New, reliable, SSD; Intel 520 or Kingston HyperX?


Recommended Posts

Given this thread I am kinda looking for a more reliable SSD than my current OCZ as a boot disk for my main computer.

I have two in mind: Intel 520 120 GB or Kingston HyperX 120 GB

Which one do you guys recommend and why?

I can use the SATA III connection and speed, because my mobo supports it.

Personally I'd avoid SandForce based models...

Glassed Silver:mac

care to explain why? they've corrected pretty much all the original issues with sandforce controllers... and its one of the widest used controllers now that intel helps with its development

care to explain why? they've corrected pretty much all the original issues with sandforce controllers... and its one of the widest used controllers now that intel helps with its development

Hmm interesting...

I shall look into comparison tables then again sooner or later...

Still waiting for decent prices for 500GB models. Or ideally 1TB drives...

Glassed Silver:mac

Since I'm now officially a soon-to-be member of this still rather exclusive club of SSD owners, may I suggest, with my limited knowledge, the Vertex 4? I know you don't want an OCZ again, but since the V4 has a Marvell based controller instead of Sandforce (as with previous installments of the Vertex line), perhaps you will reconsider? But if not, and you're set on one of the two you mentioned, I'd probably go for the Intel 520. As far as specs go, they seem about the same. I haven't heard anything about Kingston SSD's, but Intel's are always mentioned in a favorable light.

  • Like 1

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226236

I know it has the Sandforce controller, but I just built a rig for a friend and used the 60 gig model of this drive and it works great. No firmware updates were needed to fix any issues, which is more than I can say for my SSD, among others.

It's 120 gig for under 100 bucks. 90k IOPS, 550 meg/sec read 515 meg/sec write and comes with the adapter bracket. I'm thinking about picking up two for a disk stripe.

SandForce is definitely maturing with Intel at the helm. Of the two I'd recommend that one for reliability.

If you're taking suggestions and manage to find Shiven's thread about SSDs we came to the conclusion either the Vertex 4 or the Crucial M4 are the way to go. I've owned two Crucial drives already (and only upgraded for increased capacity) and they're rock solid and fast. The Vertex 4 shies away from SandForce and uses an Indilinx Everest 2 controller which is also a viable alternative, with an even faster write speed than the M4. Retailers tend to price the Vertex 4 a little higher than the M4, so it depends on whether the price difference is worth it if you take either into consideration.

Will the Vertex 4 give me the same issues as my other Vertex's 1 and 2?

Or are these controller-related and/or model/time related?

What issues have you had? I've used every version of OCZ SSD (except for the 4) and they are all still running strong.

I'm assuming you have the latest firmware running on them, correct?

Sorry to jump the thread but I have a question re: SSD. I'm doing a new build and am curious what kind of perfomance there is when Win7 is on SSD but games are on HDD? Is there a noticeable hit? Should I wait and get the biggest SSD I can afford?

Sorry to jump the thread but I have a question re: SSD. I'm doing a new build and am curious what kind of perfomance there is when Win7 is on SSD but games are on HDD? Is there a noticeable hit? Should I wait and get the biggest SSD I can afford?

You'll probably be able to read them at whatever speed your HDD is at. I assume it would be similar to plugging in an external HDD and running a game off of that. Someone correct me if I'm wrong here.

Personally I'd avoid SandForce based models...

+1. Sandforce does not equal reliability. I really wish Intel had not moved to Sandforce; bad move IMO. They may have fixed the issues in their firmware, but time will tell.

As for a recommendation, I have bought 50+ Samsung 830s, both in 128Gb and 256Gb models and they are excellent. Very fast, reliable and work as well in Macs as they do in PCs. You can't go wrong.

http://www.anandtech...-ssd-830-review

http://www.anandtech...-to-sandforce/9

Sorry to jump the thread but I have a question re: SSD. I'm doing a new build and am curious what kind of perfomance there is when Win7 is on SSD but games are on HDD? Is there a noticeable hit? Should I wait and get the biggest SSD I can afford?

Load times are really the only area you'll see an improvement. Is it nice? Yes, but not absolutely necessary.

I wouldn't get anything smaller than a 128GB drive considering they don't cost any more than $150 or so.

What issues have you had? I've used every version of OCZ SSD (except for the 4) and they are all still running strong.

I'm assuming you have the latest firmware running on them, correct?

Yes I have all latest firmware.

I have to plug out the powercable once in a while to get the SSD recognized again. Kinda annoying I must say.....

I had an OCZ Vertex 2 and recently swapped it out for a Kingston Hyper X 240GB, as I needed more space. Also got another Kingston for my laptop to replace the drive. I don't run any benchmarks, so I can't give y ou any numbers, but I have had no problems with either one.

snapback.pngsoLoredd, on 30 May 2012 - 23:35, said:

Sorry to jump the thread but I have a question re: SSD. I'm doing a new build and am curious what kind of perfomance there is when Win7 is on SSD but games are on HDD? Is there a noticeable hit? Should I wait and get the biggest SSD I can afford?

SSD's have much faster reads and writes, so whatever it is you want to have running faster, put it on the SSD. If you want games to run faster (less load times, better response - also widely depends on games), then it makes no sense in putting Windows on the SSD and the games on a regular HDD.

