Any SSD worth getting for < R1500

SSD looks like a good idea, but it's a long way from offering decent capacity for a reasonable price.

cbrunsdonza said:
Does anybody recommend hybrid SSD/HDD drives?
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I was considering one of these. Only review I've read found them to be barely faster than a normal hard drive. Basically don't bother unless you're getting the drive for about the same price as a normal drive.

I've seen nearly every laptop in the office having a HDD failure within 2yrs
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These people obviously abuse their laptops. It means they're throwing them around while the drive is spinning which is pretty easy to avoid. But then people tend not to look after company equipment.

Libertas Computers said:
The HDD is also 7200RPM which is not very often used in laptops
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These days its becoming common.
 
As mentioned, I only want to put some data on it which I will use every now and then, for accessing lots of small files. Wasn't thinking of replacing my primary drive with it.

Unfortunately I don't have a eSATA port - I have an ASUS N53S notebook with one USB 3.0 port. Originally I thought of getting this: http://www.nivo.co.za/#buy~adata.nobility.n004.64gb.dual.interface.solid.state.drive.ssd.~p25855

But it is a bit expensive for a 64GB, although at least you get the USB 3.0 controller built-in (so no slow USB 3.0 -> Sata enclosure). Had a look at some of the USB 3.0 flash drives, but they seem rather excessive - either too slow or way too expensive. I'm not bothered by size (would prefer not to have external power, though).

The OCZ looks good! (http://rebeltech.co.za/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=70_72&products_id=8223). Any suggestion for a suitable USB3.0 enclosure to pair it up with?
 
@killadoob: Yup

ebendl said:
Thing is, I have a notebook and only need about 30GB of storage for these files, so I thought of getting a USB 3.0 enclosure to use with the SSD (the laptop has one USB 3.0 port).
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I don't need the additional speed most of the time with my notebook, and can't really downgrade in terms of the size I currently have (640 GB drive inside the machine).
 
killadoob said:
Surely usb 3 kills the ssd speed?
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USB 3.0 has 5 Gbits/s capacity, so in theory more than the speed provided by the SSD. Obviously I know I won't get the massive speeds I get when connecting it by pure, internal SATA, but as explained, I don't want to replace my current HD with a pure SSD drive. I only want 30 GB storage at faster speed than what my internal HD can do - especially when accessing random files.

Here's a review of the AData Nobility N004 64 dual interface, when connected by SATA and USB. The USB 3.0 port comes very close (obviously not the speediest SSD around). http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=5876&p=2

EDIT: By comparison, running CrystalDiskMark on my HD gives me:
4K 0.367 Read 0.777 Write
4K QD32 0.891 Read and 0.716 Write

The Adata - even running USB 3.0,gives

4K 21.72 Read 8.165 Write
4K QD32 23.01 Read and 8.088 Write

So MASSIVE improvements!
 
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Yeah, the latency is another thing to look at though - not just throughput speeds. The USB controller introduces a lot of latency, which is another strength of SSD's. One possilbe option is to replace the optical drive with an SSD, but that only works if it's a SATA DVD.

Or, put the SSD in the laptop, and have the 640gb in a USB 3.0 enclosure.
 
Well the thing that makes a ssd so quick is the seek time, stick it in a usb 3 enclosure and that is all but gone.
 
killadoob said:
Well the thing that makes a ssd so quick is the seek time, stick it in a usb 3 enclosure and that is all but gone.
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That's what I am afraid of. Have you ever done this? Do you think it would be better to rather get an SSD designed for USB 3.0 - like the Adata?

From what I can see in terms of throughput, USB 3.0 provides plenty of capacity - for example this: http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/3...ance_versus_usb_2_0_esata_and_more/index.html

What's a good measure to look at for seek time (or reading/writing thousands of small files after each other) when reading reviews?
 
Wow the seek time is spot on then. Very fast :eek:. Seems fine to do what you are thinking of doing i think anyhow :D
 
I got the Adata Nobility N004 this weekend. While it isn't as fast as an internal SSD drive, it beats the pants off my internal SATA disk! Very chuffed so far. Seeing huge improvement in the application I use for stock analysis when running the DB off the SSD over USB 3.
 
I'm loving my G.Skill phoenix pro... :P also use it for programming etc...

I used my old desktop with 7200rpm hdd again the other day.... my my, it felt like I'd gone back to some win95 or so machine :p There's no going back now
 
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