Solid State Suggestion

Greetings,

I'm eyeballing some SSD's for my M11X R1, with the hopes that it'll give it an added speed boost and provide me with at least a couple more years of gaming, albeit probably on lower graphical settings.

This is my first time buying a SSD, and I've been looking at the Seagate Momentus XT, but from what I've read, though faster than your ordinary 7200RPM drive, it has nothing on a full SSD.

I've found quite a few SSD's for sale on eBay, with a 256GB around the $350, which doesn't seem too bad. The ones I've seen read at 220MB/s and write at 200MB/s. Is this good, or can I do better?

Please advise.

Thanks!

 

SSD's run the full gamut of prices.

I looked at the Seagate Momentus XT, but I already have a 2nd Gen Intel X25M 160GB. This will be my primary HDD. 160GB is fine depending on how you load it up.

I have several 320GB externals for stuff like itunes (separate HDD altogether since I have like 200GB on that HDD alone). My steam folder will fit on the SSD (for now at least). I install other less played games on the external. Sure I take a hit on performance, but they aren't played often and most don't gain anything with the added speed (load faster, but don't really care).

I've not had a chance to read up on the latest Corsair 250GB SSD, but it looks promising. It is at $500 price point so is steap, but you get what you pay for.

I'm not a big fan of buying things on eBay, but that is personal preference. SSDs aren't like mechanical HDDs and don't last forever. Check out Amazon as they tend to have very good pricing on SSDs. They have a sale on them every other week. I bought my Intel there for $75 off last year.

 

The most important thing about SSD's is the controller chip used in them. But before I say anything else, let me say that once you get past a certain minimum level of performance, you will not be able to tell the difference between different SSD drives in real-world scenarios. There is a difference, but it is so small that you will never notice unless you run tests (benchmarks) to measure. Having said that, the three SSD controllers I mention below are all going to be above the "minimum level of performance". So any of them will be great.


Right now, the best controller chip is made by a company called SandForce. If you want speed more than anything, you won't go wrong with a Corsair RealSSD C300 (128GB for $350), or an OCZ Vertex 2 (100GB for $350).

Another very reliable brand of SSD is the Intel X25-M series... 80GB for $220, 160GB for $415. They have much faster random read times and I/O's per second than the SandForce-based drives, but slower write times. Basically, if you are doing a lot of application loading or multitasking, then then Intel drives are going to have a slight advantage.

Lastly, there are Indilinx-based drives. They are older than the SandForce drives. But they are mature products, and definitely still hold their own - especially when you compare the price/value you get. Something like an OCZ Vertex 1 (128GB for $260) would be a fantastic buy. If I were shopping for an SSD today, there is no doubt that I would get an OCZ Vertex 1. The low price for the performance that you get is just amazing.

 

I took a look at the OCZ Vertex 2. The 200GB version is $600+, with 300MB/s read/write speeds.

How HUGE of a jump is 300MB/s over 200MB/s, coming from someone who's never had anything faster than a 7200RPM SATA II drive?

 

Coming from a 7200rpm mechanical drive, you will not be able to tell the difference. I have never heard anyone with an SSD say with a straight face "Man, this SSD is slow - I wish I bought a faster one."

You will only notice when you run benchmarks, or do an A/B side-by-side comparison.

 

I have to agree with other posters about noticing speed increases.

I only did a single comparison and that was the boot time of Windows7 on my old drive vs. the new hybrid. I went from 43s to 32s boot time, but also noticed that constantly used apps booted much faster...like Wow or Photoshop.

I upgraded to an Momentus XT 500gb only because of low price of the drive vs. a real SSD. I picked mine up at the local TigerDirect for $129. If I had money to spend, I would consider the high-end Corsair or and 2nd gen Intel drive.

I went from 160gb to 500gb so my hybrid upgrade served dual purpose.