128GB Vertex @ NCIX for $299!!

[AkG]

Nope, not suggesting 50 over 34. Its a crap shoot anyways on what you get. But most of the issues / teething pains with the newer 34nm based Indi's have been worked out now. Thats why (IIRC) there was tweaking done to the firmware flasher.

OCZ has great support and DO care about their cusomters. I just loathe the new layout to their forums.

It could be notebook vs desktop. I know I AWLAYS yank a SSD from a notebook and install it in my techstation to flash the firmware (But this is more habit as I have flashed to many to count SSDs on it...and had none go bad). I know RJBarker had probs with performance of his Indi on his laptop!

[rjbarker]

Just a note guys:
1. The Vertex is 120GB not 128GB
2. $300 after MIR of $40 is thesame price it was when I posted on here about 6 weeks ago.
3. MIR through OCZ is painless sent mine in about 3weeks ago, got confirmation it has been received and is now in "processing" stage
4. My 120GB Vertex DID ship with FW 1.5....I would assume that if mine did 6 weeks ago they all will now.
Intel is still shipping with old FW...Flashing is a breeze and must be done in order to use Intel Tool Box.

Listen to AkG re: Intel vs Vertex, I have both and tried both in my Tower and Notebook, the Intel G2 is certainly better as per 4K Read / Writes.....the only Bench I saw Vertex outperform Intel was Writes.

[MarkOne]

Originally Posted by AkG

If the two red ports are controlled by a separate sata controller you maybe able to set it separately to "raid" and not worry about the C drives setup ;)I

don't know about those 2 red connectors, they do not have raid setup, you just plug 2 disks and it look like raid 0, asus talk about dual channel ... I will give a try tonight

here the description :

Speeding HDD
Wait less. Play more!
Double your hard disk drive performance easily and affordably with Speeding HDD, a remarkable ROG feature that utilizes a dual channel design to enhance HDD transfer rates. Wait less, play more!

[technix]

Maybe this is a new perspective: for comparing, look at your current drives and what core programs you have installed with the main OS. Windows 7 takes about 15GB (from what I have read). Figure out how much more space you need for your most used programs and choose accordingly. I think 80GB will be sufficient so I'm leaning towards the Intel. The only thing I'm afraid of is that I will go with it and soon after, SSDs will be released with the Sandforce Controller and they'll out perform it. I don't care about that part but just want a good choice for the money. If the Sandforce ones are all way overpriced, then the Intel is easily the only choice for me.

I noticed some Sandforce controller SSDs are now on the market but the entry level, lowest capacity drives are $400 and change after taxes/shipping. Way too much, imho. I don't know if cheaper ones will become available but not looking good.

Just install programs that you don't use as often on a fast 7200rpm HDD and your data on a 'storage' 1TB (or more) HDD. That's my plan, anyway.

[lsquare]

Originally Posted by Delavan

AKG,

I'm buying an SSD (to use as OS drive) this week at NCIX, that's for sure. I NEED at least 80GB, but I prefer a 120/128GB, and I'm paying attention to your posts/reviews/answers to posts. I don't want to fork more that $350 including brackets (all mentioned models can be PMed to below $350).

The 120GB Vertex is really interesting, the price is really $340-$40 MIR (never dealt with OCZ for MIR before)....anyway I read somewhere that it's EOL...also, it doesn't ship with latest firmware, so there is a chance to brick it by updating from day 1?

The Indilinx-based one: The 120GB Vertex seems sweet, but EOL??? I looked on OCZs forum and a few people bricked their Vertex and Agility by updating firmware to 1.5 (TRIM support). Ocz techs are asking people to report their bricked drives for statistics and trying to find where the problem is.

I then read on the Falcon II (I know you prefer Falcon I). There is still issues with latest firmware (GSKILL forum) for the Falcon II (probably due to newer eco controller, newer tech.=teething pains). A few bricked drives there also

The Corsair Nova V128 seems nice also (fastest reads 270/writes 180 I've seen in specs, but apparently never reaching anything close to that) and sells for a good price (PM) and comes with the mounting brackets. A few bricked drives

Leaves me with the Intel X25-80GB G2...and it's the cheapest of the bunch (PMed), but that gets great reviews (I need a fast OS drive, so it's 4K perf. is what I'm looking at right?).

I know the Kingston offerings are low-mid tier to you and iffy (jm618 controller)...

Help!!!
I'm convinced about the usefulness of an SSD as an OS drive. BUT I don't want to regret my purchase by buying unreliable getting firmware bugs at first, install nightmares and such...

When you mention pricematching the Intel 80GB SSD, what's the lowest price that you got? I think Ncix is selling it for $233. I'm not sure if that's the lowest the drive has ever been.

[MrDiaz]

Originally Posted by lsquare

When you mention pricematching the Intel 80GB SSD, what's the lowest price that you got? I think Ncix is selling it for $233. I'm not sure if that's the lowest the drive has ever been.

Yup that's the cheapest it's ever been. I'm still waiting for more price drops, hard to justify this much for a drive

[technix]

Is the Vertex the best 120/128GB SSD out right now for the price?

I'm delaying, too. I don't know if I should go for the larger capacity. If it is for a Windows machine, then the 80GB Intel is enough, I think. But, if/when I get a SSD for the Linux side, I might want a larger capacity drive. I want to install VirtualBox on it. I assume it would run okay on a SSD? Man, having a cpu that is capable of hardware virtualization combined with the speed of SSD.... would probably fly!

[Digikid]

The Vertex is STILL a highly recommended drive regardless of what others may say.

[Delavan]

This is what I got from testing my Vertex 120GB this morning. I got it already running 1.5FW.
I also let it idle overnight to make sure it was TRIMmed.

The good thing is that it performs exactly as advertised (Max read: 250MB/s and Max write: 180MB/s).
My system behaves so different now! SPEED!!!

--------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 2.2 (C) 2007-2008 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : Crystal Dew World
--------------------------------------------------

Sequential Read : 252.223 MB/s
Sequential Write : 174.366 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 185.063 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 188.531 MB/s
Random Read 4KB : 32.343 MB/s
Random Write 4KB : 10.980 MB/s

Test Size : 100 MB
Date : 2010/03/20 8:02:06

[AkG]

Originally Posted by Digikid

The Vertex is STILL a highly recommended drive regardless of what others may say.

+1 to that Digikid

The full speed Indilinx Barefoot controller SSDs (Vertex/Torqx/Flacon/etc) are some of the best 12xGB drives out there. If the dif in cost between a Falcon 1 and Falcon 2 or Corsair X and Corsair Nova or Vertex and Agility is LESS than 10% then they are also a great deal (IMHO the dif between an Agility and Vertex or F1 and F2 is about 10% on avg).