SSD Trim with old motherboard

[Comp Dude2]

Hi,

 

I'm thinking of getting an SSD to improve the boot time and general feel of my (quite old) system, given in my sig. But as the motherboard was around before SSDs were common I doubt it has a hard drive controller on it designed with SSDs in mind. So are there any problems that I might encounter because of the age of the board?

 

And I was considering an OCZ octane 256Gb just because it is about the size that I need and is pretty cheap. It 'supports' TRIM but googling suggests that I need win7 to use TRIM because it is part of the OS, not some feature on the controller on the drive. Is this the case and therefore will I need to replace Vista with 7 specifically for this feature?

 

Cheers guys!

 

 

::edit:: I've also realised I don't have any sata3 ports so will need to use a PCI-e daughter card for this, prices are around

Edited June 15, 2013 by Comp Dude2

[ohldboy]

OCZ Octane is an old device, just how low a price is it. Samsung 840, Kinston V300, Sandisk Ulra Plus, or equivalents would be much better drives and firmware.

From reading, experience with old OCZ SSDs can be a very mixed experience.

[Mikesnow]

TRIM is part of the OS so you need windows 7 or 8, but it will work on your board. The only draw back to your board is it is SATA II so you won't get SATA III speeds from most the modern SSD's, but it will still be faster then a regular HDD. There are very few SSD's if even at all any more that have garbage collection on the SSD's controller (it's like TRIM but firmware based on the ssd controller), they only made those for people to raid0 their drives and still have a version of TRIM, however newer boards now have TRIM support on the Raid controllers so there was no longer a need. I'd say you'd be fine with just about any drive you buy, just research lotsa customer reviews to see which ones are having the least problems overall, and of course get a copy of W7 or W8.

[wevsspot]

If it were me I'd just connect the new SSD to the built in Intel SATA II controller.  I wouldn't use a PCIe card.

[Comp Dude2]

Wow, sorry for forgetting about this thread guys! I've been moving house and super busy, thanks for the replies!

 

So I only picked the octane because it was cheap but for

[wevsspot]

Hey CD2.

 

Considering your motherboard limitations (SATA II only) - unless you plan on upgrading that in the near future you might be better served by going with the best price / best reviewed / best reliability record SSD and call it good.

 

Based on your current situation I don't see that it's worth while to get to caught up in best case benchmarks or synthetic performance numbers.

 

In reality, once you start drilling down to compressed versus uncompressed data, sequential versus random data, IOPs performance etc. most folks aren't going to notice the difference between a $250 Samsung Pro versus a $189 Samsung 840.  Although there are some other considerations.  Samsung 840 uses TLC NAND - less durable / fewer lifetime write cycles, while many of the other SSDs you mention still use MLC NAND - more durable and more lifetime write cycles.

 

In reality (from my perspective) most folks that use a SSD for their boot and OS drive don't do a ton of writes after their initial Windows and application installs, so the type of Flash memory might be a moot point.

[Comp Dude2]

Ah thanks! I would be interested in getting one which would last a bit longer as I intend to keep drives until the size is obsolete.  And you are probably right about the speed thing, they are all going to smoke normal HDDs. I may upgrade in the next year because it really needs it, but no solid plans yet and this SSD could add some extra life again.

[wevsspot]

Well, hands down the Samsung 840 Pro 256Gb and Intel 520 Cherryville 240Gb SSDs are probably the most popular and reliable drives available.  The Samsung 840 Pro is possibly the highest performing consumer class SSD on the planet right now, and it is usually 10-15 dollars cheaper than the Intel offering.

 

Both of those SSDs are at the very high end of the price point though for 240 - 256Gb SSDs.

 

If you want to save some money any of these other options would be great choices too;

 

Corsair Neutron GTX 256Gb

Seagate 600 Series 240Gb

SK Hynix HSF256GB

Samsung 840

Plextor M5P Extreme

 

I'm sure there are others, but the ones I've list above would be on my short list if I were buying for myself.

[Comp Dude2]

Thanks for all your help dude! I've actually gone for a Sandisk Ultra Plus with read/write speeds of 530/445 and a copy of w7