Solid State Drives

[Exile_Chavez]

As prices continue to drop on these drives, the market for them becomes oh so much more tempting. So I have decided to enter it. But I have read a number of reviews on some of the newer SSDs and they have been terrible, people BSODing all over the place, drive crashing, constant firmware updates, and frankly I don't want to deal with that. Is it just because they are new, or failures?

I was originally looking at the OCZ Vertex or Agility 2 60gb around this time last year, which are the ones I am still looking at but I wanted to see what ones you guys find the best of the best, and to get a second opinion. Also any recommendations are nice, I plan to use this as a windows boot drive and I will be installing my Unreal Development Engine on it also, possibly 1 game.

 

[rfowler30]

my ocz vertex 2 80gb ssd performs great, i havnt had to update the firmware for it all. i use it mostly for the operating system but i do have a few games installed on it such as doom 3 and a few emulators. it performs great, havnt had any problems with it. ppl told me you cant format an ssd, but there wrong . i bet the ocz vertex 3 is faster though so i would consider that(im still mad i bought my ocz vertex 2 right around the launch of the vertex 3 a few months after i made my purchase).

 

[surfsk8snow.jah]

I've been doing tons of research and reading lately, lots of forum posting - imho your best bet at the time is the Intel 510 SSD, at whatever size you can afford. The bigger the size, the better the performance (the disk has more 'breathing room'). But you can also RAID 0 two drives for >2x the performance for the same price/GB typically.

A lot depends on your mobo compatibility also (chipset, controllers, SATA II or III, etc). But after all my research, I just swapped an Intel 510 into my setup, replacing my RAID 0 Raptors, and I've noticed a significant increase of snappiness - and Intel makes it easy to clone your drive too, they provide a tool for free - I did it within a few hours in one night (inlcluding backing all my data up).

All the current SandForce SSDs run a small increment faster than the Intel in some areas, but not all. And the SSDs that are run by the current SandForce controller are having serious reliability issues. I would recommend waiting on those for a bit until that cools down, if you really want SandForce max throughput. But Intel is considerably more reliable in all areas, and basically as fast in realworld applications. (With the exception of the Intel 320 SSD, rarely its having a weird shrinking problem).

I recommend reading through a few Anandtech and Tom's Hardware articles (roundups are nice) to compare your options. But my choice is Intel 510.

 

[TheOne]

As prices continue to drop on these drives, the market for them becomes oh so much more tempting. So I have decided to enter it. But I have read a number of reviews on some of the newer SSDs and they have been terrible, people BSODing all over the place, drive crashing, constant firmware updates, and frankly I don't want to deal with that. Is it just because they are new, or failures?

I was originally looking at the OCZ Vertex or Agility 2 60gb around this time last year, which are the ones I am still looking at but I wanted to see what ones you guys find the best of the best, and to get a second opinion. Also any recommendations are nice, I plan to use this as a windows boot drive and I will be installing my Unreal Development Engine on it also, possibly 1 game.

The new drives, Vertex 3, Agility 3, Solid 3, Force 3, Force GT, HyperX, etc, use the latest SandForce controller, the SF-2281, which has compatibility problems with a number of systems, SandForce is working with the manufacturers to try and find a solution, they released a new Firmware update at the beginning of this month, but it didn't help that many users.

And if you go with a SATAII SSD try to make sure it uses 34nm NAND, some companies started switching to 25nm NAND to lower the cost of the drives, but the 25nm is slower on the drives and has a shorter life. OCZ got into a bit of trouble with this when they switched the NAND to 25nm on their Vertex 2 drives and then users were finding their drives weren't performing as advertised.

 

[Exile_Chavez]

The OCZ Vertex and Agility should be running on the old reliable sandforce right? Because back when I read up on them they were 100% beastly according to everyone. And the difference in speed between the 2nd and 3rd series can't really be that much, so from this I'm thinking either the Vertex 2(that 34nm you were talking about) or the Agility 2, because they sound like the best bet.

