Out Of The SSD Game

[rjbarker]

Procyon is need of a new Boot Drive, I have installed a Vertex III 240 GB (All my Steam stuff), Intel G2 120GB Apps and my Intel G2 80GB (Boot Drive).

The old Intel G2 80GB (Boot Drive) has only 13GB available and have slower Boot up / down times, would like to replace it with a 160 - 180GB Drive, havent purchased an SSD in quite some time so wondering which is optimal......my Notebook also has a Vertex III 120GB and an Intel G2 80GB.

Looking at this Intel, any opinions much appreciated:

Intel 520 Series 180GB 2.5IN SSD MLC 25nm SATA3 Solid State Disk Drive Retail W/ Mounting Bracket - Intel - SSDSC2CW180A3K5

or:

OCZ Vertex 3 240GB 2.5IN SATA3 6Gbps Sandforce SF-2281 Solid State Disk Flash Drive SSD - OCZ Technology - VTX3-25SAT3-240G

[dandelioneater]

Those 2 are good drives. Another to look at is the crucial m4.

[Squeetard]

Intel 520 all the way. Best firmware on the market.

[SugarJ]

Agreed. My boot drive is a Intel 520 240GB.

[AkG]

Intel 520. Custom firmware. Useful toolbox. Its the best sf2281 on the market.

[Phill]

Samsung 830 256GB
Mushkin Chronos Deluxe 240GB

Personally if I was in need of a new SSD (I own and use 5 SSD atm) I would really look to get a Samsung drive. They are fast and reliable. Top to bottom they are entirely made by Samsung. Other than that my main SSD is a Chronos Deluxe 240GB. I like it. It also uses toggle nand and I highly recommend them.

If you are interested here is a link to a NCIX Tech Tips concerning the Samsung drives.
SSD Market Update Featuring Samsung 830 - Performance & Reliability NCIX Tech Tips - YouTube

[ipaine]

Go with the Intel 520, but do NOT get it from NCIX without price matching it, their prices are out there compared to the market right now. You can get the 240GB Intel for only $280 at Memory Express and possibly cheaper elsewhere.

Intel SSD 520 Series SATA III Solid State Drive, 240GB at Memory Express

[d3m0n5]

Intel 520 is not custom firmware. Some models have RAISE disabled hence higher performance.
Intel 520 or Kingston HyperX 3K are good choices. Stick to sync ONFI2 NAND for best performance.
OCZ=garbage, lots of failures in the field.
Alternatively Samsung 830 is a great drive at a great deal!

[AkG]

Rofl. Um yes the Intel 520 does indeed use custom IN-HOUSE firmware (that they spent over a year working on). SandForce opened up their code only for Intel. Thus the Intel 520 uses its OWN custom firmware. That is different than any other SF2281 drives. Is it based on stock?...of course. BUT because it IS custom firmware the Intel toolbox will fully work on a 520 but NOT on any other SF2281 drive. Dont beleive me? Try running the optimizer option in the toolbox on oh say a HyperX OR any non-Intel drive. ;)

The very fact you call one of the largest SSD providers with probably the largest group of models "garbage" just goes to show how biased you are.

Yes the 830 is good kit. I like it a lot. BUT the 520 w/ its toolbox is a better fit for most peoples needs. YMMV on this one and most peeps can NOT go wrong with either. ;)

[3.0charlie]

Thanks for the info; I needed a new SSD too for my son's lappy. I found a 520 (120Gb) for 129$ over the the 'egg...