A Beginner's Guide to Choosing a Solid State Drive [SSD]

[do33grs]

I just got this one from the egg and used it on my build: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148450
Crucial M4 CT512M4SSD2CCA 2.5" 512GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) with Transfer Kit
This setup is very fast, running 2 VMWare (Windows 7 and Windows 8RC) systems in addition to Lion 10.7.4.
I bought the entire kit from the egg and ended up having to return the CPU (unopened, of course) because I did not order the K designation.
Anyway, I have an early 2011 MacBook Pro and this machine really smokes it!! I wanted to thank everyone for this great site and will definitely continue to follow. I will click through a contribution as well!

 

[powerpcg5]

I'm planning on jumping into the SSD bandwagon in the next few months.

I've pretty much made up my mind to go with Intel SSDs. Yeah, more expensive at about $1.60/GB as opposed to $0.58/GB from OCZ but I think it will be very much worth it.

Hey timbck2, any feedback on those hybrid drives? I know it's not going to have SSD performance, but is the performance vs. a pure mechanical hard drive noticeable?

 

[thelostswede]

timbck2 - thanks for the info, might be helpful to some

 

[thelostswede]

Good news
Intel is about to drop its pricing next month, but more on that in a separate post a little later.

I'm planning on jumping into the SSD bandwagon in the next few months.

I've pretty much made up my mind to go with Intel SSDs. Yeah, more expensive at about $1.60/GB as opposed to $0.58/GB from OCZ but I think it will be very much worth it.

Hey timbck2, any feedback on those hybrid drives? I know it's not going to have SSD performance, but is the performance vs. a pure mechanical hard drive noticeable?

 

[powerpcg5]

One of the reasons why I'm thinking of going Intel. This is an interesting read for everyone.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/5508/inte ... sandforce/

At the end of the day that's what Intel really brings to the table with the 520. As you'll soon see, performance isn't very different compared to other SF-2281 based drives. Intel's biggest advantage comes from the unique firmware that ships with the drive. Intel is also quick to point out that while other SF-2281 manufacturers can purchase the same Intel 25nm MLC NAND used on the 520, only Intel's drives get the absolute highest quality bins and only Intel knows how best to manage/interact with the NAND on a firmware level. While it's nearly impossible to prove most of this, the fact that we're still able to reproduce a BSOD on the latest publicly available SF-2281 firmware but not on the SF-2281 based Intel SSD 520 does say a lot about what you're paying for with this drive.

Bottomline: Just because they're all using the same chipsets, controller/technology, doesn't mean they're all equal

 

[ninetto]

I don't want to throw a wet blanket on this discussion or anything, but I thought I'd contribute my experiences with OCZ SSDs.. When I get the replacement, it's going up on eBay - I've had it with OCZ's SSDs.

That's 4 total failures out of the two drives I initially purchased, in two different PCs (so I can't - not a very good record. Keep in mind that I wasn't doing anything unusual with these drives - my Hackintosh is for normal home use (web browsing, word processing, listening to music - which is stored on a Seagate hybrid drive, not on the SSD by the way), and my work PC is for software development.

So in my opinion those bargain OCZ SSDs aren't such a bargain.

I have to confirm timbck2 negative experience with OCZ-drives : at least as far as the Petrol and Agility-3 series go. I had both a Petrol 128GB and also an Agility-3 both failed within 2 months. Re-flashing the firmware brought the Agility-3 back to life, but after spontaneous corruption like that, you really do not want to continue using such a drive.
Yes, OCZs are usually the cheapest, but in this case you get what you pay for, as Swede's post also emphasized.

One other point that seems important: SSD-drives are rarely shipped with current firmware, and the development is in constant flux, so the first thing anyone who buys an SSD drive should do is check for the newest firmware for the drive. Often you can avoid some grief and poor performance simply by updating the firmware.

 

[thelostswede]

Indeed, but the same applies to the Marvell drives and just about any other SSD.
As I wrote, the so called Indilinx Vertex 4 drives from OCZ are in fact Marvell controllers with an Indilinx firmware installed.

 

[Shuckey]

What about SSD drives from OWC? I know the Enterprise grade is SUPER EXPENSIVE. But what about the other 6G grades, Electra and Extreme? I didn't see too many specs on those but they tout over provisioning, wear leveling, RAISE, and a few other words that are uninformative. Could someone expand on some of those?

http://www.amazon.com/120GB-OWC-Mercury-Electra-2-5-inch/dp/B005NIP07C/

http://www.amazon.com/120GB-OWC-Mercury-Extreme-2-5-inch/dp/B005OW48SY/

 

[Melete]

Tmbck2 - So which drives do you use now?

Initially I only used OCZ for two reasons 1. The support forum looked more active than others however I didn't use it (no fails) so cannot say for sure and 2. They are a good price and we definitely pay a little more over the pond.

So what are Intel upto now/next?

 

[thelostswede]

What about SSD drives from OWC? I know the Enterprise grade is SUPER EXPENSIVE. But what about the other 6G grades, Electra and Extreme? I didn't see too many specs on those but they tout over provisioning, wear leveling, RAISE, and a few other words that are uninformative. Could someone expand on some of those?

http://www.amazon.com/120GB-OWC-Mercury-Electra-2-5-inch/dp/B005NIP07C/

http://www.amazon.com/120GB-OWC-Mercury-Extreme-2-5-inch/dp/B005OW48SY/

All that is SandForce marketing related stuff, pretty much at least.

RAISE - http://www.sandforce.com/index.php?id=174&parentId=3

Over provisioning means you get less space for your money, but your SSD will in theory last long as you have xGB set aside that can be used when NAND cells die. This is generally not so much the case with consumer level SSDs, but it's also more of an issue on SandForce based drives that other SSDs for some reason.

Wear levelling is quite important, but it's something all modern SSD controllers features. What it means is that the data is written in an even way across all of the NAND flash cells and it's another way to make the flash memory last longer.

Hope that answers your questions.