Thinking about buying a SSD

[Bean007]

Ok so I'm thinking about maybe buying a SSD but not sure yet and wanted to get some questions answered. I've heard part of the reasons why these SSD's die so fast are certain SATA controllers or maybe rather older ones. Is this true?

The egg has the OCZ Agility 3 AGT3-25SAT3-60G on sale with rebate for $54.99 and was thinking about buying it. Now I have a Asus P7P55D-E Pro which has the Marvell® PCIe SATA6Gb/s controller on it. Now I had asked in the Asus forums and the Mod there says that only Crucial is the only one that guarantees for that motherboard while I've gone to a few others and they don't really have any type of compatable mobo look up.

I'm just unsure of buying any of these cause they don't seem stable but If I can find one that's within reason on price then i'll think about it. I think the price the egg has is around the range I want and 60Gig is I think more then enough to put windows and a few games I play the most to get good load times.

 

[TheBigTroll]

do not get aglity drives. get crucial, intel ,mushkin or partriot and kigston. Cricial drives are great and reliable so if you can get one for cheap get it

 

[Dereck47]

3rd party 6Gb/s SATA controllers will always have slower performance than motherboards with native 6Gb/s ports; so you will not get maximum advertised speeds from any SSD you connect to the Marvell ports on your particular motherboard.

But if this is your 1st SSD then you will not notice any real-world difference in performance.

If you purchase the Agility 3 make sure the firmware is on the latest version 2.22 before you install your O/S on it for maximum reliability. You might also want to ensure that your motherboard's BIOS is at the latest version also.

 

[RetiredChief]

Let me alleviate your fear – The majority of SSDs are FINE, even the agility III (ALTHOUGH I DO NOT RECOMMEND IT). I have 10 SSDs which includes generation 1 and 2. I have 2 120 gig agility III’s. NOT one Failure.
My feelings are that the majority of SSD problems are user caused. With the exception of Bugs that are reality quick to be found. Normally fixed by firmware revisions fairly timely, except for the Initial release of Sata III SSDs using the sandforce SF22xx controller. Some Examples, Intel had a Bug that caused the SSD to drop in size to 8 mbs, curcial’s m4 had a bug that only showed up after 5000 Hrs of operation (both have been fixed).

1) If you buy a Sata III SSD, USE the Onboard Intel SATA II controller, not the old generation Marvel sata III control – Even for “good” SSDs you do not loose too much in performance, benchmarks, Yes, but not in real life day-to-day operation.
… Note Even using an Intel Sata III port the Agility III does NOT perform any better when compared to being on an Intel Sata II port. This was in a review and I have verified that with one of mine. The way I see it the agility III is really a SATA II SSD in a SATA III wrapper.

2) Bear in Mind, and 60 gig SSD will only provide 45-> 50 gigs usable. A) You lose 4 gigs (just like HDDs) based on Manuf using decimal and computers use Power of 2’s and B) You must lead 10 -> 15% unused so that Wear leveling, Garbage Collector, and Trim can work their Magic.

3) Agility III’s and other SF22xx based SSDs had considerable problems for about 8 Months after release. These problems have been resolved with the latest firmware revisions. OCZ had a real management vs user problems that I feel still exist and is my primary objection to any OCZ products.

As Dereck47 indicated, use the latest Firmware for your SSD, ALSO use the latest Bios Ver for Your MB.

Bottom Line. - Recommend 1) go with a Min size of 90 Gigs. If you do go with 60/64 gig SSD, make sure you use all the space saving tweaks and monitor free space. 2) If you can afford a marvel or Samsung buy that, If Not go with the Agillity III - It still is much faster than a mechanical HDD.

 

[Bean007]

Yea don't think 90Gig is gonna work. It's not that I can't afford it, it's just that I don't it's worth that kind of money. I know the performance would be better but not for that kind of price. Guess I'll stick with my WD Black's in raid 0. But thanks for the info.

Marvel makes SSD's? So you would say that Samsung makes the best? Care to give a top 5 on reliability?

 

[Bean007]

Best answer selected by Bean007.

 

[RetiredChief]

If I was buying an SSD, my choices are: Curcuial m4, Samsung 830, and Intel 510 o5 520. - Which of the 3, the one that is lowest cost (ie on sale). Of the three the M4 is on sale more often and at a lower price.

 

[Bean007]

If I was buying an SSD, my choices are: Curcuial m4, Samsung 830, and Intel 510 o5 520. - Which of the 3, the one that is lowest cost (ie on sale). Of the three the M4 is on sale more often and at a lower price.

Not Kingston? Or are they just to new on the SSD market.

 

[RetiredChief]

Kingston - Did not see enough feedback to say Yea/Nay. Most li9kely Fine, But when paying this much, I prefer to limit my recommendations / purchase to more established drives. This is why I ended up with 2 128 Gig agility III's - I violated my "rule" and regreated it.