SSD Drive Buy

[People$champ]

Hi everyone I'm in need of some on hands advise regarding sdd drives I have read reviews hole week but can not make up mind as to which drive to buy what is really the deciding factor for a sdd is it the transfer speed the integrity of the drive to hold the data or the lifespan and the chipset? What makes a sdd really good? there are a few makes I looked at OCZ , Corsair , and Adata I'm just interested in the 120 gig sizes.

Which drive will be the best value for money?

[abandonallhope]

From my relatively in depth research : for best value for money it needs to have a sandforce SF-2281 controller and it should have synchronous NAND flash.

If it has asynchronous NAND flash the drive will be significantly cheaper, and to be very honest you are still gonna have a rather fast disk/drive , but it will suffer heavily in some scenarios, mainly when handling incompressible data.

I've got my eye on a OCZ vertex 3 drive because they seem to be significantly cheaper than the other brand's comparable models, and from everything I read I understand that basically all of the issues the sandforce controller had, have been sorted out.

[Subscript]

I've been checking the net recently, I'm eyeing out the Corsair Force GT, the other option that is on par (if not, slightly better) is the OCZ Vertex 3 Max IOPS.
From what I've seen, the price of the Corsair is a lot cheaper than the OCZ (R550 cheaper), however I haven't checked all over for prices.

[People$champ]

I also read the reviews and most go for the OCZ vertex 3 what is the difference between the Agility and vertex really specs are rather identical . I think price will be a deciding factor in the end as some drives are almost 2500 for the same size yet I don't no the justification for the big jump over the OCZ and Corsair

[Subscript]

Some comparison charts

Corsair Force GT vs OCZ Vertex 3 Max IOPS

OCZ Agility 3 vs OCZ Vertex 3 Max IOPS

More Charts, easier to read than above

[Reaper84]

They can't compare an agility 3 with a vertex 3 max iops. That's like comparing a Jetta with a Porsche.

The agility 3 for the price is a very good drive and will make you more than happy. I was against SF drives for a while but they have released firmware that sort out the issues and I took the plunge and got an agility 3 on the weekend. It rocks

That being said, what is your budget for the ssd? If you can afford it then the Plextor m3 or Corsair Performance Pro are the better drives on the market and put OCZ to shame. But in real world use, you will never notice the difference.

Esquire has some crazy prices on the OCZ drives at the moment if you can find stock

[People$champ]

Reaper I think you made the point that one wont see the difference in real world so when will you see the difference to justify the big jump in price over the OCZ drives ? Maybe I can decide better before taking the plunge for those pricey ones

[Reaper84]

I think the pricey ones are great if you can afford them and want a good drive.

The agility 3 is just as good in real world use and is dirt cheap. I am very happy with it. The more I use it the more I just want to smile. I will never go back to booting from a mechanical drive again.

If you can get the agility 3 now, then go for it

PS the drives from Esquire don't come with the 3.5" adapter which is not a train smash but something to consider. I can confirm they come with the latest firmware 2.15

[Yuu]

100% agree wit Reaper84 here. I say go for the Agility 3 120GB OCZ drive.

We just upgraded to a 240GB Vertex 3 and even though its running on a SATA 2 interface (3GB/s port) it is lightning fast. Trasnfrring files to and from internal drives average about 100MB/s if not more.

If possible, why not head over to your local iT stores and check if they have systems with an SSD installed, this is one of the ways to help convince yourself and kick yourself too for not making the change quicker hehe.

As weird as it may seem, i think because of the Thailand floods, SSD sales have skyrocketed...its the best upgrade decision anyone can make.

[People$champ]

Thanks for the info I think I'll be going for the OCZ vertex 3 rather than the pricey ones the upgrade is for my MBP so need for a bracket.The extra saving can be used for a nice 8 ram gig upgrade rather.

My other question is how does a ssd compare with lifespan to the traditional drives as I use to read about in degrading performance over short time

[bradrap]

If your mobo only supports SATA2 I believe the Agility to be more than adequate, however if you have a SATA3 board or plan on upgrading within the next year, Vertex 3 will smash the Agility at higher read/write.

[abandonallhope]

If your mobo only supports SATA2 I believe the Agility to be more than adequate, however if you have a SATA3 board or plan on upgrading within the next year, Vertex 3 will smash the Agility at higher read/write.

Only in some scenarios, even in sata3.

[Reaper84]

If by smash you mean barely and only in benchmarks then yes, it will smash. If its going to be for a MBP then the agility would be more than fine and you will never see the difference in the Vertex. If they are similar in price then its a different matter.

If anyone is still using a normal HDD and reading this then shame on you, just go out right now and get an ssd. Biggest upgrade I have ever done and makes the biggest difference in daily use of a machine.

Don't worry about drive health to much unless you are doing crazy writes to it everyday. I'm sure it will outlive the MBP

[People$champ]

Thanks just got me the vertex 3 now will install it and see how it runs

Dont know if you guys saw but the vertex 3 is now cheaper than the agility.

[Reaper84]

Where?

For all those installing an SSD on Windows. Have a look at this guide. Did it with my ssd install and it is excellent.