On the other hand, if you get an 128GB SSD, with almost every game now coming out having over 10GB in size, you'll run out of space fast.

Reliability? Samsung.

Speed? OCZ/Kingston.

Best of both worlds? Might be the Vertex 4 if the controller is really a custom Indilinx controller and not a re-branded Marvell like I've seen some people claim. Hasn't been long enough (and won't be for some time) for anyone to get reliability reports on the drives.

Reliability? Samsung.

Speed? OCZ/Kingston.

Best of both worlds? Might be the Vertex 4 if the controller is really a custom Indilinx controller and not a re-branded Marvell like I've seen some people claim. Hasn't been long enough (and won't be for some time) for anyone to get reliability reports on the drives.

Given OCZ's track record I would avoid them at all cost. Spending a few more bucks on Intel or Samsung is very much worth it IMO. Not sure which is cheaper though. In speed tests the Samsung 830 is on a par with the Intel 520 and I can vouch for the Intel 510 which is no longer on sale as being excellent too.

http://www.anandtech...-ssd-830-review

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Posts

    • This Chinese company is reportedly developing a feature Apple and Samsung can only dream of by Hamid Ganji While companies like Apple and Samsung have been relatively conservative with their devices’ battery capacities in recent years, Chinese manufacturers have taken the competition to the next level by introducing significantly larger batteries. However, the latest report from China suggests that a local company may already be developing a smartphone with a whopping 14,000mAh battery. Chinese leaker Digital Chat Station claimed on Weibo that a smartphone maker is developing a device with a 14,000mAh battery. If true, it would be the largest battery ever used in a smartphone and could, in theory, provide up to a week of battery life on a single charge. The leaker did not reveal the name of the company behind the device, but there are some clues. This week, HONOR unveiled the X80 Pro Max in China with an 11,000mAh battery and 90W wired charging support. The company also launched the Honor Win in January, which packs a 10,000mAh battery. HONOR, a former subsidiary of Huawei, has a proven track record of developing smartphones with unusually large batteries. However, other Chinese brands, including Xiaomi, have also launched devices such as the Xiaomi 17 Pro Max with 7,500mAh batteries. Though Chinese users on Weibo also believe the company behind the new battery is HONOR. Interestingly, Digital Chat Station said the device with the 14,000mAh battery weighs around 220 grams, making it lighter than the Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max (233 grams) and slightly heavier than the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra (214 grams). The iPhone 17 Pro Max currently packs a 5,088mAh battery in eSIM-only versions, while the Galaxy S26 Ultra features a 5,000mAh battery. Neither device is expected to see a dramatic increase in battery capacity in its next-generation successor. So when it comes to battery comparison, Chinese brands are unbeaten. HONOR smartphones are currently available in the EU, but the Chinese brand has no official presence in the United States due to restrictions imposed by the U.S. government.
    • Qualcomm takes on NVIDIA with new Dragonfly CPU and AI chips by Pradeep Viswanathan Microsoft, Google, Amazon, AMD, Meta, Apple, OpenAI, and several others have been developing their own chips for AI infrastructure. However, NVIDIA still remains the dominant player in the market. Today, Qualcomm announced a major expansion of its data center infrastructure portfolio to better compete with NVIDIA. The new lineup includes the Qualcomm Dragonfly C1000 CPU, Qualcomm High Bandwidth Compute technology, the Dragonfly AI300 inference accelerator, new connectivity products, and custom silicon solutions. Qualcomm claims that this new lineup improves performance per watt, token throughput, and total cost of ownership for AI data centers. The Dragonfly C1000 is a new data center CPU built with Qualcomm’s custom Oryon cores. This chip will feature more than 250 cores, frequencies above 5GHz, and a chiplet-based design. Qualcomm claims that this new C1000 can deliver more than 2x better performance per watt compared to existing server CPU offerings based on specifications. The Dragonfly C1000 will support PCIe Gen 7 with more than 2TB/s of connectivity, along with CXL, advanced RAS features, and both air and liquid cooling. Qualcomm expects the Dragonfly C1000 to be commercially available in 2028. Additionally, Qualcomm and Meta announced a multi-year, multi-generation agreement under which Qualcomm will supply Dragonfly C1000 data center CPUs for Meta’s next-generation server fleet. Qualcomm also announced High Bandwidth Compute, a new near-memory computing architecture designed to address AI’s memory bandwidth bottleneck. HBC Gen 1 will debut with the Dragonfly AI250, which is expected to sample in mid-2027. The AI250 will deliver 133TB/s per card, an 18x increase in effective memory bandwidth compared to the AI200 with LPDDR5X. The new Dragonfly AI300 with HBC Gen 2 is a rack-level AI inference platform from Qualcomm. Qualcomm claims that the AI300 can deliver 4x to 8x better performance per watt compared to existing GPU-based architectures based on memory bandwidth per watt per card. The Dragonfly AI300 is expected to be available in 2028.
  • Recent Achievements

    • Week One Done
      Meta Plast earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • First Post
      kinowa earned a badge
      First Post
    • Rookie
      krychek57 went up a rank
      Rookie
    • Grand Master
      Jaybonaut went up a rank
      Grand Master
    • One Year In
      Philsl earned a badge
      One Year In
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      461
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      171
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      136
    4. 4
      Michael Scrip
      78
    5. 5
      Xenon
      77
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!