Need a 180gb solution Crucial GS? Intel?

[Brogan]

Not many companies offer 180GB, but it's right in my sweet spot so I wouldn't need to connect a mechanical drive at all (I do have a portable WD for data).

System is a brand new i5 3570k, Z77 Gigabyte board w/ SATA3, GTX 560ti. Strictly a gaming machine.

The new Crucial Force GS line uses the Toggle NAND, while the Intel 330 Newegg has on sale has a very reliable rep (right?) and is decently priced.

I had also looked at a 180GB Mushkin Chronos (non-Deluxe) that has a listed 88,000 IOPS rating. Not sure on the NAND type.

Prices are all around what I wanna spend.

Which way should I go? Any addtl. suggests? Thanks.

 

[geofelt]

I am using an Intel 520 180gb drive. They had a nice rebate some time back. Rumor is, that Intel will reduce prices in August.
Today, I think Samsung 830, and Intel make the most trouble free units. They make their own nand chips so they can do more extensive validation.

You would have no problem with the Intel 330.

For most of us, any performance differences are purely technical, detectable only by synthetic benchmarks.

 

[Brogan]

Yea, I'm reading through the reviews for that one now (I think this is yours right?). Obviously stability is the overriding sentiment.

But the more I read on other sites, these Sandforce controller seems like kryptonite for some. Is it still an issue?

Also, the IOPS numbers for this drive aren't as high as others. Is that related to the NAND type used?

If speed is my primary concern, would I not be better off getting a drive using Toggle and the highest sequential stats?

 

[apache_lives]

Intel for reliability yes god yes i wouldnt touch the others at all

 

[geofelt]

Yea, I'm reading through the reviews for that one now (I think this is yours right?). Obviously stability is the overriding sentiment.

But the more I read on other sites, these Sandforce controller seems like kryptonite for some. Is it still an issue?

Also, the IOPS numbers for this drive aren't as high as others. Is that related to the NAND type used?

If speed is my primary concern, would I not be better off getting a drive using Toggle and the highest sequential stats?

Yes, that is the one I use.

What kind of speed are we talking about? The response time to complete a small random I/O is miniscule, and about the same from every ssd out there. What you see are maximum I/O rates from synthetic benchmark drivers. The queue lengths are 30 and above. As a desktop user, you will see anly one or two operations at a time. That is what the os and most desktop users are doing 90% of the time.

On the sequential side, it is the same. The specialized benchmark drivers generate sequential I/O as fast as the device can handle.
They make no account of how YOUR access patterns are. For most of us, the speed of sequential I/o will show up on things like file copies and level loads. We do them one at a time, not 30 tasks at a time.

IOPS numbers are relevant to servers, not home users.

There is one factor, that does have relevance to performance with a ssd, and that is how full the drive is when you need to do updates. Updates are done fastest when there is an empty nand block that can just be written to. If there are no empty blocks, then a read/update cycle must be done, and that can visibly impact performance.

In this case, you would want to buy a drive that will have perhaps 20% free space, plus whatever you might grow to.
Perhaps a 240gb drive would be better if you have more than 150gb to put on it.

 

[Brogan]

Perhaps a 240gb drive would be better if you have more than 150gb to put on it.

Geez, good info and yes, that makes alot of sense.

Thanks man.

 

[Brogan]

Best answer selected by Brogan.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

CORRECTION - The Force GS series is not from Crucial. It is from Corsair. It is brand spanking new. The first 3 reviews were just published a few days ago. The general rule of thumb is wait six months and see what happens before purchasing. The waiting period is to find out if there are any major issues or problems with a newly introduced product.

I maintain the ssd database listed in the sticky at the very top of this forum section. Here is the link:

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

You can scroll down to the brands and models you are interested in and follow the links to the technical reviews.

 

[Brogan]

Thanks for the info.

I ended up going with an Intel 520 series 180GB drive. NO problems so far and damn, it's fast.