Choosing my first SSD

[ShareShiz]

Hello all,

 

I am about to get a SSD for my laptop. Yeay speed!

 

The drive in choice is....

 

Patriot Blaze 2.5" 240GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) @ $99.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220895

 

 

I am choosing this one because it is what I have found to be the best GB per $ while also being fast. I was deciding on this one vs the 120gb, and chose this one because of the 512MB cache vs the 32MB cache. All other specs were pretty much identical.

 

I would just like to know, is this a good and reliable drive. I was also looking at the Samsung EVO's, but the price / GB was kind of out of my range.

[Mindovermaster Moderator]

Crucial MX100 is a lot better, no, not the cheapest, but the most reliability.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148820&cm_re=crucial_ssd-_-20-148-820-_-Product

 

^On sale, too..

[+E.Worm Jimmy Subscriber¹]

Crucial MX100

 

 

!!!

[ctebah]

Crucial MX100 FTW.

[Jason S. Global Moderator]

yep. i'd agree w/ the other posters. (Y)

[ShareShiz]

I think I was looking at that one on newegg too... but the write speeds are not as good as the Patriot.

[Mindovermaster Moderator]

BS, so you get a few more killabytes. ANY SSD is faster than your platter HDD. Unless you are compiling data day in, day out, read/write speed means s**t...

[ShareShiz]

535MBps vs 300MBps

[Mindovermaster Moderator]

Max Sequential Read Up to 550 MBps  up to 530MB/s 

Max Sequential Write Up to 300 MBps  up to 430MB/s 

 

crucial on left, patriot on right, dunno where your getting your quotes.

[farmeunit]

Not to mention, for the vast majority of operations you'll be reading anyway, not writing.  I would go Crucial as well

[compl3x]

I'm an advocate of Samsung's Pro or EVO series. What is this drive going to hold, ShareShiz? If it is just the OS and your day-to-day software I doubt you'd need a lot of capacity. I have a 120 GB SSD (EVO) and it does me just fine.

 

I think Anandtech has some comparison charts. Even the worst SSD is going to be like Usain Bolt racing a crippled child when comparing an SSD and a mechanical HDD.

[Brandon H Supervisor]

the fact that I haven't heard of Patriot and that the drive you listed has no reviews worries me a little

 

If I were you (especially since it's your first SSD) I'd go with a known reputable brand like Samsung or Crucial

 

you can't go wrong with the Crucial MX100 or the Samsung 840 Pro/EVO (or especially the 850 Pro if you're willing to spend a little more)

[primexx]

If you can afford a Samsung 850 Pro, it's the absolute best. But if you want something that's actually cost effective, the Crucial SSDs are the best for the buck.

[compl3x]

I know that Samsung backs thier SSDs with a 3 year warranty, how do the other manufacturers fare?

[Mindovermaster Moderator]

Both Corsair and Patriot has 3 year warranty. So don't say Samsungs has a "special 3 year warranty". They all do.

[Praetor]

Get an ioDrive 2 http://www.fusionio.com/products/iodrive2/

[compl3x]

Both Corsair and Patriot has 3 year warranty. So don't say Samsungs has a "special 3 year warranty". They all do.

 

 

Gee, lucky for me I didn't say that Samsung offers any kind of special warranty. I didn't even imply it. I only know Samsung's policy because I buy Samsung SSDs, which, according to most of the benchmarks I've read seem to out-perform their competition.

[Mindovermaster Moderator]

When would you ever need to use those benchmarks? I call it fanboyism... An MX100, in real-life use, is as good as any other SSD of this age.

[francescob]

I wouldn't buy anything but Samsung after reading how many write cycles their new 3d V-NAND can actually last.

[The Evil Overlord]

I would throw in a vote for Kingston SSd's but there are cheaper options available

[HoochieMamma]

Either a Intel 730 or a Samsung 850

[Mockingbird]

Crucial MX100

[compl3x]

When would you ever need to use those benchmarks? I call it fanboyism... An MX100, in real-life use, is as good as any other SSD of this age.

 

 

I'm sure it probably is. As I said earlier, even the worst performing SSD is leaps and bounds ahead of their mechanical cousins. I'm not ragging on the competition, I can only offer my opinion about the products I actually own.

 

When I was doing research for my first SSD purchase the overwhelming consensus was that Samsung's PRO/EVO series out performed their competitors. I can admit that some of the technical stuff is way over my head, but for those who do this stuff seriously they seem to highly recommend what Samsung is selling. Oddly enough, I have a friend who simply refuses to buy a Samsung SSD because it is made by Samsung. I have no idea how he rationalises his aversion to this particular brand.

 

I say buy what you need with the amount of money you are willing to part with. :)

[francescob]

When talking about computer hardware choosing just by brand/series is becoming completely useless. Any brand could sell garbage, even a single hardware revision or production batch could be defective garbage. Just go with the model with the best performance/user review score/price ratio. You can usually rule defective hardware out when looking for the reviews on amazon/newegg.

 

I never had any piece of hardware die since I started looking at reviews before everything else. Of course the more experience with hardware you have the more you can also avoid being tricked by bogus reviews (e.g. people complaining something doesn't work likely due to their own configuration or other broken hardware or DoAs due to shipping, of which there are plenty). Being able to buy hard drives that last years or videocards without evil VRAM chips from hell that die just after the warranty expires = priceless.

[theholmboy]

I have bought ~50 SSDs (in a variety of brands) since 2011 and I am surprised there are so few recommendations here for Intel. Their prices are more competitive than they used to be and their 5 year warranties are simply the best.  I have purchased ~15 of them over the years and have only had to warranty service one of them.  The two in my kids gaming rigs have been going strong for 3 years now.  Of course Crucial & Samsung are good too...