 

[TheOne]

The OCZ Vertex and Agility should be running on the old reliable sandforce right? Because back when I read up on them they were 100% beastly according to everyone. And the difference in speed between the 2nd and 3rd series can't really be that much, so from this I'm thinking either the Vertex 2(that 34nm you were talking about) or the Agility 2, because they sound like the best bet.

The Vertex 2 and Agility 2 do run on the older Gen1 controllers from SandForce. As for the speed, on a SATAII port the SATAII Vertex 2 and Agility 2 would be best, on SATAIII the Vertex 3 and Agility 3 would be far faster, but you take a chance on stability. Personally I would get a Vertex 2 34nm version.

 

[onethreehill]

If you have SATA 6Gb/s interface on your motherboard get a SATA 6Gb/s SSD.
Crucial m4 is using a Marvell controller.
Personally, I will buy a SSD with a SandForce SF-2281 controller in a heartbeat

 

[twicksisted]

I got a Corsair Force GT 120gb drive and its been nothing but problems. Wish id gone with the Intel 510!

I have followed all the fixes on the corsair forums and the firmware update but still cant use the drive on a SATA III port without freezes and BSOD's. Very annoying!

 

[Hotobu]

Currently I have the Adata S511. I do get some random issues about one a day. I think the problem is when it comes back up from being idle. I haven't had the time to really look into it and since it's within my return policy I'm just going to exchange it. I definitely could make more of an effort to rectify the problem, but it probably makes the most sense to exchange it for now.

I think I've only had to restart once when actively using my it (I've had it for around 8 days).

 

[TheOne]

Currently I have the Adata S511. I do get some random issues about one a day. I think the problem is when it comes back up from being idle. I haven't had the time to really look into it and since it's within my return policy I'm just going to exchange it. I definitely could make more of an effort to rectify the problem, but it probably makes the most sense to exchange it for now.

I think I've only had to restart once when actively using my it (I've had it for around 8 days).

Just make sure if you get another drive that it doesn't use the Gen2 controller from SandForce, otherwise you will probably have the same issues.

 

[Hotobu]

Unfortunately that couldn't be helped as I could only exchange it for the same one. I figure I will end up with the same issues, but meh couldn't hurt to try, or something... I guess.

 

[ERazer]

+1 on intel 510, have no issues from day one! might not be the fastest new ssd around but have the best reliabilty/performace

 

[RejZoR]

Don't have any problems with Corsair Force 3 120GB either. Though i'm running it in netbook using IDE mode SATA on WinXP...

 

[Woomack]

There are mainly power management issues with all SATA3 SSD on new Intel chipsets ( read P67/H67/X68 ). There is simple way to fix it with new firmware, manually editing windows registry or enabling hot swap for SATA3 in board BIOS. Other issues are harder to fix and affect only new SandForce SSD including all OCZ, Corsair, AData and other brands. So far all are working on better firmware for almost 6 months and it's still not stable so I doubt it's only firmware matter.
For now I can recommend Crucial M4 that is not much slower than SF in daily usage ( in some cases even faster ). Intel 500 series cost some more and are a bit slower than Crucial ( like anyone see it in daily use ) but are good choice too.

 

[twicksisted]

There are mainly power management issues with all SATA3 SSD on new Intel chipsets ( read P67/H67/X68 ). There is simple way to fix it with new firmware, manually editing windows registry or enabling hot swap for SATA3 in board BIOS. Other issues are harder to fix and affect only new SandForce SSD including all OCZ, Corsair, AData and other brands. So far all are working on better firmware for almost 6 months and it's still not stable so I doubt it's only firmware matter.
For now I can recommend Crucial M4 that is not much slower than SF in daily usage ( in some cases even faster ). Intel 500 series cost some more and are a bit slower than Crucial ( like anyone see it in daily use ) but are good choice too.

ive applied all of the registry tweaks and the different firmwares to no avail, im left with running my SATA III 6GB/s SSD drive in sata II mode and its stable but much slower... by stable i mean i only lock up every 3 days or so now or BSOD

