Looking for a SSD recommendation

The laptop its going into is in my sig. I've been doing some research but I'm feeling a bit of info overload right now. I'm looking to put in an SSD as my boot drive and use my current one as a data/storage drive.

My preferences in order of importance are:

1. Reliability. I dont want something that's gonna die and take all my data with it 3 months down the road. Yea I do regular back ups, but unplanned restores are a hassle we all like to avoid I'm sure.

2. Cost. I'd like to keep things around $250 or so.

3. Storage. Hey, bigger is ALWAYS better!

Speed isnt so much a big deal to me. I dont benchmark. I do gaming and photo editing on this laptop. I'm sure just the jump from a regular HDD to even the slowest SSD is gonna make me a happy camper.

I appreciate any guidance!

 

The most reliable SSD right now is the Intel X25-M.

That being said, right now is a bad time to get a new SSD because everyone either introduced a new product in the past 2 weeks or will be introducing one by the end of the month, so I expect there will be significant price drops within a few weeks for current SSDs as retailers clear out their existing inventory.

 

Hmmm, sounds like waiting might be a good idea. My other big purchase pending is a GPS upgrade so maybe that should take priority for now...

 

Yup I would recommend Intel drives. They have a proven track record of reliability, though not the fastest. I would also second waiting, new G3 are coming out soon and the 510 series was launched a couple days ago.

 

Supposedly, the G3 will launch as the 300 series.

Seeing as Intel is switching to CPU-style branding (3/5/7) for their SSDs, this worries me quite a bit - is Intel's next gen controller unable to keep up with the Marvell (510 series) and Sandforce competition?

 

I have been looking at SSDs for sometime now and i would go for Intel in terms of reliability and speed. Certainly not the fastest but the G3 should be good. Otherwise i would probably go for a C300 (people seem to be happy with them)

 

I would stick with G2 until I see significant speed difference or any new line(be it 510 or G3 or any SF or other brands) which shows the same level of reliability as G2 and incremental speed difference(say 20%+).

 

Except check out this thread. Every component has issues, but based on info I've read this made me very hesitant to go with a C300.
C300 Disk Freeze-ups in Windows 7 - Crucial Community

I am an Intel G2 advocate all the way. I have no vested interest in Intel other than I've tried a half dozen brands and Intel has been the most solid and reliable for me so far. Now I own three of them.

I'm waiting a year before I buy into a SATA III drive once we find out the best of the latest. I don't care to be a guinea pig with SSD's any more. I wasted too much on them already.

 

Just to make sure I have my Intel terminology right, G2 is Generation 2 which would be the X-25M series?

 

You are correct. X25-M is G2 MLC, X25-V is the "V"alue drive which I believe is only the 40GB, and the X25-E which is Enterprise (SLC) costing many times more than the X25-M. Then there's also the 1.8" variants the X18-M.

 

And also to clarify, the original G1s were also listed as X25-Ms. So make sure that if you're getting a X25-M, you're getting the right kind.

 

Hrmn...1.8", that's for ultra thin laptop/netbooks yes? I believe I can ignore those for the beast in my sig.

Off to price check, and read up on Intel drives!

Judicator, any easy way to differentiate between first and second gen?

 

Any retailer should say. There's also the product code; A G1 will have a G1 near the end of its model number (like SSDSA2MH080G1 for an 80 GB G1), while a G2 will have a G2 near the end of its model number (replace the previous G1 with a G2. ).

 

Judicator pretty much covered it. Also, you can distinguish Intel G1 from G2 appearance-wise by their black plastic and brushed metal enclosures, respectively.

 

While it never hurts to check, at this point it's safe to assume that every new X-25M being sold by a mainstream retailer is a G2. The G1 was phased out in 2009 so the only way a retailer could have any of those left is if they haven't sold anything in the last 2 years.

An etailer I frequent used to label the G2's as the X-25M Postville, but dropped the suffix about a year ago when it became obvious that all drives going forward were G2's.

 

Looks like I can pick up a 120 GB drive now in my price range. Gonna give it a week or two tho and see if any sales flyers hit my email. Definetly not in any rush even tho I'm due for a fresh install. Anything to put that off just a little longer...

 

It's unlikely there will be a difference, but the X25-M 120GB is not one of the original "tried and true" models that we've been talking about throughout this thread - it was only released last November.

The drives we've been talking about are the 80GB and the 160GB models. Those drives have been around since mid-2009, so if you absolutely need maximum real-world proven stability for a mission-critical system, get those or better yet, the X25-E.

 

Hrmn....good to know.

So, more questions. Can anyone tell me exactly what is the difference between these two drives??

Newegg.com - Intel X25-M SSDSA2MH080G2K5 2.5" 80GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

Buy.com - Intel X25-M 80 GB Internal Solid State Drive

 

I think the Newegg is just a newer batch, so it probably ships with updated firmware.

 

I believe the newegg one is the desktop kit, meaning it comes with the 2.5" to 3.5" adapater bracket, SATA power adapter, etc. Not needed for a laptop, but won't hurt anything either. Although for that price you can frequently find an Intel 120GB SSD. Not only increased capacity but increased performance as well.

 

While the 120GB is only released lately, it is exactly the same as 80/160 as the only thing changed is the NAND combination(which we can assume to have no difference in performance and/or reliability).

80 => 8GB x 10
120 => (8+4) x 10
160 => (8+8) x 10

That also explain the slightly speed increase in 120/160 as it has 2 block per channel which is kind of equivalent to RAID 0 of what we know about.

 

You're totally correct when it comes to desktop/laptop use, which is why I was very careful to qualify the statement with many of the colorful adjectives that would normally be used to describe systems such as the NYSE where even a moment of downtime could cause an economic meltdown.

If the OP figures that that level of reliability is important, I have no problem with that.

 

Indeed. For them, they may even need to specify specific batch number

I remembered in the old days when IBM(when they still make x86 based computers) have to keep certain model in production long after no one can find in the retail market, for the mentioned reason. Qualification of 'five 9s' is completely different thing.

 

Thanks guys. I've certainly learned alot, and yall have given me much to ponder. Gonna give it to the end of the month to see if prices drop any but will probably end up going with the Intel G2 120 GB drive I'm thinking.

 

Samsung 470 Series,

Cheers

3Fees