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Comparing SSD's

NightAngel79

Mandalorian
Administrator
May 11, 2010
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Northern Ky
So here is my dilemma, there is this SSD: Newegg.com - Intel 330 Series SSDSC2CT240A3K5 2.5" 240GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
Less performance but most space for price.

Compare it to a Intel 520 (Newegg.com - Intel 520 Series Cherryville SSDSC2CW120A3K5 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)) or a Samsung 830 (Newegg.com - SAMSUNG 830 Series MZ-7PC128B/WW 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD))

Would you go for top level (or close to it) performance or the bit slower, but much larger Intel???

Coming from a HDD I am thinking the bigger Intel is gonna do the trick but am interested in hearing everyones thoughts
 
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So here is my dilemma, there is this SSD: Newegg.com - Intel 330 Series SSDSC2CT240A3K5 2.5" 240GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
Less performance but most space for price.

Compare it to a Intel 520 (Newegg.com - Intel 520 Series Cherryville SSDSC2CW120A3K5 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)) or a Samsung 830 (Newegg.com - SAMSUNG 830 Series MZ-7PC128B/WW 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD))

Would you go for top level (or close to it) performance or the bit slower, but much larger Intel???

Coming from a HDD I am thinking the bigger Intel is gonna do the trick but am interested in hearing everyones thoughts

Reply to sub and note that I am very interested in this as I am in nearly an identical position to you. With my CPU @ 4.2ghz and everything fine tuned, my HDD has become quite the bottleneck!
 
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Reply to sub and note that I am very interested in this as I am in nearly an identical position to you. With my CPU @ 4.2ghz and everything fine tuned, my HDD has become quite the bottleneck!

Know what you mean, my build is almost 2 years but very similar to yours. 6 core and oc'd at 3.8, 16ram, midrange 1g gddr5 graphics.....

Time to go ssd but not sure what is more important, that extra 100gigs or the higher performance models....
 
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Know what you mean, my build is almost 2 years but very similar to yours. 6 core and oc'd at 3.8, 16ram, midrange 1g gddr5 graphics.....

Time to go ssd but not sure what is more important, that extra 100gigs or the higher performance models....

Lol. I mean, either way the performance of an SSD is going to blow away our platters. For me though, most of my storage is movies and other digital media, some work files, installers, distros, etc. So that can sit on the platter all day.

What's your situation like?
 
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Lol. I mean, either way the performance of an SSD is going to blow away our platters. For me though, most of my storage is movies and other digital media, some work files, installers, distros, etc. So that can sit on the platter all day.

What's your situation like?

Pretty much the same, I completely agree with you. Have all my movies/media on a 2tb usb3 external so that already flies.

Have several large games installed on the internal... If I have room I may put a game or 2 on the ssd but not sweating that.

All in all you hit the nail on the head, ANY ssd will blow us away, comparatively.
 
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Pretty much the same, I completely agree with you. Have all my movies/media on a 2tb usb3 external so that already flies.

Have several large games installed on the internal... If I have room I may put a game or 2 on the ssd but not sweating that.

All in all you hit the nail on the head, ANY ssd will blow us away, comparatively.

Ah, yeah I want to put programs and games on my SSD, so I'm thinking a pretty decent capacity.
 
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I totally regret less space on my SSD. I underestimated my games (I use Steam) so now I have a very full drive and had to shove my music to the external which I wanted to keep on both for backup purposes.

If I could I;d go back and get the bigger one.

True, but I'm not gonna be putting any music on it. Also, I don't think I will be putting more than 1 or 2 games on it....
 
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True, but I'm not gonna be putting any music on it. Also, I don't think I will be putting more than 1 or 2 games on it....

You're going to laugh to yourself when you read this.

You know how we are.

Once we get the taste of that SSD performance, anything that would benefit from the speed of the SSD, is going on that SSD. Until it's full that is...
 
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So here is my dilemma, there is this SSD: Newegg.com - Intel 330 Series SSDSC2CT240A3K5 2.5" 240GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
Less performance but most space for price.

Compare it to a Intel 520 (Newegg.com - Intel 520 Series Cherryville SSDSC2CW120A3K5 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)) or a Samsung 830 (Newegg.com - SAMSUNG 830 Series MZ-7PC128B/WW 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD))

Would you go for top level (or close to it) performance or the bit slower, but much larger Intel???

