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Advice on picking right and first SSD

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I pretty much have everything I need for my build for parts except for this last piece of hardware I was originally gonna buy a HDD till I looked into SSDs. Nobody really helped me on my post in the SSD section so i hope this won't be a bother.

I read on this site that SSDs are actually really good for it's current price since it's not popular but it's been out for awhile. So I thought about getting my first one and seeing it for myself but I don't know enough about it to actually buy it without some advice.

When to purchase: This week, today, now.
Price range: $350 or Under on SSD only if there is one that is higher priced, explain a good enough reason then I will

My Build:
OS - Win 7 64 bit Home Pre
CPU - Intel i5-2500k
MOBO - ASUS Z68
w/ Cooler - Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO
RAM - Corsair Vengeance 8GB
GPU - Reusing GTX 260 but future GTX 570
CASE - NZXT Guardian 921


So all I need recommendations on is an SSD since I have barely any info about it.

If you have any questions, post I'll answer back best I can.

More about : advice picking ssd

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Personally I would recommend the Crucial M4 at either the 128GB capacity (around $200) or the 256GB capacity (around $375). They're incredibly reliable and almost as fast as the Sandforce drives (and can be faster in some areas). Personally, though you might find competing benchmarks, any SATA 6.0gbps drive will be the same speed in practice - you won't notice any difference outside of benchmarks. For me that means that the most important aspect to choosing an SSD is reliability which is why I recommend the M4. It's a proven drive with low failure rates and no bugs (that I know of).

If you want a 256GB drive but want to stay under $350 I would say go with the Corsair Force 3.

Nice nice recommendations, I'm leaning towards the Adata since i'm cash cautious right now.

Could you guys give me a quick explanation of what the difference is between SSDs and HDDs? What an SSD basically is?

Thanks
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ekkstra said:
I pretty much have everything I need for my build for parts except for this last piece of hardware I was originally gonna buy a HDD till I looked into SSDs. Nobody really helped me on my post in the SSD section so i hope this won't be a bother.

I read on this site that SSDs are actually really good for it's current price since it's not popular but it's been out for awhile. So I thought about getting my first one and seeing it for myself but I don't know enough about it to actually buy it without some advice.

When to purchase: This week, today, now.
Price range: $350 or Under on SSD only if there is one that is higher priced, explain a good enough reason then I will

My Build:
OS - Win 7 64 bit Home Pre
CPU - Intel i5-2500k
MOBO - ASUS Z68
w/ Cooler - Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO
RAM - Corsair Vengeance 8GB
GPU - Reusing GTX 260 but future GTX 570
CASE - NZXT Guardian 921


So all I need recommendations on is an SSD since I have barely any info about it.

If you have any questions, post I'll answer back best I can.


I would recommend a Patriot PyroSE 120 GB or 240 GB or Kingston HyperX 120 GB or 240 GB, whichever cheaper. If you manage to find a Crucial M4 that is cheaper than either of those 2, then get it but Crucial M4 price is always high for the past couple months.

Kingston HyperX http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... 175 USD After MIR
Patriot PyroSE http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... 165 USD After MIR

Please note this is the PyroSE, not the original Pyro. Performance wise the PyroSE is incredibly fast (on par or even beats the Vertex3/Max IOPS and often times head to head/surpass its bigger/more expensive brother Patriot Wildfire). Spec wise the PyroSe utilize Intel/Micron 25 nm sync NAND flash, which is the same as the one in Vertex 3 and Kingston Hyperx.

Reviews:
http://www.guru3d.com/article/patriot-pyro-se-240gb-ssd...
I encourage you to read the guru3d review about SSD since they pretty much explain to you what SSD is and what to do when you actually have an SSD drive.

Also, since your budge is 350 USD, you can actually buy 2 of the Kingston or Patriot Pyro above and Raid 0 to get 240 GB of SSD and double the performance as well. Keep in mind that if you set up a Raid 0 SSD, you will not be able to utilize TRIM function (prevent performance loss of SSD over time) of Windows 7. However, since these drives are Sandforce SSD, these drives have a built in Garbage Collection which is also used to prevent performance loss of SSD over time. The only difference between TRIM and Garbage Collection is that TRIM is software level and Garbage Collection is Controller level. They both do the same thing.

Best solution

An HDD is made of magnetic platters that store data. The platters spin and a mechanical arm moves around to read and write the data. SSD's don't have any moving parts - they're sort of like giant flash drives. Basically, SSD's are several times faster than HDD's in every area which is the only reason they're worth the extra price.

Tom's made a hierarchy of SSD's recently (with benchmarks and lots of data):
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-price-ssd,3070...

The adata S511 is very high on the list but that is much different than the S501 (for one thing, the 240GB S511 is about $500). The six reviews that the S501 has on newegg are good, but six reviews is a totally meaningless sample. I would recommend something proven to be fast and reliable. Adata drives are toward the bottom of my list of SSD recommendations.

Crucial M4, Samsung 830, Corsair Force 3, Kingston HyperX, Patriot PyroSE...they're all good recommendations. Adata...not really in the same league.

ekkstra said:
Ok thanks guys for the quick answers really appreciate it.

One more Q:
So for example the Crucial M4 128GB, in the name "128GB" that's how much room it has for storage?


Yes. The name of the drive is just "Crucial M4" and it comes in several different capacities including 64GB, 128GB, and 256GB. Obviously it'll format a little lower than 128GB like any drive.

Yeah okay just makin' sure thanks alot. I think I'll make my choice on a product but now I don't know who to pick for best answer ha.

But again thanks a lot this cleared up my mind of questions, appreciate it!
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