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  1. #1
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    Which SSD should I buy?

    I'm looking to buy a SSD for my notebook. The desired price range is around $100 and I want at least 128GB drive. Which one do you recommend?

    It isn't necessary to get a top tier drive, I'm looking for something with relatively good price/performance ratio, good support (firmware upgrades, etc) and of course reliable. Cheaper ones are also welcome.

    So far, I've stopped on these few drives, but I'm open to suggestions for other alternatives.
    -Crucial M4
    -OCZ Vertex 4
    -OCZ Agility 4
    -ADATA SX900
    -Samsung 840 (although TLC is fairly unreliable, incredibly shortened life)

    Thank you in advance.

  2. #2
    Herald of the Titans Saithes's Avatar
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    I have 2 OCZ Vertex 4's in RAID 0 and I love them.

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  4. #4
    The Unstoppable Force DeltrusDisc's Avatar
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    I personally love my Crucial m4, but I also personally suggest the Samsung 830!
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  5. #5
    If I were to buy an SSD tomorrow, it would be a 256GB Samsung 840 Pro.

  6. #6
    Stood in the Fire Krimzin's Avatar
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    I personally like OCZ
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  7. #7
    Moderator chazus's Avatar
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    -Crucial M4
    -OCZ Vertex 4
    -Samsung 840
    Yes

    -OCZ Agility 4
    -ADATA SX900
    No

    -Samsung 840 (although TLC is fairly unreliable, incredibly shortened life)
    Utterly Mostly false information. They aren't unreliable, and their life is not any 'shorter'. That's like saying your car will only last as long as it's first set of tires do.

  8. #8
    Herald of the Titans Saithes's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by chazus View Post
    Yes


    No


    Utterly Mostly false information. They aren't unreliable, and their life is not any 'shorter'. That's like saying your car will only last as long as it's first set of tires do.
    Actually yes, TLC does have a lower lifespan in comparison to MLC. TLC can only handle about 1/2 the amount of writes in its lifespan as MLC.

    A nice read on the capabilities of NAND types:
    http://www.centon.com/flash-products/chiptype

    Specifically the "Lower endurance limit than MLC and SLC" and "5,000 program/erase cycles per cell" compared to MLC's "10,000 program/erase cycles per cell"
    Last edited by Saithes; 2013-02-04 at 01:51 AM.

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    Moderator chazus's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Saithes View Post
    Actually yes, TLC does have a lower lifespan in comparison to MLC. TLC can only handle about 1/3rd the amount of writes in its lifespan as MLC.
    Yeah, it has a shorter lifespan... which is really only relevant if you write like 10gb a day, every day, for like.... 10 years. Which makes the entire statement moot unless you really, really, really think you'll do that much drive writing every day for that long on the same drive.

    For real world practices, TLC is no worse off than MLC.

  10. #10
    It will last half as long...still means writing something like 300TB of data for it to go read-only. I've been using PCs for 15 years and doubt I've written a tenth of that in those years.
    Last edited by Butler to Baby Sloths; 2013-02-04 at 01:56 AM.

  11. #11
    Moderator chazus's Avatar
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    Every review I've read shows that it has about 1/3 or 1/2, depending on who you ask. Regardless of those, 256gb MLC's last about 70 years @ 10gb/day. 256gb TLC's last about 24 years @ 10gb/day. The drive will die from simple electrical wear and tear before it dies from write burnout.

  12. #12
    Legendary! llDemonll's Avatar
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    Why no Intel SSD's? No Samsung 830? No Samsung 840 Pro?
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    Moderator chazus's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by llDemonll View Post
    Why no Intel SSD's?
    I don't have experience with them, and they're often lower on benchmarks for the same price, except the 520
    No Samsung 830?
    Can you find 256gb again? I stopped recommending them because you simply couldn't -get- one.
    No Samsung 840 Pro?
    Too expensive for the performance. It wasn't worth the extra $40. They're good, but not worth it when that money can be spent on something else, like a nicer GPU

    When it comes to SSD's, my philosophy is Brand > Price > Model. Brand ensures you have a good one. Price is obvious. Model, once you decide you get an SSD that's from a good brand.... really doesn't matter much. Yes, the 840 Pro (in this case) is faster than the 840 or 830... But 90% of the difference in the system upgrade is going from HDD to SSD. It's really no different with i5 and i7 (almost). The performance benefit is just not noticable outside of benchmarks.
    Last edited by chazus; 2013-02-04 at 02:14 AM.

