Choosing an SSD

[joncoh101]

Hey guys I am building my new pc and want to know when it comes to solid states, the price varies so much. I initially wanted to get a 64gb just for a few games but mainly for my OS. So iv looked around and came across the Transcend SSD340 128gb which is only R834 from Take Alot.

But then for a crucial M550 128gb its R1219, from what I have gathered they are both MLC drives.

Will I be burning my fingers If I go for the Transcend? Why is it so cheap? What do you guys recommend?

 

[Exaelea]

The type of controller and the read/write speeds is what makes the prices so different. Some ssd's have extra nand chips to replace those that go faulty, making them more expensive too. IOPS (Input/Output Operations Per Second) is also quite different between models, more = better = $$$

The other price factor is power consumption too, the lower power ones in idle tend to be slightly more too.

64GB wont give you much space, OS install and one 20gb game if you dont load too many apps too. Better get a 128gb.

 

[Chevron]

Hey guys I am building my new pc and want to know when it comes to solid states, the price varies so much. I initially wanted to get a 64gb just for a few games but mainly for my OS. So iv looked around and came across the Transcend SSD340 128gb which is only R834 from Take Alot.

But then for a crucial M550 128gb its R1219, from what I have gathered they are both MLC drives.

Will I be burning my fingers If I go for the Transcend? Why is it so cheap? What do you guys recommend?

Take the crucial.

 

[Crowley]

Look around for the Samsung EVO drives. I have only read good reviews on them and we've installed almost a hundred now with no problems.

http://store.orange.com/za/samsung-...heck&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=PriceCheckZA

 

[JerryMungo]

Hey guys I am building my new pc and want to know when it comes to solid states, the price varies so much. I initially wanted to get a 64gb just for a few games but mainly for my OS. So iv looked around and came across the Transcend SSD340 128gb which is only R834 from Take Alot.

But then for a crucial M550 128gb its R1219, from what I have gathered they are both MLC drives.

Will I be burning my fingers If I go for the Transcend? Why is it so cheap? What do you guys recommend?

I just bought a Corsair Neutron GTX and am not disappointed
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6428/corsair-neutron-neutron-gtx-all-capacities-tested

 

[bruce_the_loon]

Have a read of this, http://techreport.com/review/26523/the-ssd-endurance-experiment-casualties-on-the-way-to-a-petabyte, they haven't finished the testing yet, but they are well beyond reasonable usage levels already.

 

[JerryMungo]

Have a read of this, http://techreport.com/review/26523/the-ssd-endurance-experiment-casualties-on-the-way-to-a-petabyte, they haven't finished the testing yet, but they are well beyond reasonable usage levels already.

Most useful article on SSD's I've read in a long time, thanks!

 

[CataclysmZA]

Have a read of this, http://techreport.com/review/26523/the-ssd-endurance-experiment-casualties-on-the-way-to-a-petabyte, they haven't finished the testing yet, but they are well beyond reasonable usage levels already.

Most useful article on SSD's I've read in a long time, thanks!

Kingston's compressible algorithms continue to impress me. I'm betting on it winning the longevity stakes. Its quite odd how the petabyte club ended up - three different controllers, three different types of flash, all on custom firmware. There doesn't seem to be a baseline yet.

 

[SYNERGY]

I would go with the Crucial, running one for the past 2 years I think...

 

[JerryMungo]

Kingston's compressible algorithms continue to impress me. I'm betting on it winning the longevity stakes. Its quite odd how the petabyte club ended up - three different controllers, three different types of flash, all on custom firmware. There doesn't seem to be a baseline yet.

Good point!
The q for me is... how reproducible would the experiment be? Electronics have a way of being fickle.

 

[Electric]

Go to Carbonite and buy yourself a 256gb Liteon for R1300.
I have no complaints at all.

 

[WiseCrack]

Samsung EVO.

I also had a 256GB Crucial M4 which never gave me any problems ,but I I bought the 500GB Samsung EVO and the software that Samsung bundled with this drive is excellent. Cloned my 256GB SSD in minutes and upgrading firmware etc is effortless.

 

[CamiKaze]

I suggest you go for 4 32GB ssds and put it in Raid0 mode.

I am still deciding if I should go this way, or for a mini PCI-E ssd.

 

[JerryMungo]

I suggest you go for 4 32GB ssds and put it in Raid0 mode.

I am still deciding if I should go this way, or for a mini PCI-E ssd.

It depends on how much slower / faster the different models are, see here (for example)
http://www.sandisk.com/products/ssd/sata/

4x32Gb in RAID may or may not be faster than 1x128Gb in reality.

 

[sand_man]

Go to Carbonite and buy yourself a 256gb Liteon for R1300.
I have no complaints at all.

+1!!! bargains to be had over there!! Just got a Samsung 840 pro 256gb for R1650 including delivery...

 

[Electric]

+1!!! bargains to be had over there!! Just got a Samsung 840 pro 256gb for R1650 including delivery...

Also to the OP, I am not referring to a 2nd hand item.
Brand new OEM ssd still in it's sealed packaging.

 

[CataclysmZA]

I suggest you go for 4 32GB ssds and put it in Raid0 mode.

I am still deciding if I should go this way, or for a mini PCI-E ssd.

This isn't a very good idea. You're not saving a lot because you're mostly paying for the controller at that point and the amount of dies that'll be on the PCB won't be enough to saturate all the channels, dropping read and write speeds tremendously and decreasing performance as queue depths increase.

It's much simpler to buy a single 128GB Crucial M550 or Corsair LX100 or Samsung 840 Evo. That way you'll have read speeds that can reasonably get over 500MB/s and write speeds over 300MB/s that will be better than four RAIDed 32GB drives.

If you were already considering PCI-E storage and you STILL wrote that 32GB RAID0 SSD's are a good idea, then I suspect you're just taking the mickey out of OP.