SSD recommendations

[markadin]

As many others I am in the process of building a new computer. I don't have much knowledge of the different brands of SSDs. I would like at least a 120gig for $200 dollars or less. After searching though newegg I came across:


OCZ Agility 3 AGT3-25SAT3-120G 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) for 179.99.

Now this is in my price range and is the size I want. I have read mixed reviews on it however and I would like your guys opinions on OCZ and if there a good company. If anyone has a better recommendation for a different drive around my price range please let me know.

I would also like a good recommendation for a 650-750 watt power supply. There are so many companies with so many different ratings. I would prefer modular but I would like to keep it to or under $150.

Will be running a P8p67-Pro MB with a Intel 2500k processor and 16gigs of 1600 ram and a gtx 560 TI Hawk editon card.

Thanks for you help.

[Muya]

For a PSU, I'd go either HX or AX 750 from Corsair or a Seasonic X750. Solid build and good quality all around.

Corsair HX750

Corsair AX750

Seasonic X750

I usually try to go for at least a Silver rated 80+ Certified. Bronze rated are decent as well. Saves more money in the longer run.

As for the SSD: Crucial M4 128GB

A little more expensive than the Agility, but also is less likely to have problems. The Agility series for OCZ had some serious, big time issues and a lot of people tried to avoid getting them. I'm not sure if they have corrected the issue, but based on past problems...I'd be likely to avoid, at least, the Agility series from OCZ. OCZ apparently stepped up their game in the Vertex 3 series, but they're also more expensive.

Edit - If you want a cheaper 650, Seasonic X650. Still gold ranked and priced pretty decently. (And rated amazingly well. I'd check this one out if I was you)

Corsair HX650 down to a Bronze rating (also not fully Modular), but there is also an AX650 Gold.

Looking at the reviews for that Agility 3....wow. There's almost as many 1 eggs as there is 5. And the responses from the company for the bad reviews are sparse and say nothing more than to call the number they list in the message.

[jonny888]

I tried using an Agility 3. The first one I ordered failed out of th ebox. RMa'd it. The replacement lasted an hour and then also failed.

[markadin]

Thanks for the quick reply. Yea the Agility has some really bad reviews but there are so many good ones too. THe cruicial does look amazing but ill wait and see what others have to say.

As far as the PSU's go whats the difference between the HX and the AX modal?

Corsair HX750

Corsair AX750

The seasonic x650 does look like the best bang for the buck though.

[Asmekiel]

Thanks for the quick reply. Yea the Agility has some really bad reviews but there are so many good ones too. THe cruicial does look amazing but ill wait and see what others have to say.

As far as the PSU's go whats the difference between the HX and the AX modal?

Corsair HX750

Corsair AX750

The seasonic x650 does look like the best bang for the buck though.

The HX750 isn't fully modular, whereas the AX750 is. And the AX series is 80+ Gold, where the HX series is only 80+ Silver.
The Corsair AX650 / Seasonix X 650 and the AX750 / X750 are the same PSU's, Corsair rebranded it.
650W is more than enough, if you plan on SLI though, get 750W.
If you can find the Seasonic X660, get that one. It's an upgraded X650. (newegg doesn't have the X660 though..)

[Muya]

The AX series was basically built by Seasonic with a few very minor adjustments and tweaks. I'm not quite sure about the HX series. But, if you can, avoid the TX series. Apparently that series was pretty bad.

Also, from what I've heard the HX 750 is actually above the Gold standard in quite a few places, but was labeled as a Silver because of some other discrepancy.

I was mainly looking into that HX 750 and the AX series when I built my unit. I have an AX 850 and have had absolutely 0 issues with it. Wonderful piece of equipment. And since Seasonic built it, I would guess their PSU equivalents would be just as amazing.

Edit - And like Asmekial mentioned, the HX750 isn't fully modular. But in all honesty....is that such a bad thing? >.> The only non-modular cables are the motherboard and CPU power cables. The 2 you NEED to power your system...no matter what.

[Asmekiel]

The AX series was basically built by Seasonic with a few very minor adjustments and tweaks. I'm not quite sure about the HX series. But, if you can, avoid the TX series. Apparently that series was pretty bad.

Also, from what I've heard the HX 750 is actually above the Gold standard in quite a few places, but was labeled as a Silver because of some other discrepancy.

I was mainly looking into that HX 750 and the AX series when I built my unit. I have an AX 850 and have had absolutely 0 issues with it. Wonderful piece of equipment. And since Seasonic built it, I would guess their PSU equivalents would be just as amazing.

Edit - And like Asmekial mentioned, the HX750 isn't fully modular. But in all honesty....is that such a bad thing? >.> The only non-modular cables are the motherboard and CPU power cables. The 2 you NEED to power your system...no matter what.

If you PSU fails, you can unplug the cables from the PSU and leave those connected to the motherboard while taking the PSU out

[Muya]

If you PSU fails, you can unplug the cables from the PSU and leave those connected to the motherboard while taking the PSU out

I guess that's true. Less work with cable management again in the future.

Edit - Looking at a majority of the Crucial complaints, almost none of them mention updating firmware to current levels. That's probably why they experienced problems to begin with.

[chaud]

The TX series is good, just not modular or as efficient as its more expensive brothers.

[Muya]

Then which of the series was said to be not as advertised? It was due to mislabels and false information on the actual PSU/PSU values. I could have sworn that was the TX line.

