Solid State Drives

[Boat Van]

I was going to ask my parents for a SSD for Christmas. Does anyone here know a good, reliable brand/model? 60-80gb range.

Thanks in advance.

[Atrayu Yung]

I've had good luck with the OCZ Agility 3. I have the 120gb but the 60 should run the same. All of them however have a lot of negative reviews, but so far I haven't had any problems.

[Apocnow36]

For some reason I have come to like Mushkin. I currently own a Mushkin Solid State Drive and it is definitely faster, and I have had no problems with it. Granted I've only had it for a few months, so time will tell.

I myself was rather hesitant to buy a SSD due to all of the bad reviews on Newegg, mainly about drive failures. However, price has come down and Mushkin is apparently known for quality. The OCZ series 3 SSDs have been receiving good reviews as well.


(Btw, I have had a set of 8gb of Mushkin Ram in my computer since 2008 with no problems)

[ObiBen]

Kingston had a really bad production run for a bit, which caused some very defective drives, but as far as I know, it has been shored up; that was a big black eye for SSDs, but other than that, I want one myself. By the way, they are used exclusively in the MacBook Air, so if there were major issues with them, you know Apple wouldn't do that.

[mrmarko]

I've been toying around with them for a while.

Firstly I'd go for a 120gb drive - anything smaller will be relegated to either just the operating system or a few games.

As to get the full beneift you need the OS + the game on the drive a 60 isn't big enough.

In regards to the makes,

I've currently got a 120g OCZ Agility 3 - while mine now works fine, I had to update the firmware (something the less tech savy may not be that keen on doing) - the OCZ + a few other brands all use the "sandforce drivers" all of which have been linked to various different issues.

If I was to purchase one now,

I'd go for the Crucial M4 128g SSD.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Crucial-CT128M4Solid-State-Drive2-128GB/dp/B004W2JKZI/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1321863929&sr=8-2

It's fast & is incredibly reliable, it also does not use the sand-force drivers (which are causing most of the SSD problems atm).

Hope that help.

[Taburz]

OCZ SSDs are repackaged. If you can spare a few bucks then buy something else.

Edit: I just upgraded my computer with an Intel SSD and I want it to have my baby, and by just upgraded I mean yesterday.

[Boat Van]

Taburz wrote:

I just upgraded my computer with an Intel SSD and I want it to have my baby, and by just upgraded I mean yesterday.

It's strange, but I can identify with the urge to have babies with hardware. The 6950 I just picked up is giving me similar feelings. :3


I've been hearing good things about Intel from friends, I am leaning in that direction. As far as storage capacity goes, I think 60-80 is enough for me, I'll put the OS and alias a few games from the steam program files.

Thanks a lot for the advice guys.

[ATownArmy]

I'm also upgrading my HDDs. Right now I'm looking at a 750GB WD Scorpio Black to keep media on, but for games and OS, I want to find a good ~250GB SSD, and I have no idea which one to go for. Browsing TigerDirect and Newegg a lot, but if anyone has some good recommendations, I'd love to hear them. I'll also probably go to Windows 7, but we'll see.

[Boat Van]

Lets not forget, you get this sticker when you buy a OCZ SSD

[mrmarko]

Boat Van wrote:

Lets not forget, you get this sticker when you buy a OCZ SSD

Best thing about my OCZ drive (I had BSOD problems for ages).

Crucial m4 128g is the one to get if you want a fast & reliable SSD (for a good price).

Windows 7 is pretty much mandatory now, vista was a joke & XP is too old.

Nothing beats games loading in seconds, OS booting in no time.

[mrmarko]

Boat Van wrote:

Lets not forget, you get this sticker when you buy a OCZ SSD

Best thing about my OCZ drive (I had BSOD problems for ages).

Crucial m4 128g is the one to get if you want a fast & reliable SSD (for a good price).

Windows 7 is pretty much mandatory now, vista was a joke & XP is too old.

Nothing beats games loading in seconds, OS booting in no time.

[Boat Van]

mrmarko wrote:

Nothing beats games loading in seconds, OS booting in no time.

Most Definitely. I cant wait for when typing my password is the slowest part of booting up.

[AstralProjection]

Hehe, you all have me jealous : ) I've been eyeballing an 80 GB Intel SSD for a while, just haven't pulled the trigger yet due to higher living expenses lately. Good to know about the sand-force drivers too, I hadn't heard that the problems people complained of with SSDs were driver based, but I believe it. Crappy drivers are the cause of lots of problems with new PC hardware.

Of course, I also need a new computer chair, because the kids broke mine and now it wobbles like an old drunk after last call, and it seems I may need to replace my bloody headset now as well, because my Mic keeps cutting out in vent and robbing my sentences of the joy of full actualization.

It never ends.../sigh. I'm just happy at how beautifully TOR runs on my machine currently, it's probably the only reason I didn't spend money I shouldn't on a SSD already.

[Taic]

I have been eyeing them for a while as well. Since I'm buying a desktop, and I work at Intel and have a discount, I want to upgrade to it eventually. With the amount of ultrabooks hitting the market, I'm hoping the price will go down early next year when the next gen hits the market.

[Zoron Ror]

SSD's sound great, can you just hook these up to a SATA power and data cable like a hard drive or do you need a new motherboard?