Solid State Drive Comparison - Round 2

[Airbot]

As a follow-up to our previous SSD coverage, today we will be looking at four popular mainstream SSD offerings which include the A-Data S592 128GB, Corsair P Series 128GB, OCZ Agility 120GB and the OCZ Vertex Turbo 120GB. Although all these products are MLC flash-based and target the consumer enthusiast market, they do vary in price, on-board controllers, memory chips, and cache sizes, which should make for some very interesting results.
With dozens of manufacturers now offering some kind of solid state drive, you should know there are only a handful of them you should concern yourself with. MLC drives based on either the Samsung S3C29RBB01-YK40, Indilinx Barefoot or Intel's own controller are all you should be looking at today. While the Intel controller remains the superior performer when it comes to small data writes, the Samsung and Indilinx controllers are worthy alternatives.

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[nate42nd]

Thanks for the link Airbot. I had not seen this one. Glad I have a barefoot. It's still working very nicely after about 3 months.

 

[SoLoR]

Im so tempted to buy SSD for OS but prices are hiigh also 120gb is almost not enough and they dont sell 250gb vertex here

 

[nate42nd]

It's been the best upgrade I've ever done on any system. It's very noticeable trying to use a "normal" drive now. It depends on how much "play" money you have I guess. They are very nice to have.

 

[pparks1]

Im so tempted to buy SSD for OS but prices are hiigh also 120gb is almost not enough and they dont sell 250gb vertex here

Most people I talk to say that SSD's are just fine, but you don't want to use them for the OS because of their stuttering issues. Lot's of SSD fanboys run standard SATA hard drives for the OS and reserve the SSD drive for installing only games and applications to.

 

[SoLoR]

Well when i read this article in the morning, i did some research and aperantly OCZ is just about to release some new firmware for vertex series (currently 1.42beta that still have some issues) that should greatly reduce this degrading "on the run" (support of GC and TRIM), without need to reformat whole drive, thats why i become such a fan and considering buying one in very near future just 120gb for 330euro... just sigh you can get i7 + mobo for that price, or gtx285, OR 2x 1.5TB normal disks... but still, i bought network card for 200euro (when i was young and stupid, read: a year ago), ill probably buy this as well very soon

 

[nate42nd]

I have read this too but there are 2 (or 3) tiers of SSDs out there. The cheap ones that suck and stutter and the ones in the article above (Patriot Torqx should have been in too, it's the same drive as the Vertex) that are good drives.

The issue is not resolved. These companies want US to essentially test the drives for them in real world situations. Look for one of the controllers in the article above and get a good warranty. (Patriot has a 10 year not 2 or 3 like the others) and you really don't need to worry.

I wish they were less expensive so more people could spend a month with one. If they were as happy as me, SSDs would see a huge surge in sales. The JMicron controller gave SSDs a bad name they have not yet recovered from.

 

[pparks1]

Yeah, I am always keeping my eye on the state of the SSD technology. I just know that for the price, it's hard to justify. I mean my games and apps loaded pretty darn fast as it is now from my current WD caviar black drive...and I don't often have a need for continuous high speed data copies...so I've just continued holding off.

I also don't want another device for my OCD to have to monitor. As we all know, over time these drives do slow down, etc. So, it's just easier to stick with the old mechanical drives that just work and get an occasional defrag and then a format and a reinstall.

 

[nate42nd]

Yeah, I am always keeping my eye on the state of the SSD technology. I just know that for the price, it's hard to justify. I mean my games and apps loaded pretty darn fast as it is now from my current WD caviar black drive...and I don't often have a need for continuous high speed data copies...so I've just continued holding off.

I also don't want another device for my OCD to have to monitor. As we all know, over time these drives do slow down, etc. So, it's just easier to stick with the old mechanical drives that just work and get an occasional defrag and then a format and a reinstall.

This is true. You can do some pretty good upgrades for the same money. It's something to keep in mind. I am not sorry I got mine. It's been worth every bit of hard earned money I spent. The 10 year warranty keeps me sleeping good at night too. If something terrible happens. I am confident Patriot will be good to me.

PS. I may be a strange guy when it comes to upgrades. I just got a Lian Li PC-B70 case for my setup. One of the newer Lian Li cases. Not cheap either, but these are both things I can take with me to the next build when the Lynnfield chips come out. All I will need is a mobo and CPU and I will have one nice system.