SanDisk's X210 is a OEM-styled variant of the company's Marvell platform used by the enviably-quick Extreme II. With less over provisioning and no fluff, it's offered as an option to OEMs looking for the finest in SATA SSD performance. SanDisk X210 256 GB
An Elite Performance Contender at 256 GB
The 256 GB model wields all of the spectacular performance you get from the 512 GB variant. It's "only" rated for 60,000 4 KB write IOPS, but our tests show the SSD earns its recommendation from our in-depth metrics designed to flesh out performance more thoroughly. It supports DevSlp for new mobile Haswell laptops and rocks a five-year warranty for the same price as some budget drives.
Complemented by fancy 19 nm flash from Toshiba's fabs, the M6S provides plenty of pep thanks to Marvell's 9188 controller. Even though the processor is limited to just four channels, it keeps pace with Plextor's well-regarded M5 Pro. Plextor M6S 256 GB
Plextor's Mainstream Performer
DevSlp is supported, and the platform generally offers better efficiency. At the same time, it's capable of considerable write performance. Although it's not quite on par with the fastest SSDs out there (and is expensive), Plextor is a well-regarded name in this segment. We've put the M6S through many hours of testing, and believe you get what you pay for in this case.
Adata partnered with Micron to deliver a platform similar to the M550, but branded by Adata as the SP920. Both the 128 and 256 GB models are a little slower than their M550 equivalents due to higher-density NAND. However, the 512 and 1024 GB versions are more comparable. Adata Premier Pro SP920 256 GB
A Well-Rounded 256 GB SSD
The biggest difference is a lack of eDrive and TCG Opal 2.0 support, which may affect your value equation. But Adata does include a 2.5"-to-3.5" adapter mount, its SSD Toolbox app, and a copy of Acronis True Image HD for cloning and backup.
The 256 GB drive is worthy of praise. Though it's not quite as fast as Adata's larger models, 256 GB is a good enthusiast capacity point, and this SSD is a solid mainstream play offering excellent performance.
There are so many compelling choices around 256 GB that just calling them "good" is too-little praise. But, if you're looking for something a little different, Samsung's 840 EVO has you covered. Samsung 840 EVO 250 GB
An Alternate Option
On the surface, not much changes compared to the 250 GB 840 except its chassis and higher-density 128 Gb flash manufactured at 19 nm (and those aren't strong selling points).
However, under the hood, Turbo Write (an emulated SLC mode) and some additional software goodies are more exciting enhancements. Read performance is superb, with assistance from Samsung's new technologies to help writes. And since the 840 EVO just recently received TCG Opal 2.0 / eDrive support through a firmware update, that's another reason to buy.
More immediately, Samsung's SSD Magician software enables DRAM caching for awesome speed-ups. And whereas the company once included versions of Norton Ghost, it now bundles its own cloning software. Talk about a strong showing for the 840's successor. In fact, the 840 EVO is one of the few SSDs to ever receive an award from Tom's Hardware.
Is that why you don't mention Crucial's MX100 line? With the current pricing on the 256GB and 512GB MX100 drives, it's hard to justify buying anything else at those capacity points.
MX100 256GB is ~$115 and the 512GB is $215. Hard to beat those prices.
Going by the fact that you're still recommending that stick, I'll assume I'm not doing too badly, but an overview of the current state of USB 3.0 would be nice.
b/ the killer factor is access speed vs a HDD - who gives a rats about transfer speed? - huge is huge
given the above, despite the scoffers, i still think raid 1 w/ a ssd primary & a hdd secondary could work well in some apps. none seem to have tried it & benched it meaningfully i can see
most realtime work is done by primary (ssd) drive
fast & cheap always up redundancy
d/ i hear rumors than the sandisk cache thingo has weird firmware - flushes the cache a lot - defeats the purpose? Many say its great.
loved the idea when first heard it, now not so sure
flushes cache? is that bad?
As they say, lottsa ram wins, even if slow.
So what say a big swap file on an ssd?
My 2gb, soon to be replaced, 98xp PC has a 4gb HDD swap file (suggested by windows) & it crawls - u can hear it
swapping
at least the ssd can be re-used - ram upgrades cannot
An entire copy of your system disk on cheap/fast, but niggardly on space, storage - really?
that means being anal with what goes where for ever more - time & hassle & maybe risk?
why not make it their problem?
seagate etc. hybrid 1tb drive - 8 gb cache onboard - $~100
something like sandisk intellicache~? 32gb ~$45 - not a drive - just a cache
maybe a small ssd for known scratch files like win swap etc - $45 64gb - $85 128gb - kingston?
would make a great raid 1 rig
I am told win 8 installs on 128gb can be a struggle - absurd
In theory, only cache what needs caching, not clutter.
Dont quote me if i am wrong (tho i cant see where, if they work ok)
Very fast almost all the time
Time is money - this is KISS