Coming from a HDD I am thinking the bigger Intel is gonna do the trick but am interested in hearing everyones thoughts

I just recently opted for the Intel 520 180 GB to port up with my mobo's SATA III 6G connector. All I can say is Holy Mother of God. This thing shrieks.

My previous is the X25-M 80 GB, which is now my secondary SSD in my current rig. There was another post here (and countless hundreds of posts elsewhere) which basically said the same thing - if you want overall satisfaction in terms of customer service and reliability, look no further than Intel. My own experiences confirm - last year my old rig took a near direct lightning hit (wiped out my PSU and all HDs in the system). When I opened an RMA for the X25-M Intel replaced it no questions asked - I had my new drive 7 days from when I opened the RMA. Opened the RMA - not sent back, but actually started the entire RMA process on my computer.

You can't shake a stick at that level of customer service. So, when Best Buy put the 520 180GB drives on sale for a very competitive $199 (considering it's a brick and mortar store, not online, so I can pick it up and have it in my system 30 minutes after purchase) I jumped. I'm considering getting a second one and moving all of the program files tree to it (or else dedicating it to games only - friggin Max Payne 3 takes up 30 GB (!) by itself lol).

I know other drives have better specs, and other OEMs have great customer service too - but Intel is tried, tested and true, in every instance I've ever had to deal with them.
 
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I just recently opted for the Intel 520 180 GB to port up with my mobo's SATA III 6G connector. All I can say is Holy Mother of God. This thing shrieks.

My previous is the X25-M 80 GB, which is now my secondary SSD in my current rig. There was another post here (and countless hundreds of posts elsewhere) which basically said the same thing - if you want overall satisfaction in terms of customer service and reliability, look no further than Intel. My own experiences confirm - last year my old rig took a near direct lightning hit (wiped out my PSU and all HDs in the system). When I opened an RMA for the X25-M Intel replaced it no questions asked - I had my new drive 7 days from when I opened the RMA. Opened the RMA - not sent back, but actually started the entire RMA process on my computer.

You can't shake a stick at that level of customer service. So, when Best Buy put the 520 180GB drives on sale for a very competitive $199 (considering it's a brick and mortar store, not online, so I can pick it up and have it in my system 30 minutes after purchase) I jumped. I'm considering getting a second one and moving all of the program files tree to it (or else dedicating it to games only - friggin Diablo III takes up 30 GB (!) by itself lol).

I know other drives have better specs, and other OEMs have great customer service too - but Intel is tried, tested and true, in every instance I've ever had to deal with them.

This pretty much sums up why I'll only recommend Intel processors...definitely gives me food for thought...

Although my UPS does have a $50k connected equipment promise.
 
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I have the Samsung 830 - 512MB and it's fantastic. The 840 series is supposed to be even better. Intel drives are great also, but I'd dont know enough about them.

When I was researching SSDs I found the controller stuff was hard to follow. Sandforce this, Marvell that blah blah.

But the Samsung drives were supposed to be reliable. Partly because they make their OWN controller. They also make the flash memory, firmware, and basically the entire drive soup to nuts.

Samsung are expensive but it looks like the 840 Pro beats the pants off most of the other SSDs.

Whatever you do, go as big as you can afford.


"I'll only ever put one or two games on it"
<-- famous last words :D


One of the really fun things I found to do with an SSD is Fraps -- and a big SSD helps. Basically, what I am saying is, once you get an SSD, you may find you have other uses for it than you planned.

I put all my Android work on it, my games, apps, OS, browser cache, etc etc - anything that can benefit from fast disk i/o. Plus I have the entire drive "truecrypted" and it still flies like a boss.
 
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You're going to laugh to yourself when you read this.

You know how we are.

Once we get the taste of that SSD performance, anything that would benefit from the speed of the SSD, is going on that SSD. Until it's full that is...


Ah yeah... this was what I am sayin'

Then you will end up looking for new things to do just to watch it run fast
 
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How is everyone on Mushkin SSD's?
I used to buy RAM from Mushkin. It's an established brand that's as good as any other well known brand name. I have no experience with their SSD products, but can say that Mushkin isn't likely to rip you off. Buying from Mushkin might not get you the best bargain when it comes to value, but they're straightforward about the different performance levels that they offer.
 
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