Best mSATA SSD 2014?

Gonna pull the trigger on my first SSD pretty soon. I'm set on mSATA because I want to keep the spinner in my Y500, so no need to lecture me on the advantages of 2.5".

So which is the best mSATA SSD on the market right now? Speaking from performance (both raw speed and consistency), reliability, and longevity standpoints. Ease-of-use (mainly the included software suite), any extra distinguishing features/functionality, and warranty are secondary considerations. Bang-for-buck is also a consideration, but TBH with SSD's coming down in price all the time, nearly all of the major brands are very competitive, but I won't pass up a great deal if there is one, especially with Fourth of July sales coming up.

Capacity-wise, I'm looking at 240GB-512GB. Leaning toward the low end of the spectrum, but if there is significant performance improvement or a good deal with a bigger drive, I'd get it.

Crucial M550/M500? (When's the MX100 coming in mSATA?) Plextor M5M/M6M? Samsung 840 EVO? Any other options?

Talk to me, people. And thanks for the help.

 

I don't think there's much of a perceivable performance difference between SSDs. They're all fast. I'd buy on price from a reputable brand. Failure rates for all SSDs are low.

 

Im running dual Samsung 840Evo 250gb msata, no issues, i didnt go for crucial m500/550 mostly because of the temperature and being on a laptop.

 

Replaced the HDD with a Samsung EVO 500gb SSD in my new Dell XPS 18 All iin one. SSD came with Samsung Magician software.. Magician tells me "AHCI is disabled for one or more connected SSDs. System must boot in AHCI mode for best performance." I accessed the bios and changed the SATA to AHCI and computer won't boot. After installing the SSD I have noticed a huge difference in start up time and generally everything is quicker. How do I fix this issue? Is it an issue that needs to be fixed? Thanks in advance for help.

 

You definitely want to change to AHCI mode.

See:
Neowin Guide: How to change from IDE to AHCI without reinstalling Windows - Neowin


Do you have the latest Magician software (v4.4)?

 

im a fan of the 1TB capacity samsung 840 evo msata. Who doesn't love fitting that density of super speed flash in a tiny area? And samsung drives are always closer to the top of the charts than the bottom. And are reliable, samsung ssd's aren't a mix of a bunch of different companies hardware. Everything inside the ssd is designed and manufactured by samsung this allows for a better performing more reliable drive, unlike many ssd makers that buy nand from 1 company dram from another ssd controller from some 1 else and then make firmware for it or use someone elses firmware. This also allows samsung to be priced extremely competitively while using premium components when you manufacture everything yourself you pay the straight bare manufacturing cost per unit there's no middleman markup on anything. You also get first choice on the best binned flash keep all the highest binned flash for yourself and sell the lower binned flash to third parties. And as the m2 slot proliferates the soon to be released samsung sm951 is a 1600MB/sec read 1000MB/sec write monster of a drive available from 128GB to 1TB which makes this the fastest super compact consumer ssd ever.

Samsung is number 1 for ssd's. Simply look at what they are doing with the sm951. impressive.

 

Plextor M5M has been nice to me. It's not the fastest, but it's been ol' reliable since I bought it. I've had my Crucial 960GB 2.5" and Crucial M4 256GB mSATA flake out on me a couple of times, where I thought they were dead, but some idle time and hot plug and they were up and running again.

Samsung EVO is probably best bang for the buck though

 

The Samsung 840 EVO mSATA SSD is likely the best mSATA SSD on the market, for the time being. Also, I agree with HT. It's definitely the most affordable.

I'm hoping they launch an mSATA series for the new 850 PRO. That would be great.

 

I couldn't agree more with regards to Samsung SSD's. I have an 840 Pro 128GB in my Precision M4400 and a 256 EVO in my Thinkpad T410 and they rock.