  14. #14
    With extreme torture testing of the Samsung 840 it took them 52 days to break the drive.

    http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...=1#post5163560

    Samsung 840 - FINAL REPORT - DEAD - As of Day 52

    Drive Hours: 1235
    ASU GiB Written (APPROX): 443,309.73 (432.92 TiB)
    Avg MB/s (APPROX): 101.10
    I would say that is pretty decent and well enough for most home users.

    The 830 was a beast though.
    Samsung 830 256GB Day 261

    (GiB) 6,488,443
    (TiB) 6,336
    (PiB) 6.22


    (Avg) 298.66 MB/s over the past 3400+ hours
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  15. #15
    The Unstoppable Force DeltrusDisc's Avatar
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    Holy crap, n0cturnal! Do they have anything on the Crucial m4?
    "A flower.
    Yes. Upon your return, I will gift you a beautiful flower."

    "Remember. Remember... that we once lived..."

    Quote Originally Posted by mmocd061d7bab8 View Post
    yeh but lava is just very hot water

  16. #16
    Herald of the Titans Saithes's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by chazus View Post
    Can you find 256gb again? I stopped recommending them because you simply couldn't -get- one.
    http://www.amazon.com/SAMSUNG-2-5-In...sung+830+256gb

  17. #17
    Moderator chazus's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by DeltrusDisc View Post
    Holy crap, n0cturnal! Do they have anything on the Crucial m4?
    I'm under the impression that actual NAND manufacturers (Crucial, Samsung, Intel... I -think- OCZ might have just bought one?) likely have better MTBF/WLC, and not only that but their WLC is quite conservative at that. I think the idea is that when WLC hits 0, it's time to replace the drive. It will function for some time still, but that time becomes a mystery. It could be tomorrow, it could be years, but that's the safest range. It's almost like a sort of soft warranty.

  18. #18
    Quote Originally Posted by DeltrusDisc View Post
    Holy crap, n0cturnal! Do they have anything on the Crucial m4?
    M4 64GB
    m4
    2156.4621 TiB
    9128 hours
    Avg speed 39.56 MiB/s.
    Not dead yet but pretty close.
    http://www.diskusjon.no/index.php?ap...tach_id=512234
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  19. #19
    Moderator chazus's Avatar
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    Well neat. I'll start recommending them again, as long as they stay competitive with the 840 prices. That particular one is too expensive, but poking around I found a $190 one which is about the same as the 840. Personally, I don't feel on a $200 drive, that spending $20 more is worth the performance that is, for all intents and purposes, unnoticeable.

  20. #20
    Deleted
    Quote Originally Posted by Butler Log View Post
    Samsung 830?
    The 830 is kinda hard to find in my country as it has been discontinued. There are few places that I could get it from, but what makes it better than Vertex 4 or M4?

    Quote Originally Posted by chazus View Post
    Every review I've read shows that it has about 1/3 or 1/2, depending on who you ask. Regardless of those, 256gb MLC's last about 70 years @ 10gb/day. 256gb TLC's last about 24 years @ 10gb/day. The drive will die from simple electrical wear and tear before it dies from write burnout.
    According to THIS review:
    -MLC's lifespan with 10GB/day write is 10.5 years for 128GB and 21 years for 256GB
    -TLC's lifespan with 10GB/day is respectively 3.5 years and 7 years.

    Sure, you might argue that this is too much write per day, but note that the following cause a lot of writes on the partition:
    -the internet browsers constantly write on the HDD because of their caching feature
    -OS makes temporary files basically all the time
    -chat programs keep logs
    -occasional updates
    -windows' swap file (pagefile.sys) and hibernation file; Linux's swap partition
    -random downloads
    -heavy programs' cache files, i.e. Photoshop's Scratch Disk feature

    Of course, you could limit these writes by moving the files to a hard drive, but this will impact the performance, though.


    Anyway, I'm looking for 128, not 256 gigs SSD and I need a reliable one. I don't think that 840 is comparable with 840 Pro and the rest mainly because of its shortened lifespan. Most likely getting either 830, M4 or V4, please help me decide which one

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