[Deleted]

Bought laptop with Corsair Force Series 3 120GB, Windows 7 boot time ~14 seconds =)

[Wries]

Then which of the series was said to be not as advertised? It was due to mislabels and false information on the actual PSU/PSU values. I could have sworn that was the TX line.

Found a thread by Phaedrus2129 at overclock.net on the CX 430W so I'm guessing the CX line or specific models in that line.

Bought laptop with Corsair Force Series 3 120GB, Windows 7 boot time ~14 seconds =)

Yeah even including POST on my laptop (with Intel x25-M SSD), it gets up the login screen in just under 14 seconds. Unfortunately things are not as fast on my SSD-equipped desktop. POST is way longer but it also halts for a while when loading drivers. But when it requests stuff from the drive, it goes fast!

[Muya]

That's only for 1 PSU though. Maybe that's what I was thinking though. But here is an in-depth post by the same guy.

http://www.overclock.net/power-suppl...sair-psus.html

He says "The Corsair TX750W and TX850W have an issue with high electrical noise and ripple on the +12V rail when working at full load."

Maybe that was where I thought of it. Granted, you won't reach full load doing anything like gaming, even if running 2 cards in SLI/Xfire.

[Deleted]

Bought laptop with Corsair Force Series 3 120GB, Windows 7 boot time ~14 seconds =)

Contrary to popular belief the boot time is quite reliant on efficient BIOS. There's actually IBM whitepapers outlining how modern BIOS has become massively bloated having to support far more advance hardware than it was initially designed for, hence why OEMs in particular are moving away from the BIOS model. But I digress :P

[chaud]

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php...tory5&reid=230

It's not the best I've ever tackled in terms of ripple suppression, but it's well above average. Regulation isn't the best I've ever seen, but it's again well above average. Efficiency easily passed Bronze

The TX V1 is outdated, TX V2 is what is for sale now.

[Kisko]

I can't recommend buying OCZ drives or any SandForce/Indilinx based drives for that matter.
Their failure rate is considerably higher (~15%) than for drives based on Intel/Micron controllers (~5%).
Unless you want to risk your drive BSODing every day, keep away from OCZ.

The best choice in the market today are Crucial M4 and Intel 510.

As for PSU, choice #1 is always SeaSonic. Choice #2 is Corsair (made by SeaSonic).

[DeltrusDisc]

The AX series was basically built by Seasonic with a few very minor adjustments and tweaks. I'm not quite sure about the HX series. But, if you can, avoid the TX series. Apparently that series was pretty bad.

Also, from what I've heard the HX 750 is actually above the Gold standard in quite a few places, but was labeled as a Silver because of some other discrepancy.

I was mainly looking into that HX 750 and the AX series when I built my unit. I have an AX 850 and have had absolutely 0 issues with it. Wonderful piece of equipment. And since Seasonic built it, I would guess their PSU equivalents would be just as amazing.

Edit - And like Asmekial mentioned, the HX750 isn't fully modular. But in all honesty....is that such a bad thing? >.> The only non-modular cables are the motherboard and CPU power cables. The 2 you NEED to power your system...no matter what.

Never have heard of the TX series being bad. I've had one in my computer for a couple years and 0 issues. It's the 1st version, a TX 650. It works perfectly, never any problems. If anything, the only PSUs I've heard having issues from Corsair were some in the HX lineup, and VX and CX....

@OP: I had an OCZ Agility 3 120GB SSD.... it gave me nightmares. I had it for one week, it was freezing, lagging, sometimes not booting up properly... overall a terrible SSD. I then got the Crucial m4 128GB and 0 problems! Don't screw around with OCZ, they were once great, however they've gone off the deep-end of ego if you ask me.

---------- Post added 2011-09-09 at 12:41 AM ----------

I guess that's true. Less work with cable management again in the future.

Edit - Looking at a majority of the Crucial complaints, almost none of them mention updating firmware to current levels. That's probably why they experienced problems to begin with.

Yeah I have not updated firmware, but no issues yet. Hopefully I got lucky! :P I'm terrified of firmware updates because typically it's not good if you have the OS on it or something. x_x

[moguri]

The best choice in the market today are Crucial M4 and Intel 510.

agree 100%

[Muya]

Never have heard of the TX series being bad. I've had one in my computer for a couple years and 0 issues. It's the 1st version, a TX 650. It works perfectly, never any problems. If anything, the only PSUs I've heard having issues from Corsair were some in the HX lineup, and VX and CX....

Yeah I have not updated firmware, but no issues yet. Hopefully I got lucky! :P I'm terrified of firmware updates because typically it's not good if you have the OS on it or something. x_x

See, I had a VX series and had no issues with it as well. And I know a friend who also used a VX series and didn't have any issues. Most of what the link I posted above chaud shows reviews posted by someone on oc.net with the various companies. Like he said, some problems will always exist, nothing is 100% perfect.

And yea, you might be lucky. As far as I remember they only actually updated firmware 2 weeks ago or so, so most of their recently shipped drives should have it.

I've been looking at the 256 Crucial M4 and it has no eggs below a 3....and the 2 3 egg reviews are due to buyer incompetence. One was complaining that read/write speeds weren't performing up to standards in a SATA II slot....no kidding. The posted numbers are for SATA III.

The other was a person was mad TRIM support and other automatic cleaning features didn't work with Linux......I saw that and immediately facepalmed.

[McFrotton]

PSU: Antec earthwatt 650w 80+bronze certified

Got it in my computer 3 days ago good power good price, and good reviews + 2 satisfied friend that got the same 2-3 month ago