Which SSD? - Does it Really Make a Difference?

My 80 GB Intel G2 SSD is down to only 27 GB free and I expect that to slowly whittle away with time. I am going to replace it with a 120 GB SSD as the price is about right (circa $230) and the additional 40 GB should easily last another few years (I use a 750 GB HDD for data etc.).

I am narrowed down to the following three drives:

OCZ Vertex 2
Corsair CSSD-F120
Intel X25-M

The Corsair and OCZ are somewhat faster, especially when writing, but all three seem to be quality drives.

However, in real world use, I perceive that any of the three will be indistingushable from the others with respect to performance and long term reliability. I am simply going to clone my existing drive to the new one using EASEUS Disk copy.

I would be interested to hear others opinons before I spend $230.

In general there is a slow deterioration. Win7 should be automatically trimming so that is about the best you can do. I only use my SSD for the system in which case a 60G should be fine. If you're placing applications on it too then that is a different discussion.

Regarding the 3 you note, the SandForce and Marvel controller based SSDs appear to be best these days. Thus I might tend to the Vertex2 or Corsair.

If you do go 120G, I might consider 2*60G and RAID0.

If he is going to go raid 0, he might as well keep is G2, get another G2 and raid them together. The Intel drives are probably the most robust with 10,000 write cycles and a write amplification factor close to 1, compare that to 3,000 to 5,000 write cycles for most of the other brands of drives.

Thanks for the responses.

Although I considered a RAID 0, for various reasons I decided to just replace the drive and use the existing drive in another computer. Also, I do not want to wait for the Intel G3 drives to become available because I suspect a 120 GB G3 will be much more expensive than the current crop of $230 or so 120 GB drives.

So, back to my original question, does it make any real world difference which of the listed three drives I elect to buy?

Well if you raid them you lose trim support, thats with any ssd FYI. The sandforce drives (Ocz) are wicked fast. I suggest the vertex 2, I have it and love it.

Both the OCZ and Corsair use the SandForce controller and performance should be about the same. All things being equal, I would go with the Vertex2 and they currently have some rebate deals (over at Newegg). But I wouldn't hesitate to get the Corsair either if that were available at a good price. Both Corsair and OCZ are quality companies.

I'm not that familiar with the Intel SSD. Others might make comments about the Intel if that is your inclination.

I'd get the vertex 2 from OCZ.

The Corsair and Vertex 2 are about the same as stated above. That Intel is old and has much slower writes as well as reads and lower IOPS.

Are these (Crucial RealSSD 128GB) not the Shizzle right now?

I know there are available in the SATA II flavor as well and SATA III is Back compatable (I would imagine a bit slower though)

The price looks pretty good for there size and killer read and great write speeds!

Write speeds are sub par at 140MB. Look at the OCZ Vertex 2. A bit slower in reads but a monster in writes.

deeppow said:

Both the OCZ and Corsair use the SandForce controller and performance should be about the same. All things being equal, I would go with the Vertex2 and they currently have some rebate deals (over at Newegg). But I wouldn't hesitate to get the Corsair either if that were available at a good price. Both Corsair and OCZ are quality companies.

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OCZ was a reputable brand. This is not really the case anymore. DDR3 compatibility with the x58 chipset was really awful. Channel dropping issue like crazy. Also all of their products have an abnormally high failure/DOA rate. About 30% for their DDR3 (Gold series especially) and 27% of the Vertex 2's are DOA. Although, if they don't fail within a few days, they should be good for the rest of the life span. The quality of OCZ has quickly declined which is reflective in their pricing.

However, I own 4 V2's and they've been great. Close to the top in terms of performance and I haven't had one die on me personally.

