SSD upgrade

[R3C]

Hello,

 

Right now i have one OCZ Vertex 3 128Gb SSD on my desktop, but i'm runing out of sapce on it, so I need to change it to another SSD with 240Gb or more.
What you think you are best, i saw some reviews and it looks like Sandisk and intel 520 are the best buy. Is that right?

[wevsspot]

If I were making a choice right now it would be one of these two;

 

Crucial M500 240Gb

 

Samsung EVO 250Gb

 

Nothing wrong with any of the Sandisk or Intel options, but here in the US it's hard to beat the current pricing on the M500 at $0.54C per gigabyte, or the price to performance ratio of the Samsung EVO at $0.64C per gigabyte.  Honestly, about any SSD you buy from a recognized brand name is going to meet every need you have.  So unless you're in to benchmarks and epeen buy the one that represents the best value, best warranty and best customer support from the manufacturer.

[R3C]

I'm buying it here:

http://www.globaldata.pt

http://www.assismatica.pt

http://www.pcdiga.com

Or even in ebay

[IVIYTH0S]

Best Deal:
http://www.pcdiga.com/2/12819/Disco-SSD-Crucial-2-5-M500-240GB-CT240M500SSD1

[R3C]

only with write 250MB/s? is that good enough, i'm swap a OCZ vertex 3 =S

Edited February 11, 2014 by R3C

[wevsspot]

Instead of re-writing a bunch of stuff, I'm just going to post up from a discussion at another forum on the exact same subject.

 

Post 1

Both the Samsung EVO and Crucial M500 are great SSDs. You wouldn't go wrong with either one.

The EVO is marginally faster on sequential read speeds and over twice as fast on sequential write speeds. IOPS performance also gives a clear win to the EVO.

However, for desktop usage most folks don't do a bunch of writing to the SSD after the initial installation and updating of Windows, so usually I don't use sequential write speed as a primary factor in choosing a SSD.

Right now the M500 can be had for $0.54C per Gigabyte, while the EVO is going to run you $0.64C per Gigabyte. Warranty terms for both are the same at 3 years, although the EVO claims a higher MTBF than the M500.

One area that the M500 excels in is performance of the drive once it gets filled to 50% capacity or more. Almost a class leader in this measurement falling behind just the Samsung 840 Pro.

If I were spending my own money I'd likely spring for the M500 primarily on the cost per Gigabyte figure. But strong performance once the drive starts filling up, and the fact that there is plenty of evidence that the M500 actually performs a bit better than the specifications, would probably further tilt my choice towards the M500.

I've still got a pair of Crucial C300s that perform today almost as well as the day I first bought them. Zero issues.

But again, I want to stress that either one of those SSDs would be a solid choice regardless.

 

Post 2

All SSDs slow down once you have more data stored on them. The primary difference is the percentage of performance lost as the SSD fills.

I have read a couple of reviews on the M500 and EVO where the reviewers tested performance when the drives were fresh versus various percentages of filled.

I'll have to go back and find them. But I know that memory serves me correctly and that the M500 was a top contender when data was stored on the disk.

 

However, right now the EVO does have one leg up on the M500 in the form of Samsung's RAPID technology.  Samsung's RAPID technology harnesses the power of your onboard memory to cache frequently used read / write operations at the penalty of eating up some of your physical RAM - sometimes as much as 1Gb can be used for the SSD caching operations.  The trade off is blistering speeds matched only by RAID0 SSDs from previous generations.

 

With all that being said, benchmarks are benchmarks.  With today's SSDs you aren't going to notice the speed difference one way or another.  And, unless your work load is going to require a ton of writes, then sequential write speed is irrelevant.  Go with the best price per gigabyte, best warranty, best customer support.

[R3C]

ok, nice =)
Just one last question, you talk that Evo use Rapid technology that use RAM memory.

I like you have 16Gb RAM, so your choice still be the M500?

 

I will be use the SSD as my windows instalation and them for files and documents that are saved on users.
 

Still one last question, the M500 is cheap, if I buy two M500 and use them with Raid0, it will compensate?

[wevsspot]

Right now I've got two separate RAID0 arrays containing 128Gb SSDs.  And I've been considering buying two of the M500 240Gb drives to put them in RAID0 and breaking the two existing arrays.  One array holds my OS and a bunch of small programs.  My second array holds all of my frequently played games.

 

Both arrays perform extremely well, but I've got an added level of complexity in disk management and I've also increased by risk factor for catastrophic failure by four.  So I'd love to just go with a single two disk array that has enough storage capacity for everything.

 

With all that being said, no one needs a RAID0 array of SSDs.  I do it because I can, and because when I started building my SSD arrays my original 128Gb SSD cost over $300.  So the most cost effective way of adding additional storage was to add another SSD and build a RAID0 array.

 

The RAID solution isn't for everyone, but if I were in your shoes I'd grab two of the M500 and put them in a RAID0 array.  Performance will be through the roof and you'll have somewhere in the neighborhood of 458Gb or more of usable SSD storage space.