Any advice on SSD HDDs?

[335th_GRAthos]

Hey guys,

I started thinking about buying an SDD HDD for my notebook.

2,5" SATA

What are the new trends and is there anything to watch about?

Thanks for any advice.

~S~

[Igo kyu]

Well, on Amazon.co.uk at the moment, 64GB is from £54 up to £100, a fast 120GB is £85.

I found that with a perhaps not that good 64GB I wasn't getting the speed I wanted, and it was always a struggle for me to keep enough free space on the disk that it didn't slow down. Whereas with a high speed rated 120GB SSD it's faster and it's not yet full enough that space is making a speed problem.

If your laptop can't have a second 2.5 inch drive, I'd go for bigger than 120GB, I am trying to install apps to HD to keep space on the SSD free, if you can't do that, more room is going to be necessary IMO.

It's probably easier to set the BIOS to ACHD before you install Windows on the SSD, if that's what you're going to do, I've heard it can be done afterwards, but I suspect it's more fuss.

[Katana1000S]

Hi, I have three SSD's now, first one was an OCz Vertex 2 with Sandforce controller it must be getting on for over two years old now, no issues whatsoever.

Last year I bought an OCz Agility 3 60 GB and a OCz 3 Vertex 256 GB for FSX, these had sandforce controllers too but I had issues with the Vertex being detected at a cold boot sometimes and that was with flashing to the latest firmware of the time, others had these issues too on many different boards ... if I got a boot and no Vertex 256 GB getting detected I'd shut the PC down straight away and it always picked it up the next time, fast forward to about a month ago and I've built a new six core machine and took the opportunity to flash both drives firmware to a newer 2.22 I think it was, and no cold boot detection issues now thankfully ... OCz offered to RMA it for me, but reading between the lines I knew I would get a refurb back and also that they would eventually fix the existing problem and I could work around the problem until then, that to be honest hardly happened, maybe one in ten cold boots my Vertex would not get detected, restarts from windows was fine, and now that I have flashed to latest firmware for my new build its never happened.

But Sandforce controllers did hurt the reputation of OCz and Corsair and others who used this controller on their SSD's, they worked hard to fix it though, so now OCz have introduced Vertex 4 and they use a different controller than Sandforce, albeit slightly (not so you would notice) slower than Sandforce.

That's my experience on the hardware side, I'm sure you know not to defrag an SSD you can damage it doing that, the jury is still out on should you have a swap file on an SSD, we used to be worried about limited writes, but this is now looking like unfounded worrys, I'd happily put a swap file on a modern SSD ... Win 7 has TRIM support that makes up for lack of defrag BTW.

Thats the gist of it, if I can help more I will.

EDIT: and Igo is right, if you have the option to use AHCI in the bios, do that before installing Win 7 although you can enable it afterwards with a reg tweak or something.

[335th_GRAthos]

Thanks for the info guys so, avoid the Sandforce controllers and do not worry about multiple writes (pagefile).

Sounds good

Thanks


~S~

[Katana1000S]

Originally Posted by 335th_GRAthos

Thanks for the info guys so, avoid the Sandforce controllers and do not worry about multiple writes (pagefile).

Sounds good

Thanks


~S~

I'd not write off all sandforce controlled SSD's, the situation is pretty much under control now I think and afflicted drives can be remedied with a firmware flash, at least mine were.

But yeah, I always thought SSD's were always suited to notebooks and laptops especially, next to nothing power consumption and no moving parts for a mobile platform

In time I'll replace my new laptops HD with an SSD.

[335th_GRAthos]

Originally Posted by Katana1000S

I'd not write off all sandforce controlled SSD's, the situation is pretty much under control now I think and afflicted drives can be remedied with a firmware flash, at least mine were.

...........
In time I'll replace my new laptops HD with an SSD.

Good to know.
I was more concerned about the limitation of writes on the chip (especialy with WinXP). It seems it is not the problem.

