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Bean
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- Posted on: 2013/12/6 16:10
Which SSD should I buy?
#1
So, a few years ago, I jumped on the SSD bandwagon and bought myself an OCZ Vertex 2, which promptly died about 2 months later, after getting that replaced with another one, I was happy 
That was, ofcourse, until it also died
From that point on, I decided to have a look at reliability stats before making further SSD purchases.I ended up paying the difference between the Vertex 2 and an OCZ Vertex 3 120GB. which, after a firmware update, hasn't skipped a beat
I now also have a Crucial M4 60gb SSD and an Intel 330 series 180gb SSD.As I'm getting more and more into overclocking, I'd like to, at some point, do PCmark, which I hear relies kinda heavily on the storage media.
I use my M4 as a benching SSD at the moment, but would like to upgrade at some point. Does anyone have any advice for me with regards to performance, stability, size etc, what are the factors that determine whether a SSD is good or not?
Please Discuss
Bean 3930K on RIVE @4.5ghz - 16gb Gskill Ripjaw Z - 780 Ghz Edition - Corsair AX850 - assorted SSD's and Mech drives.
Christian Ney
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- Posted on: 2013/12/6 16:20
Bean
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- Posted on: 2013/12/6 16:30
Re: Which SSD should I buy?
#3
Quote:
Christian Ney wrote:
For PCMark you need an strong Areca PCIe controller paired with 4x Samsung SSD in RAID to be competitive.
link
Thanks for the reply. What about not being competitive for WR? :p
As I, and I assume many others, am limited budgetwise, I don't really plan on raiding, and if I do, it'd be max two drives.
If I were to buy just one SSD to use as an OS drive for all possible benches, what would I want to buy, and why? 3930K on RIVE @4.5ghz - 16gb Gskill Ripjaw Z - 780 Ghz Edition - Corsair AX850 - assorted SSD's and Mech drives.
rewarder
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- Posted on: 2013/12/6 17:06
Re: Which SSD should I buy?
#4
Well, imo there are a few things you can consider. Size and the performance differences
Maybe you've been looking at advertised performance values of differently sized SSDs in the past and maybe you noticed, that drives with 120 Gigabyte and less capacity are significantly slower than 240 Gigabyte models. Well, that is one thing you might want to consider choosing the most suitable drive for your needs. Generally it can be said, that drives with 240GB+ offer the full potential of what their controller is capable of delivering. Please don't ask me in this thread why this is the case
That would take me quite a while to explain Reliability
There are a few factors that account for reliability with SSDs. First of all and the easiest to understand is P/E-cycles (Program/Erase cycles). Most of todays consumer grade SSDs use ~20nm MLC NAND flash memory, which boasts around 3'000 P/E cycles.
Another factor regarding reliability is the size of the drive. You might be asking why. Well, basically, every cell offers a certain amount of P/E cycles. So if you have more cells you have more P/E cycles.
Something else you might consider is wether you're buying an SSD with MLC or TLC NAND. TLC usually offers 1'200 P/E cycles. But still, even this number of P/E cylces is enough since the firmware of todays controllers is taking really good care of the NAND.
PCMark Benchmarking
If this is the single most important thing for you, then basically what you want is sequential throughput rates which are as high as possible. If you're low on cash, I'd recommend assembling a raid based on two small drives, since this is faster than one larger drive in any case.
Which are the quickest drives today?
Concerning this question I'd recommend browsing our SSD charts. You'll get a good overview by having a closer look at the performance values
Ocaholic SSD Charts
I hope this was helpful.
Bean
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- Joined: 2013/9/9 8:11
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- Posted on: 2013/12/9 11:27
Re: Which SSD should I buy?
#5
Quote:
rewarder wrote:
Well, imo there are a few things you can consider.
Size and the performance differences
Maybe you've been looking at advertised performance values of differently sized SSDs in the past and maybe you noticed, that drives with 120 Gigabyte and less capacity are significantly slower than 240 Gigabyte models. Well, that is one thing you might want to consider choosing the most suitable drive for your needs. Generally it can be said, that drives with 240GB+ offer the full potential of what their controller is capable of delivering. Please don't ask me in this thread why this is the case
Reliability
There are a few factors that account for reliability with SSDs. First of all and the easiest to understand is P/E-cycles (Program/Erase cycles). Most of todays consumer grade SSDs use ~20nm MLC NAND flash memory, which boasts around 3'000 P/E cycles.
Another factor regarding reliability is the size of the drive. You might be asking why. Well, basically, every cell offers a certain amount of P/E cycles. So if you have more cells you have more P/E cycles.
Something else you might consider is wether you're buying an SSD with MLC or TLC NAND. TLC usually offers 1'200 P/E cycles. But still, even this number of P/E cylces is enough since the firmware of todays controllers is taking really good care of the NAND.
PCMark Benchmarking
If this is the single most important thing for you, then basically what you want is sequential throughput rates which are as high as possible. If you're low on cash, I'd recommend assembling a raid based on two small drives, since this is faster than one larger drive in any case.
Which are the quickest drives today?
Concerning this question I'd recommend browsing our SSD charts. You'll get a good overview by having a closer look at the performance values
Ocaholic SSD Charts
I hope this was helpful.
Rewarder, Thank you very much for the very informative reply, that's basically what I was after
I suppose, now that SSD prices are slowly coming down, I might experiment with a 60+60 raid, or if I have the cash laying around, a 120+120 raid.
Thank you again for the help, it's most appreciated. I hope this also helps others!
Bean 3930K on RIVE @4.5ghz - 16gb Gskill Ripjaw Z - 780 Ghz Edition - Corsair AX850 - assorted SSD's and Mech drives.
