448&SortField=0&SummaryType=0&PageSize=10&SelectedRating=-1&VideoOnlyMark=False&IsFeedbackTab=true#scrollFullInfo

Vertex 3 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227706

About Agility III - I Have 2 120 agility III. They are cheap for a reason. They preform no better on a SATA III port than when on a SATA II port. Ref: a review which I verified on my 120 Gig Agility III on an i5-2500k system. Using AS SSD they score around the mid 400's My Curcial M4 and my Samsung 830 both score in the 700's (Note score refers to overall score).

I have 2 128 gig M4s, 1 128 gig Samsung 830, 2 128 gig Agility IIIs, Intel G1 & a G2, Phoenix pro, a Torqx, and a WD SSD.
NONE have died YET and the only one that I had a problem with was the Agillity III - OCZ only took about 8 Months to sort out their problem.