I am still unsure. I already have a 40Gb SSD in one of the small notebooks I use when I travel but I find it too small. So, I end up always carrying my 1Gb MyPassport with me (and connecting it).
For the same money I would pay for a 120Gb SSD, I could install a 500Gb HDD inside = No more need to carry external HDDs.

Life is a b...

~S~

[Katana1000S]

Originally Posted by 335th_GRAthos

Good to know.
I was more concerned about the limitation of writes on the chip (especialy with WinXP). It seems it is not the problem.

I am still unsure. I already have a 40Gb SSD in one of the small notebooks I use when I travel but I find it too small. So, I end up always carrying my 1Gb MyPassport with me (and connecting it).
For the same money I would pay for a 120Gb SSD, I could install a 500Gb HDD inside = No more need to carry external HDDs.

Life is a b...

~S~

I know but SSD prices are falling rapidly, when I got my first Ocz Vertex 2 60 GB just over two years ago it was over £200, you can get a 120 GB Vertex 3 for just over £100, now, last year I thought I was mad buying a 240 GB Vertex 3 SSD just for FSX at just over £400 I think it was? now the same drive is about £280, the prices are coming down and before we know it nobody will be buying mechanical HD's anymore and we will look back fondly on them as we do on floppy drives, really big capacity SSD's prices are still hurting though, new Vertex Octane 1TB is £1963 here ... Ouch !!!, even the prices of 512MB SSD's need to come down more before I'll buy one, running out of space on my 240GB FSX SSD with photo scenery add ons.

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/ocz-o...-year-warranty

One things for sure though, SSD's lend themselves to Laptops and Notebooks very well, low power consumption while on battery's, and no moving parts.

[335th_GRAthos]

OK, some feedback:

I tried an OCZ 60GB SDD SATA with WinXP. I liked it, very light and very low power consumption but I was annoyed by the little free space.


Then I put in a 320Gb 7200rpm HDD, upgraded to 4Gb RAM and installed Win7-64bit and some 150Mb of Win7 specific notebook tools (the ones I had before were for WinXP).

Jesus, that is fast now!!!!! I will never say anything bad about Bill Gates again...LOL


So I will stick with the 320Gb HDD it has enough space for me (I also have a 600Gb 7200rpm HDD but I am too lazy to re-install).

I know, I should try now to install Win7-64 to the 60Gb SSD and see how the performance is but I am too lazy and, it is the hard disk space that was important for me so the 60Gb SSD would have been too small for the task anyways.


Summary: Win7-64bit it seems it does make a difference!


Thanks for all the advice Igo kyu and Katana!

~S~

[Stublerone]

Samsung 830 series is fast enough, a good buy for the money and Samsung has made a really good controller, which is even better than current sandforce, etc. drivers in "all-day-using".

Fast read-write perfomance on the box of a card is measured on generic tests/benchmarks, which do not happen in real life. In real-life usage, the Samsung are currently top edge! Top edge means not, that they are the best, but in current setups, currently used Sata, etc. Samsung did a great job.

I have mine for 4 months now and I am very happy, although I have an old mainboard, which only gives me SATA 300 speed. But in real-life usage, the SATA 600 sure gives u more performance, but in most situations, you are fast enough with SATA 300. I just said that, if someone has a SATA 300 as well (it is not so bad to have it plugged in SATA 300 until you get a new mainboard).

So, my recommeded SSD is currently the Samsung 830 series (256 GB i would say) with good controllers, which are currently forcing the other big brands to rework in their middle class range to reach the same! But nevertheless, nearly every SSD is fast enough, that u really feel it -> And u get some interesting and easy to handle programs/goodies for it like SSD Magican (easy tuning with all needed suggestions you can find in tutorials for a good SSD performance, easy cleaning, easy and good backup programs, etc.) So, all you need to get it managed easily.

[flyingblind]

Scan is doing a 120Gig Kingston SSD for £65.

http://www.scan.co.uk/shops/kingston...m_medium=email