Sources: I work for a supplier.

vonbong420 said:

OCZ was a reputable brand. This is not really the case anymore. DDR3 compatibility with the x58 chipset was really awful. Channel dropping issue like crazy. Also all of their products have an abnormally high failure/DOA rate. About 30% for their DDR3 (Gold series especially) and 27% of the Vertex 2's are DOA. Although, if they don't fail within a few days, they should be good for the rest of the life span. The quality of OCZ has quickly declined which is reflective in their pricing.

However, I own 4 V2's and they've been great. Close to the top in terms of performance and I haven't had one die on me personally.

Sources: I work for a supplier.

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Interesting info, thanks. Probably appropriate to remember the old perspective, "you're as good as your last product."

I just got 2 new V2 SSDs for Win7 64bit OS, one for desktop and one for laptop. They're up and running but I'll keep my fingers crossed for the next few weeks.

I got the OCZ Vertex 2 60gb the other day, couldn't be any happier

I have a 60 GB mushkin callisto deluxe and I absolutely love it. They really stand behind their products and they have competitive pricing.

vonbong420 said:

OCZ was a reputable brand. This is not really the case anymore. ...

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This is my perception too and why I will probably purchase the Corsair product.

Last May I had an OCZ power supply fail a couple of weeks past the end of its warranty (based on the date of the Newegg invoice). I called OCZ to see if they would be willing to do anything and they told me no for two reasons. First, the phone rep explained the warranty started on the day of manufacture, not purchase, so I was actually much more than just a few days beyond the end of the warranty period. Second, I never registered the sale with them so I really never had a warranty at all, the Newegg receipt did not matter. In any case, it was indeed beyond the warranty date based on the invoice so I let the subject drop and just bought a new Corsair power supply. Although OCZ later (through a monitored forum thread) refuted the statement about when the warranty began, and, in any case, OCZ was totally within their rights, this incident just left a bad taste in my mouth. I really did not like the bit about not registering so no warranty even with a valid dated Newegg invoice. I also think good, but certainly not required, customer service would have been to make some, albeit small, concession (e.g. a discount on a new power supply, exchange for a refurbished supply, etc.). Nevertheless, instead of retaining me as an OCZ customer for minimal effort, they exercised their rights and now I simply use equivalent Corsair products.

BTW, unrelated to this specific topic, Corsair, at least as late as last fall, used knowledgeable technical support agents located in North America with English as their native language.

Can't argue with your reasoning for switching nor can i argue with your choice of alternative. Corsair is great.

I can say that in the few instances where i needed Ocz service my experience was fantastic. I have had ram replaced twice with no issue and extreme quickness. I have also had two psus replaced with ease. Oe was bad out of the box the other went bad after 4 years and 9 months. It was a pwestream 500 that did extended duty like a champ. Ocz sent me a brand new stealthxstream 700 as a replacement and that was based on my new egg receipt purchase date, not mfg date. Either your cs rep was a dud or their policy changed. Either way it's sad. I always liked Ocz. Corsair is a strong competitor though and you can't go with corsair.

Category 5 said:

I always liked Ocz. Corsair is a strong competitor though and you can't go WRONG with corsair.

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Is that what you intended to say?

Volumetrik said:

Is that what you intended to say?

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Lol. Indeed it was.

SandForce seems to be one of, if not the best controller, for the current generation of SSDs. If you check, you'll find that Corsair, Mushkin and OCZ are among those SSD manufacturers that use the SandForce 1200 controller.

The SSDs using that controller should be about the same (baring a real screw up in manufacturing -- the thought vonbong420 maybe suggesting by the high failure rate) so past that point it comes down to customer service. From my limited experience with the 3 companies, I would rate Mushkin (bought from them directly) as best by far.

Realize that my experience is very limited compared to a large sample of many buyers that a supplier might see.

EDIT: I've had two failures of OCZ Agility2 SSDs within the last 1.5 years.

I doubt there is a factory with the name Corsair or OCZ or Mushkin or etc. over the door. I suspect these drives are made by one or more Chinese builders. Since the performance is so similar, are all the Sandforce drives all designed built by the same Chinese company?