 

[TheOne]

There are mainly power management issues with all SATA3 SSD on new Intel chipsets ( read P67/H67/X68 ). There is simple way to fix it with new firmware, manually editing windows registry or enabling hot swap for SATA3 in board BIOS. Other issues are harder to fix and affect only new SandForce SSD including all OCZ, Corsair, AData and other brands. So far all are working on better firmware for almost 6 months and it's still not stable so I doubt it's only firmware matter.
For now I can recommend Crucial M4 that is not much slower than SF in daily usage ( in some cases even faster ). Intel 500 series cost some more and are a bit slower than Crucial ( like anyone see it in daily use ) but are good choice too.

Samsung released their new SATAIII SSD's to OEM's this month, the numbers they report are promising. (500MB/s Read and 350MB/s Write)

 

[happita]

ive applied all of the registry tweaks and the different firmwares to no avail, im left with running my SATA III 6GB/s SSD drive in sata II mode and its stable but much slower... by stable i mean i only lock up every 3 days or so now or BSOD

Stories like this are just sad. It's mostly Sandforce's fault. They release their 2nd or 3rd generation controller before going through all of the quality control procedures that would have prevented problems occurring in all these different brands of SSDs and the manufacturers are left to pick up the pieces to try to salvage what's left. They do it to the best of their ability, but can't fix every one of them and then the problems are tacked onto us. It's just bullshit. I had a lotta respect for Sandforce when they had their controller in lots of SATA 2 SSDs, but ever since they put em in the SATA 3's, nothing but problems. This is the main reason why I haven't jumped ship to SSD land yet. Price has gotten to be about $2/GB and in some instances a little less, so I have no reason not too except for this instability nonsense. If the problem is stemming from 25nm chips, then manufacturers need to start putting that in their spec sheets because I don't see ANY indication of what node of memory chips any SSD uses.
/rant

 

[LAN_deRf_HA]

For now I can recommend Crucial M4 that is not much slower than SF in daily usage ( in some cases even faster ). Intel 500 series cost some more and are a bit slower than Crucial ( like anyone see it in daily use ) but are good choice too.

Also has more usable area than sandforce drives. Really happy with my M4, been rock solid.

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

get a ocz revox3 you would have faster everything and less issues .. needs a spare slot tho

 

[TheOne]

Stories like this are just sad. It's mostly Sandforce's fault. They release their 2nd or 3rd generation controller before going through all of the quality control procedures that would have prevented problems occurring in all these different brands of SSDs and the manufacturers are left to pick up the pieces to try to salvage what's left. They do it to the best of their ability, but can't fix every one of them and then the problems are tacked onto us. It's just bullshit. I had a lotta respect for Sandforce when they had their controller in lots of SATA 2 SSDs, but ever since they put em in the SATA 3's, nothing but problems. This is the main reason why I haven't jumped ship to SSD land yet. Price has gotten to be about $2/GB and in some instances a little less, so I have no reason not too except for this instability nonsense. If the problem is stemming from 25nm chips, then manufacturers need to start putting that in their spec sheets because I don't see ANY indication of what node of memory chips any SSD uses.
/rant

The drives using 32nm toggle NAND have the same problems as the 25nm drives.

 

[Woomack]

Also has more usable area than sandforce drives. Really happy with my M4, been rock solid.

I had so many problems with Agility 3 that I changed it to M4 and now I have 2x M4 in RAID0 that are working without any problems on 2nd board.

get a ocz revox3 you would have faster everything and less issues .. needs a spare slot tho

Nice product but kinda expensive and I don't know what with 3rd gen of revo but 1st/2nd had some problems with compatibility on some boards and with steam ( if anyone is using it for games ). I don't know if it was solved or not.

Btw there is new firmware for M4 if anyone is interested:
http://www.crucial.com/support/firmware.aspx
http://forum.crucial.com/t5/Solid-State-Drives-SSD/Firmware-Update-Notifications/m-p/61107#M18802