buying 120g ssd,narrowed down to 3,which one,and

[mediasorcerer]

if you could choose one of these 3...

kingston hx 120gb-sf2281,
vertex 3 120gb-sf2200,
patriot wfire 120gb,sf2200 ,?

they are all same price,which one would you recommend?im leaning towards kingston ,dont know why,

also,has anyone had experience setting up intel smart response tech?

[crazyeyesreaper]

depends on whats cheapest

i know ill be grabbing a Crucial M4 to avoid the SF 2200 + controllers issues on certain motherboards do to power saving features etc,

altho from what i remember

Kingstons Hyper X ssds that were recently tested are the fastest SSDs out there i dont think it matters much as you wont notice a difference between them in day to day tasks or gaming or anything

hell even the M4 128gb thats $10 cheaper you wont notice any difference, i guess just pick which ever one looks sexier?

[mediasorcerer]

yeh,i hear ya,the kingston looks sexy too,maybe thats why i was onto it,lol,whats the diff with the 2200 and 2281? if u happen to know,?i notuice the vertex on the website im buying from is 2200,not 2281?

do you have any idea how the intel smart response tech works? heard anything bout it,ps thanx for you response,it helps,i had a vertex 2 last year in my laptop,it was a solid drive,i never had a problem over 8 mnths or so usage,even managed to update firmware too on it,eventually.

i figure its better to spend 60$ and go for the synchronous nand etc. there is the corsair force[120] sata 6 for 60$ less,....but.

i know what u mean about noticing the diff,im a thinking more in terms of,reliability and performance degradation over time,

[TheOne]

Originally Posted by mediasorcerer

yeh,i hear ya,the kingston looks sexy too,maybe thats why i was onto it,lol,whats the diff with the 2200 and 2281? if u happen to know,?i notuice the vertex on the website im buying from is 2200,not 2281?

The information just isn't fully filled in, all three of those use the SF-2281 controller, Newegg does that with a number of the SF-2281 drives they sell.

Originally Posted by mediasorcerer

do you have any idea how the intel smart response tech works? heard anything bout it,ps thanx for you response,it helps,i had a vertex 2 last year in my laptop,it was a solid drive,i never had a problem over 8 mnths or so usage,even managed to update firmware too on it,eventually.

Smart Response Technology (SRT) lets you turn a small SSD into a cache, it stores data that is used more frequently on the SSD so that you can have the speed of an SSD with the storage capacity of a HDD. OCZ's latest/upcoming SSD, the Synapse Cache, uses Dataplex software that allows the drive to be used as a cache, which allows users who do not have a Z68 motherboard to use an SSD as a cache, it also uses the SF-2281 controller.

Here is some more in depth information on SRT:

AnandTech - Intel Z68 Chipset & Smart Response Technology (SSD Caching) Review
HardwareSecrets - Intel Smart Response Technology Explained
HardOCP - Intel Smart Response Technology - SRT

Originally Posted by mediasorcerer

i figure its better to spend 60$ and go for the synchronous nand etc. there is the corsair force[120] sata 6 for 60$ less,....but.

i know what u mean about noticing the diff,im a thinking more in terms of,reliability and performance degradation over time,

As Crazy mentioned the SF-2281 controller has compatibility problems right now with some systems, though drive manufacturers say that the majority of users have no problems. The Marvell based drives are supposed to be pretty reliable and the Crucial M4 is supposed to be a nice drive, Samsung is also about to release their new series of SATAIII SSD's (Samsung 830) to replace their old SATAII SSD's (Samsung 470), reviews show the new 830's to be fast drives, but not record breakers.

[Inioch]

I can vote for the Crucial m4, bought it a few days ago and it's indeed very snappy. I chose it just because of the reported problems with SF-2200 series drives. I just wanted to be on the safe side and the m4's are no slouches either. The perf/$ is great and the new Samsung 830 can't beat these there.

Boot times are great and overall windows feels faster. Haven't experimented too much with game load times but they are a bit faster too.

I have it installed on the Marvell on-board controller using msahci driver for trim so it's not the fastest in benchmarks. With those Z68 boards and Intel 6G controllers they are even faster.

[mediasorcerer]

Originally Posted by TheOne

The information just isn't fully filled in, all three of those use the SF-2281 controller, Newegg does that with a number of the SF-2281 drives they sell.



Smart Response Technology (SRT) lets you turn a small SSD into a cache, it stores data that is used more frequently on the SSD so that you can have the speed of an SSD with the storage capacity of a HDD. OCZ's latest/upcoming SSD, the Synapse Cache, uses Dataplex software that allows the drive to be used as a cache, which allows users who do not have a Z68 motherboard to use an SSD as a cache, it also uses the SF-2281 controller.

Here is some more in depth information on SRT:

AnandTech - Intel Z68 Chipset & Smart Response Technology (SSD Caching) Review
HardwareSecrets - Intel Smart Response Technology Explained
HardOCP - Intel Smart Response Technology - SRT



As Crazy mentioned the SF-2281 controller has compatibility problems right now with some systems, though drive manufacturers say that the majority of users have no problems. The Marvell based drives are supposed to be pretty reliable and the Crucial M4 is supposed to be a nice drive, Samsung is also about to release their new series of SATAIII SSD's (Samsung 830) to replace their old SATAII SSD's (Samsung 470), reviews show the new 830's to be fast drives, but not record breakers.

great response ,thank you,will check out those links right now,

ive heard about the compatibility probs,they happened with the v-2,s too,but i never had any,maybe it was the way i installed/formatted,dont know,cos ive got the z68 board,might as well try it out the intel smart response cacheing etc,.damn i love tech haha!! especially new ideas etc.so much to learn,yeh those samsungs look good,a bit of competition to intels series/reliability etc.

good stuff,cheers.

[mediasorcerer]

so it seems the limit on the cache size is 64 gb, which means theres no point in buying a ssd over that size?,i already have a 500g wd sata 6,better off to buy a 120 and just put os on that,data on the spinner,srt is only useful if one cant afford a larger ssd,thanx man,i just learnt something today,g1.

there is a vertex plus 60 gb sata 2,on the website for 79$,that may be a cheap compromise instead of a 120 gb sata3/6gb for 270$

what u think?

[rfowler30]

vertex 3 120g, fast as all hell. would highly recommend. dont believe me, check out my scores in the "post your hdds" thread. im currently at the top for single ssds. http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=151860

[mediasorcerer]

Originally Posted by rfowler30

vertex 3 120g, fast as all hell. would highly recommend. dont believe me, check out my scores in the "post your hdds" thread. im currently at the top for single ssds. http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=151860

wow,its certainly holding its own and more,have you done os tweaks etc to enhance performance,such as is recommended on ocz website?damn,i want one now,was leaning to the kingston,for a change,i had a 120 g v-2 last year,that was a good drive,never gave me any probs,sometimes i think u can luck out with ssd,s,or its the way people install the os on them that conflicts maybe.good post and thanx!!!

[rfowler30]

i didnt tweak anything just installed windows 7 x64 bit, BUT MAKE SURE YOU PLACE YOUR SATA III CABLE IN THE INTEL P67 or WHATEVER MOBO YOU USE IN YOUR INTEL SATA III PORT. gained an average of 120mb read speeds just by switch from the marvel ports. dont use marvel, use intel. also dont install intel speed step drivers or anything related to drivers. found that slows them down, format your ssd so its fresh, and install windows and BAM your set.

[mediasorcerer]

duly noted bro,cheers.