Finally deciding to get a SSD hard drive

Nemix · 12 Dec 2010

So I've finally decided to jump in the SSD bandwagon and panning on getting a Kingston SSDNow V100 64GB hard drive 64GB for my OS and applications. Games and storage data will be on my 2 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12's in RAID 0.

From reviews, the SSDNow V100 reads an average of 250mb/s and writes at 120mb/s with a 0.5ms access time. I'm expecting a big performance boost from my current 7200.12's in RAID 0 that only does 170mb/s read and 170mb/s write with a 14ms access time.

All thought welcome,

Beginning · 12 Dec 2010

Yes... I to have taken the next step and ordered an SSD. Newegg.ca - Crucial RealSSD C300 CTFDDAC064MAG-1G1 2.5" 64GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD):) There are so many to choose from I guess it just gets down to trial and error.. :) I hope mine won't be an error. I'm so looking forward to a fast boot up, fast program loading, and a nice WEI. :)

Nemix · 12 Dec 2010

The Crucial RealSSD C300 is my second choice. It has an amazing read speed average of 350mb/s paired with a SATA-600 controller and the same reads speeds as the Kingston SSDNow V100 @ 250mb/s paired with a SATA-300 controller.

The only thing that I do not like about the Crucial is it's write speed of 80mb/s which is spot on from reviews regardless if you use a SATA-300 or SATA-600 controller. For an OS drive I think the write speeds are just as important as the read speeds.

I don't have SATA-600 onboard my motherboard so that would cost me extra plus the Crucial is a bit more expensive than the Kingston here in Canada. Thus, I'm leaning more towards Kingston but Crucial is a great choice.

However, I think the Crucial drive is more reliable than Kingston drive reading from reviews and Crucial has great support with frequent firmware updates for the C300.

whs · 12 Dec 2010

You want to focus on access time. Good SSDs have 0.1ms. The Kingston at 0.5ms would not be my first choice. Read/write speeds are of lesser importance because the system does not read or write big chunks of data - except maybe when you install a big program.

My first choice is the OCZ Vertex or the Crucial C300. And I have bought all mine from NewEgg who always treated me well.

PS: this is a good deal at $110 after MIR and sufficient for the OS http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-528-_-Product

Nemix · 12 Dec 2010

My bad,

The Kingston has an access time of 0.3ms but truth be told any access time under 7ms is already noticeably better on performing daily task plus multitasking when compared to normal desktop drives.

I remember when I got my first 10,000rpm 74GB Raptop, I paid $300 for 74GB back then but man was it worth it. Correct me if I'm wrong, the 74GB Raptop had an access time of 7ms and when compared to my old Hitachi Deskstar at the time the difference was like night and 2x day.

Thanks for input, I'll look into the OCZ. Looks like the OCZ may cost more than the Kingston and Crucial here in Canada.

Beginning · 13 Dec 2010

Well time will tell I guess, :) It's been ordered so I can't change my mind.

Live and learn. :)

Nemix · 13 Dec 2010

@ Beginning

Hopefully the Crucial drive arrive undamaged for you, regardless of the read/write speeds you''ll still see and feel a big performance boost from you current drive assuming that is not an SSD hard drive you have currently.

@ whs

The OCZ Vertex 2 50GB costs almost double the price of a Kingston SSDNow V100 64GB here in Canada: $100 vs $170. I think I'm better off grabbing one Kingston for now and when I need or want a bit more performance and disk space I'll grab a second Kingston and put them in RAID 0 for basically the same amount of money if I were to grab one OCZ Vertex 2 50GB right now.

Choices and options right now:

Kingston / Kingston (RAID 0) / OCZ / Crucial
$100 / $200 / $170 / $140 (SATA-600 Controller $20)
64GB / 128GB / 50GB / 64GB
250mb/s / 400mb/s / 250mb/s / 250mb/s (350mb/s) read
120mb/s / 200mb/s / 250mb/s / 80mb/s write
0.3ms / 0.2ms / 0.1ms / 0.1ms access time

Current setup:

Seagate 2 x 7200.12 500GB RAID 0 (1TB), 170mb/s read/write, 14ms access time

spinifex · 13 Dec 2010

I have taken the leap into ssd also. When i get home, i'll be setting up 2 x OCZ vertex in raid 0.
Interesting to read about the sata 600 controller. Need to check it out before the handbrake puts the OS onto it.
Do mobo's have them or are they an after market item??
Got an Asus Rampage III Extreme.

jimbo45 · 13 Dec 2010

Nemix77 said:

The Crucial RealSSD C300 is my second choice. It has an amazing read speed average of 350mb/s paired with a SATA-600 controller and the same reads speeds as the Kingston SSDNow V100 @ 250mb/s paired with a SATA-300 controller.

The only thing that I do not like about the Crucial is it's write speed of 80mb/s which is spot on from reviews regardless if you use a SATA-300 or SATA-600 controller. For an OS drive I think the write speeds are just as important as the read speeds.

I don't have SATA-600 onboard my motherboard so that would cost me extra plus the Crucial is a bit more expensive than the Kingston here in Canada. Thus, I'm leaning more towards Kingston but Crucial is a great choice.

However, I think the Crucial drive is more reliable than Kingston drive reading from reviews and Crucial has great support with frequent firmware updates for the C300.

Hi there
provided you have enough RAM in your system the OS actually doesn't need to do a huge nuber of WRITES -- paging data is probably the most important and significant in OS Writes -- insufficient RAM or running too many applications at once will significantly increase the load on this data set.

Applications are another matter of course such as Photoshop. It would also be a good idea to allocate at least one Photoshop Scratch data to the SSD as well if you have Photoshop.

Things like Office / Word / EXCEL don't really need SSD performance but you will certainly notice a huge improvement in application start up time and when you save a document.

Cheers
jimbo

Nemix · 13 Dec 2010

@ spinifex

The Asus Rampage III motherboard you have has onboard SATA-600 and USB 3.0. I don't know if the OCZ Vertex 2 would benefit from SATA-600 as it is a native SATA-300 SSD hard drive unlike the Crucial C300 which is native SATA-600 but backards compatible with SATA-300/150. My motherboard does not have have either SATA-600 or USB 3.0, I should have waited a two weeks when I bought my motherboard cause the newer revision of my exact motherboard has SATA-600 and USB 3.0 for the same price.

@ jimbo45

I couldn't agree more that write speed is not that important for an OS drive for most users since the drive usually reads data for loading application and programs already installed on the OS. But I think personally I'll greatly benefit from the extra 40mb/s write speed that Kingston has over Crucial cause I tend to work between two hard drives (in my case right now partitions). Thus moving files from my 1TB and creating new files eg. WinRAR, Photoshop, ripping DVD and browser cache would greatly benefit from higher write speeds.

My Setup: I plan on making a dedicated partition on my 1TB RAID 0 configuration just for the pagefile. Regardless of what others say, I always keep the pagefile no matter how much ram is installed. It's going to look like this:

- 64GB (60GB Real) SSD
60GB all used for Windows 7 and applications (no games, no pagefile), should have 40GB free for temporary files and temporary workspace.

- 1TB (930GB Real) RAID 0
10GB dedicated partition for pagefile (moved from OS drive) - *going to hide this partition*
270GB partition for games
650GB partition for storage and additional workspace

- 320GB (300GB Real) 2.5" External
300GB all used to media files, temporary file transfer and backup of important files