SSD questions

[thatguy14]

Hi there, I have read multiple posts on comparisons between SSD's but I still have a few questions and would like a more direct recommendation.

I have the option of choosing between these 3 SSD's:

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=91218&Sku=O261-6380

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5247113&Sku=S203-8003

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5250507&sku=I69-7010&cm_re=Homepage-_-Spot%2007-_-CatId_5298_I69-7010

Now I am leaning towards the last link (intel x25-M) because of the price/size ratio. But I have heard good things about the vertex 3. Which should I get

My set up will be - SSD contains windows installation (7) with maybe a game or 2 on it, I will also have a HDD for installing other less used games. Does this soundreasonable?

Any other things I should know please don't hesitate to let me know!

 

[WyomingKnott]

I have an unusual take on computers - I just want mine to work for me, not get the extra five percent of performance. So I think that this article, especially the first graph on the linked page, says it all: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/sata-6gbps-performance-sata-3gbps,3110-8.html .
Any SSD will be a massive improvement over an HDD. If you benchmark, or run high-performance stuff, ask someone else for an opinion.

There are a lot of articles about tweaking SSDs, starting with this one: heck, I lost my link. Sorry. The topic of whether to have a pagefile on the SSD or not have a pagefile is a religious one; both ways are functional options. The most basic and important thing is to set your disk controller mode to AHCI (or RAID if you will be using it) before installing the OS to the SSD. Do a fresh install.

EDIT: Found the link - http://www.computing.net/howtos/show/solid-state-drive-ssd-tweaks-for-windows-7/552.html

EDIT 2: Read this: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-performance-tweak,2911.html , and note that some tweaks are good for some SSDs and bad for others!

 

[thatguy14]

That is very helpful thank you. So basically you're saying that buying one SSD over the other doesn't really matter which I kind of assumed I just didn't want to make a mistake. Thank you for the links also. Any suggestion on which of the 3 is safe to get? I don't know if reliability is an issue with SSD's like I have heard before.

 

[Dereck47]

The Intel X25-M is a 1st generation SATA 2 (3Gb/s) SSD released in 2008.

I personally would get the SATA 3 (6Gb/s) Samsung 840 released in 2012.

 

[WyomingKnott]

Do frequent system backups and reliability is a non-issue. I personally have a pagefile on my SSD and my temp storage, too. It puts more writes on the drive, but the drive is there to serve me, so let it work. And degrade. I can always do an OS restore to a new one.

BTW, these graphs have convinced me that the Intel x25-M is not a sweet drive: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-performance-tweak,2911-11.html . I have no opinion between the others, but faced with that choice myself I would buy the Vertex as the better-known line. Anyone out there really know?

 

[thatguy14]

Alright I will probably go with the Vertex 3. Any other suggestions? Should I wait for another sale or what?

 

[WyomingKnott]

If you have the money, buy it. Use pricegrabber or compare a few sites; newegg seems to be a favorite here. If money is tight for you, either wait or buy an older SSD. Technically slower, but cheaper.

My advice: cough up the dough.

 

[rodney_ws]

If you have the budget, you should be able to land a nice 256 GB SSD for around $160 if you catch one on sale. I'm sure you've already assessed your needs and determined that you can fit comfortably into a 128 GB SSD. Just one thing to keep in mind... as an SSD reaches its capacity, it can slow down AND having little free space wears out the drive quicker. In other words... if you have a 128 GB SSD and plan one keeping it filled to 120 GB, you are shortening the life of the drive by contributing to excessive writes to the same area of the drive. I have owned a 64, 128 and currently a 256 GB SSD and each step along the way I felt like I outgrew my drive. Between Windows service packs, Adobe updates (bah!) and games that are getting larger and larger (some games I have exceed 20 GB), I felt like 256 GB was the sweet spot for SSDs... and yes, I still have a mechanical drive for other stuff.

 

[whiteodian]

The Sammy drive looks like the best out of the ones you listed. If you can, I would suggest getting a bigger one as others have suggested. Here is a good one on sale:
Crucial M4 256GB $169.99 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148443

How about the Vertex 4 if you are on a certain budget:
Vertex 4 128GB $114.99 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227791