840 evo Vs. 840 Pro vs. Intel 730 series

I'm putting together a new build centered around gaming, I have a few questions about the ssd's I have listed though.

My choices are between the
Samsung 840 evo
Samsung 840 evo pro
Intel 730 series

First off, the intel730 is considerably slower according to listed read/write numbers, but I'm going to be custom modding my case and I've been thinking about having the SSD viewable from the outside. The intel 730 has a badass skull which will match my cases paint theme of skulls/ grim reaper.

However, the Samsung 840 and 840 pro are much faster again according to read/write numbers. So, my question is do I sacrifice hiding the 840 inside the cases ssd trays, thus out of view, but in exchange for faster speeds; OR do I stick with the intel 730 for the "flashy-ness" even though it is slower.

By the way, is the 730 noticeably slower than the 840 or 840 pro, or are we talking speeds which you would have to benchmark to see the difference?

Most likely things that you would only tell in a benchmark, but honestly I would never sacrifice performance for the looks of something.

So why does one buy an 840 vs an 840 pro?

I would get either the Samsung 840 Pro or EVO. You can always paint it and/or put a decal on the case.

Whats the difference between the two?

Pro = MLC , 5 years warranty and slightly faster but cost more
Evo = additional encryption features but 3 year warranty and TLC so in theory shorter life

Woomack said:

...TLC so in theory shorter life

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The key words being "in theory". In actual tests, TLC SSDs have been lasting far longer than most people are ever likely to need them to.

Lady Fitzgerald said:

The key words being "in theory". In actual tests, TLC SSDs have been lasting far longer than most people are ever likely to need them to.

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There is some reason why manufacturers offer longer warranty for SLC/MLC than TLC and TLC are generally cheaper. All depends what are you doing with that drive. If it's dedicated to work in workstation/small server then better is to pay some more but for home usage TLC is good enough.
Every drive can break no matter what is inside. Especially SSD have random death syndrom and SMART is usually not helping to diagnose anything earlier.

Indeed Woo...

Note though there were a couple of websites that did longetivity tests on TLC drives and wrote tens of TB of data within a couple of months before it crapped out (what Lady F is referring to).

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6459/samsung-ssd-840-testing-the-endurance-of-tlc-nand

That of course does not change the theory (which is correct), or the length of the warranty, LOL!

Lately I pick my SSD mainly looking at warranty length as performance is similar and most my SSD end up in RMA no matter if it's nearly new or have 2 years+ ... and I'm not writing much on them.

Ive been lucky for the most part... The OCZ Vector I reviewed crapped out on me, and so did its replacement. Outside of that, I haven't had an SSD crap out... I would say across at least a dozen I have owned in the last 4 years (starting from OCZ Summit).

Woomack said:

Lately I pick my SSD mainly looking at warranty length as performance is similar and most my SSD end up in RMA no matter if it's nearly new or have 2 years+ ... and I'm not writing much on them.

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Gosh, Woomack! You're unlucky, lol!

Never had to RMA any SSD, and I had a few the past for years (+/- 10).

I had about 12 in total and only 2 were not on RMA ... well one was RMA replacement but from Revo 110GB to Samsung 840 Pro and 2nd is Plextor. Both have less than half year.