To buy SSD or not to buy

[silencer_pl]

I hope that I will find some few technical s here.

 

I am thinking of buying SSD but I don't know should I and which should I buy. I know that they give tremendous speed in software loading time but I also read about their technical issues.

 

Right now I am wondering about Intel 520, Kingstone HyperX and Samsung one. Though I've read about Crucial M4 but I think the other are better now.

 

Of course I only want 240GB one.

 

Please don't link any shops as I will buy at local stores.

[Thorondor]

Speaking strictly as a PC enthusiast and as a consumer, silencer, if I was buying I'd say Intel is probably your best and safest bet.

 

These other two brands may also be worth a look:

- Corsair (their Neutron Series GTX or Force Series GT)

- OCZ (the Vertex 4 line)

 

::

 

Don't have any SSDs on my rig at present, though. Much rather stick to my VelociRaptors.

[silencer_pl]

I've read that Corsair and OCZ are least reliable in SSD branch, though I have Corsair PSU and I can't say bad word about it.

[Pete]

I can weigh in here as part of my job actually involves building reasonably high-spec rigs at least once a month.

 

I had just penned half a post about how much cheaper the Kingston SSDNow v+ 200 model was at 240GB than the OCZ Vertex 4, but I now see that the prices aren't that far off each other in the UK now, so I can only recommend the Vertex 4.

 

We've had no trouble with OCZ at work (bar the originals, but all 1st generation SSDs were pretty crap) and they are blazingly fast. Now they're pretty cheap to boot I would buy one without hesitation, especially given this chart showing that there's really not much in it at the top end: https://www.techspot....ex-4/page3.html

 

See what a mockery it makes of the mechanical drive at the bottom?

 

I would still recommend investing in a backup mechanical drive though and using something like Acronis TrueImage home to make full and incremental backups of your OS drive to the mechanical drive - full backup at least once a week (won't take long since the SSD's read speeds are good and the disk size isn't too huge). This recommendation comes from painful experience - when an SSD dies, there is NOTHING you can do but mechanical drive failure usually provides you with advanced warning to back up your data and replace the drive. SSDs just fail and they're gone when it happens.

 

As with all hard drives, they strive for an MTBF (mean time before failure) of many thousands of hours' use, but as with anything they can fail in the first day if you're unlucky (had that on mechanical and SSD drives, but we do see a lot of both at work). The other thing to check, aside from your backup routine, is what the warranty is on each manufacturer's drive - if it's 3 years then that's reasonable and you can send if off to them for a replacement (during which 2 week timeframe you'll be without drive, but that's how it works). Anything less than 3 years warranty I wouldn't trust and anything more is a bonus, just remember to keep your purchase details handy (i.e. buy from a decent online site where you can re-print the invoice whenever you like ).

 

Anyway, I went off topic a bit there and into other advice, but it all helps.

 

As for size, you're right to be looking at the 240GB mark, but it does all depend on the number of games you want to install on it. An interesting fact about SSDs is that the bigger the capacity, the faster the read-write speeds, and if you have deep pockets (and are crazy) then this would beat everything hands down and be 3x faster than the fastest SSD on the chart I linked to: https://www.amazon.co...ASIN=B0058RECRM - of course it's a little bit expensive

[silencer_pl]

It's ok I bought Samsung 830.

[Space Voyager]

Thanks for the SSD guide, Pete. Mechanical disk looks like a snail, dammit.

 

I'll need this info when I'll be building a new comp, which is delayed indefinitely for the time being. Please don't be mad if I ask for guidance again in a year or two. Or three.

[Pete]

I can't help you with the future, but if I'm still building PCs occasionally at my day job then I will happily give advice.

 

It's at the point now that I find it a chore to work on machines without SSDs - you just get so used to the responsiveness. I'd recommend them to upgrade laptop HDs as well to both speed those up and improve battery life, but with only one slot available on most laptop models you will want to choose a large-ish model and back up to an external drive every so often.

[Sgt. Strike]

I won't restate what's been said, with the exception of not relying fully on that drive for everything. I would put the operating system you want on it, or even multiple operating systems. A few programs that you use frequently on it will be good, if you run a single operating system. Games are included in that, provided they are smaller games, and may need a boost in performance. Also, read everything you can on it, as well. The best advice is to be careful with the drive, and have fun.

 

Pete, I am thinking of buying a new laptop sometime next year. Should I look for a laptop with a SSD already in it? I'm looking for an AMD based system with good memory, and graphics performance. And a good SSD drive in it. I'm only looking for recommendations, right now.

[silencer_pl]

Ok. Just installed my new baby.... Although my increased blood preasure is still present I think it works fine. Though I haven't run any tests yet. Just preparing system to work or rather for work

[Pete]

@Sgt. Strike: quite a few manufacturers like DELL over-charge for things like RAM and hard drives. Certainly in the case of a DELL laptop I would save money on the RAM and get the lowest amount, then use something like https://www.crucial.com/uk/ to determine compatible RAM and find it cheap elsewhere.

 

With SSDs it's a bit easier - you know they will be compatible as they don't require any special drivers - they just show up like any normal hard drive on newer hardware so I would get one separately unless you see a great deal on a laptop that has one.

 

Some 17" laptops have 2 drive bays if you're lucky. The DELL XPS range certainly does, so I've had the luxury with my work laptop to put the OS onto an SSD and use the drive that came with it as somewhere to back up the OS to (but still backup to an external drive too!) and keep things like docs, music and things that don't need to be on the SSD on the other drive.

 

If you only have one drive bay though, as will be the case with most laptops, you will want to consider a 240GB drive if you have many programs or certainly if you want to put games on the laptop too.

 

The other thing to remember down at the smaller drive sizes like SSDs is that the OS creates a pagefile that is roughly the same size as the amount of RAM you have, so on a rig with 16GB of RAM roughly that amount of space will already be eaten up along with the size of the Windows installation.

 

One flaw with Windows 7 is that it also creates a hibernation file of that size whether you have hibernation switched off in the power settings in Windows or not (odd, but true!). To turn off hibernation properly and delete this invisible file, open a command prompt and type powercfg -h off to delete it properly and disable hibernation. On newer rigs you'll have a low power machine so sleep or shutdown (fast boot up time with SSD) is fine.

 

So you can see there are various things that chew up space from the very start, but at least if you never use hibernate you can at least get rid of that last one and fit a few more games on there

 

@silencer_pl - you'll never look back now you've got a faster OS drive

[silencer_pl]

Let's just hope it will last 5 years - too bad I am still on SATA2 controler so I am not using it's maximum capability but I plan on switching to new Intel CPU in next year probably with already tested Windows 8.

[Pete]

too bad I am still on SATA2 controler

 

Ah now that will limit speed considerably with your SSD

 

Anyone else who's thinking of buying one - check to see if your motherboard has SATA 3 (6gb/s) ports and make sure you use it on those ports. Also, for those interesting in using one with a new laptop, check the specs of the laptop to see if it has onboard SATA 3 controllers - new ones should have theoretically.

[silencer_pl]

There is no need for checking only MB's for Intels Ivy Bridge have SATA3 controler. Don't know about AMD and theirs.

[Pete]

Good point, bit I meant fr those looking to upgrade their drive on an older board.

[Stun Grenade]

A SSD was the best thing I have bought in the computer realm since, ever, really. My intel 520 is still rolling strong!

[Space Voyager]

I'm sure I'd feel the same if my comp started in seconds... But... when would I cook that coffee then?!