Which SSD for my Desktop PC ?

By Inertia
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Grand Master

Inertia

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I;m choosing an SSD For my Desktop PC, the core hardware is a little dated, but it does what I need, however i'm running out of space, and may as well get faster storage while I am at it .

 

My big files are kept on a file server not on the PC itself.

 

CPU - Intel Core i7 2600K

RAM - 32GB of DDR3 1833mhz (Corsair Vengance) (I build and test Hyper-V Virtual Machine son this workstation before deploying them to online servers, so yes this is justified)

Motherboard - Gigabyte Z68AP-D3

GPU - Radeon 7970 (I game a little, never get much time)

 

Current Storage = 2 x Samsung SSD 840 EVO 120GB

 

One drive is for the OS and installed software, the other for installed games an VM storage.

 

My budget is about

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Grand Master

+Fahim S. MVC

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I'd go for the 1TB.  An extra 500GB (or so) of high performance space would be better than slightly better performance but half as much space.

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Grand Master

Inertia

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I did that with my 2 x 120gb initially using software RAID and the performance was actually slower.

turning off Raid 0 and having single drives made my system quicker, and benchmarks better too.

Software raid is pretty weak.

 

I think a good quality hardware raid controller would increase the throughput, but is it worth the hassle / cost ?

 

I'm pretty sure i'm going to get a 1TB Evo 850 on Monday, 

 

Thanks

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Grand Master

+Fahim S. MVC

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May I ask, are the Samsung EVO better than the Samsung Pro?

 

No - that's why they are cheaper.

The Pro, as I understand it, use better quality flash memory and are quicker. The price you pay is lower bang for the buck.

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Grand Master

Aergan

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For desktop use, you wont notice between Pro and EVO. If you're dependent on storage write throughput and you have performance indicators then you might. If I were buying an 850 Pro, it wouldn't be for normal desktop use.

 

I highly recommend the EVO's (currently using 2x 250GB and a 512GB in my main machine).

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Grand Master

Inertia

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Does your motherboard support Onboard Raid? I don't use Windows to do it or whatever software.

yes but onboard raid on consumer motherboards is software raid.  it gives me no performance increase at all with SSDs, in some situations the performance is worse.

Thanks for all the info guys.  I will get the Evo.

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Grand Master

Inertia

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People are reporting issues with Samsung 840 Evo's - performance degradation when reading files that are weeks or months old.

Something you should be aware of before purchase:

 

http://www.overclock.net/t/1538101/tr-some-840-evos-still-vulnerable-to-read-speed-slowdowns

http://techreport.com/review/27727/some-840-evos-still-vulnerable-to-read-speed-slowdowns

 

 

thanks for that.  its 850s in looking at though, 840s is where I am upgrading from.

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Praetor

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People are reporting issues with Samsung 840 Evo's - performance degradation when reading files that are weeks or months old.

Something you should be aware of before purchase:

 

http://www.overclock.net/t/1538101/tr-some-840-evos-still-vulnerable-to-read-speed-slowdowns

http://techreport.com/review/27727/some-840-evos-still-vulnerable-to-read-speed-slowdowns

 

i thought that a new firmware was out that fixed that.

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Mouettus

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I laugh when people say "dated hardware" and see stuff about 3-4 years old. I'm still rocking my Conroe Core 2 Duo from 9 years ago!

 

Of course we have different needs tho. Mine was at first a gaming machine and now it barely is a media center but it's still flying dual booting 8.1/10. I don't game anymore and only use it for occasional photoshop. 4gb ram suits me just fine. I'd go for an SSD tho but I'm stuck on sata2.

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Michael Scrip

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I laugh when people say "dated hardware" and see stuff about 3-4 years old. I'm still rocking my Conroe Core 2 Duo from 9 years ago!

 

Of course we have different needs tho. Mine was at first a gaming machine and now it barely is a media center but it's still flying dual booting 8.1/10. I don't game anymore and only use it for occasional photoshop. 4gb ram suits me just fine. I'd go for an SSD tho but I'm stuck on sata2.

I'm on SATA2 as well... 5 year old system.

 

BUT... my SSD is still super fast.  It makes the whole system snappy. A world of difference!

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PaulATMOS

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yes but onboard raid on consumer motherboards is software raid. it gives me no performance increase at all with SSDs, in some situations the performance is worse.Thanks for all the info guys. I will get the Evo.

No, the onboard RAID has its own chip and is configured through the BIOS. It is not software. I've used Intel onboard RAID and had very good performance. Admittedly, it's not going to be as good as a dedicated RAID card from the likes of Adaptec or others, but it still makes a noticeable difference.

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+Fahim S. MVC

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No, the onboard RAID has its own chip and is configured through the BIOS. It is not software. I've used Intel onboard RAID and had very good performance. Admittedly, it's not going to be as good as a dedicated RAID card from the likes of Adaptec or others, but it still makes a noticeable difference.

Whether it is configured through the BIOS or not isn't the distinguishing factor you suggest it to be to say if RAID is software or hardware.

Intel Rapid Storage Technology, for example, is software RAID

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PaulATMOS

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Whether it is configured through the BIOS or not isn't the distinguishing factor you suggest it to be to say if RAID is software or hardware.

Intel Rapid Storage Technology, for example, is software RAID

Ok I should've clarified myself better. He implied that all onboard RAID was software RAID. RAID comes in 3 forms - true hardware RAID, fake hardware RAID and software RAID. IRST would be fake hardware RAID.

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Praetor

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Ok I should've clarified myself better. He implied that all onboard RAID was software RAID. RAID comes in 3 forms - true hardware RAID, fake hardware RAID and software RAID. IRST would be fake hardware RAID.

 

only a dedicated RAID card would be true raid, as it has it's own CPU for RAID processing; everything else is fake RAID, whether being software or not doesn't matter since it consumes CPUs cycles for the RAID.

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sinetheo

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I;m choosing an SSD For my Desktop PC, the core hardware is a little dated, but it does what I need, however i'm running out of space, and may as well get faster storage while I am at it .

 

My big files are kept on a file server not on the PC itself.

 

CPU - Intel Core i7 2600K

RAM - 32GB of DDR3 1833mhz (Corsair Vengance) (I build and test Hyper-V Virtual Machine son this workstation before deploying them to online servers, so yes this is justified)

Motherboard - Gigabyte Z68AP-D3

GPU - Radeon 7970 (I game a little, never get much time)

 

Current Storage = 2 x Samsung SSD 840 EVO 120GB

 

One drive is for the OS and installed software, the other for installed games an VM storage.

 

My budget is about

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sinetheo

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freqnasty, on 30 Jan 2015 - 19:38, said:

No, the onboard RAID has its own chip and is configured through the BIOS. It is not software. I've used Intel onboard RAID and had very good performance. Admittedly, it's not going to be as good as a dedicated RAID card from the likes of Adaptec or others, but it still makes a noticeable difference.

 

On a pc come on? WHo in their right mind would do this outside of a server. Intel RST is amazing for pc loads for workstations

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