Samsung 840 Pro 128GB or Intel 335 240GB

egel

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Nov 8, 2006
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First off, I'm in New Zealand, so pricing is probably a little different over here compared to most other places.

Second, I'm looking to get an SSD mainly for performance reasons. I expect to have my OS or OSes (at least Windows 7 x64, maybe a *nix partition as well), Adobe CS6, Visual Studio, and a handful of games on it. However, media of any variety just keeps getting larger, so I do consider more space to be an advantage.

My budget is approximately $250NZD, but I'd rather be a little under that. The two options I'm looking at are the Intel 335 240GB for around $235NZD and the Samsung 840 Pro 128GB for around $210. I'm not sure whether to go for worse performance (AFAIK) and about twice the space or not.


A rough idea of prices over here can be found at http://pricespy.co.nz/category.php?l=s112781863&o=produkt_pris_inkmoms#rparams=l=s112782517 (it should load some filters if you have Javascript enabled - I'm not interested in drives under 100GB), and I'm willing to listen to any other suggestions people might have.
 
Intel and Samsung are both excellent choices.

The general rule of thumb is purchase the largest capacity ssd you can afford at the lowest possible price. Most of the modern 3rd generation ssd's form a fairly tight performance cluster. To notice a performance difference a typical user would have to run synthetic benchmarks that grossly exaggerate the minor differences. It would be different if you were doing some very complicated professional, scientific, or financial work.

You mentioned Adobe CS6 and Visual Studio. Do you use the applications for professional work? If you do, then that would suggest an ssd that works well with incompressible data. That would rule out ssd's with SandForce controllers. If it is just a hobby, then it probably will not matter.

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

Scroll down to the Intel and Samsung sections and follow the links to the technical reviews of each model you are interested in.
 

game junky

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If it were me, I would go with either the 180GB Intel 520 or the 256GB Samsung 840 Pro - they're both phenomenally fast and reliable. $/GB, the Samsung is a much better deal but the Intel 520 is closer to the budget. I would price shop the 840 Pro until it's close to your budget and then pull the trigger.

I have a 256GB Samsung 830 in my laptop (great drive, but harder to find these days) and the 180GB Intel 520 in my desktop at home and I have had no issues whatsoever with either drive. Speed-wise, everything loads instantly which means I spend less time waiting and more time doing.
 

egel

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Yes, I do use said applications for professional work. That's really good to know (about compressible/imcompressible data and SandForce controllers), and swings me in favour of the Samsung drive for now.

Great link. Thanks a lot.

As it happens, the Intel 335 has jumped to about $280NZD, putting it on a par with the Samsung 840 250GB, so now I'm really tossing up between the Samsung 840 Pro 128GB for about $210NZD and the Samsung 840 250GB for about $280. Does allowing about 15% for overprovisioning sound okay?

EDIT:


You reckon I should take the 180GB Intel 520 (~$270) over the Samsung 840 250GB (~$280), SandForce and all? The 256GB Samsung 840 Pro is well outside my budget, unfortunately (~$380).
 

z250kid

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I dont know if you can order from newegg. But the 256 pro from samsung is a 249 now. I had to call them to tell them there price was being beat by samsung. It was 319 now 249.
 

egel

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Unfortunately newegg don't ship internationally, which is very sad because right now $249USD is about $300NZD, which beats what the 850 Pro 256GB is going for by about $80.