SSDs...which to buy and which to avoid?

What SSDs don't have sandforce and which ones have the sandforce that works well. I know M4, Octane, Samsung are good but what are the controllers. Also is the kinston hyperx any good? I know it has sandforce but is it a good one? Also which ones have hardware encryption?

 

I've had great luck so far with a Crucial m4 mSATA drive and a Samsung PM830 drive.

The general consensus is that SandForce-based drives can be faster though have had a history of data corruption issues. A good number of them out there are SandForce-based, however.

 

The Sandforce problems have mostly gone away, but get a drive from a manufacturer that will stand behind their warranty in case something happens. That goes for anything really though, i had to RMA my only SF drive, a Mushkin Chronos Deluxe 240GB and Mushkin was fast in approving the RMA i had to pay shipping to get the drive to them and that's my only complaint, aside from that, they answered all of my questions quickly and were very upfront about a my drive being backorder so they couldn't ship a replacement straight away.

 

yea but which drivers have what controllers...that is the real question i know samsung and crucial m4 are higherly liked but what are all their controllers for the different drives. like kingston and the others.

 

It can be found int he detailed tech specs for most.

M4: Marvell 88SS9174
Samsung, whatever samsung made for it
Intel 520 and 330: SF-2281.

Google will be your friend for the other drives, took me less than 5 minutes to find those on google, well the exact model for the M4, i already knew for the others.

Every SandForce drive out there is either SF-2281 or older.

 

I have not had any problems with a 256gb and 64gb Crucial M4. Previous to that I was using a 30gb Kingston SSDNow in my HTPC for over a year with no problems, but I can't say I see a lot of deals on Kingston drives.

 

Sandforce problems are mostly gone now; I've been using the Intel 330 for a few months and so far nothing has happened. Of course the track record for Crucial, Samsung, Plextor, and older Intel drives (510 and 320) are not in question due to their controllers, though SF-2281 looks pretty good in itself. As tijo said, you're main concern should be in the company you buy from. OCZ still doesn't have decent customer support, so I hear, but Mushkin, Corsair, and SanDisk seem pretty good.

 

Run a google search for "sandforce 2281 BSOD". 99% of the results will be related to OCZ drives, although supposedly it is related to a bug in the firmware across all sandforce controllers and is related to the power state logic in the firmware.

Sandforce has since released new firmware to partners. I think by now most of the sandforce drives currently shipping should have the new firmware, but it would be advisable to check with the maker to ensure this.

As someone previously stated, you can easily find out what controller a particular SSD has by checking the specifications on the manufacturers site. Its all part of doing proper research for any purchase I make.

EDIT: One thing to note is that OCZ has started a transition away form sandforce, at least on the high end. The Vertex 4 uses what OCZ calls the Everest controller, which is a Marvel with custom firmware.

 

when i looked at kingston or another manufacture site it only said sandforce not the type. that is why i was asking

 

From Kingston's own website: Enthusiasts | Solid State Drives | SSDNow Hyper X | Kingston, click on the drive you want and then more to see the full specs under in the specification column or from the datasheet available on the HyperX 3K's page http://www.kingston.com/datasheets/sh103s3_us.pdf -> SF-2281

The standard HyperX is also SF-2281

The Plextor M3 Pro has a Marvell 9174 controller, so does the Intel 510
Mushkin Chronos Deluxe & Sandisk Extreme: SF-2281

If there is no one available to answer on NBR or no one knows: see below

Tip#1: If you see Sandforce and the following specs: sequential reads ~550MB/s, sequetial writes ~500MB/s, you can be sure it's SF-2281 since Sandforce hasn't rolled out a new controller yet.

Tip#2: Look for reviews from sites like Anandtech, they're very upfront about which controller the drive uses usually. From the M4 review's first page:

AnandTech - The Crucial m4 (Micron C400) SSD Review

When no one on NBR knows, that's how we usually find out, looking at detailed specs on the manufacturer's website or in depth reviews.

There are always a few unknown. I for one have no idea what OCZ stuck in the Octane aside that it's an Indilix controller, but for all i know, it could be a Marvell controller with custom firmware like the Vertex 4.

 

vertex 4 has sandforce from what i read in specs before. Also octane uses indilix...the first one they made all newer drives use sandforce/second gen indilix

 

The specs on OCZ's site state the Vertex 4 is actually the Indilinx Everest 2. The Indilinx controller is still based on a Marvel controller with overclocking.

HERE: OCZ says its Indilinx controller is actually built by Marvell, but has custom firmware -- Engadget

 

If you ask me.. we've reached the point of where the only missing in the SSD world is the maximum speed achievable, everything else seems to be stabilized

Used 3 days on reading about SSD's here and there, gotta say you've got nothing to lose with w/e SSD you buy

 

interesting nice find