128 SSD choice for Dell M6400

I don't know alot about harddrives but own a dell m6400 i want to buy a new SSD drive to istall windows 7 on but am not sure what to get. I have about $350 bucks to spend on this puppy and was thinking of going with this one

Patriot PE128GS25SSDR Warp 128GB 2.5IN SATA2 Solid State Disk Flash Drive SSD

http://ncix.com/products/index.php?s...acture=Patriot

Is this guy compatible? does anywone know if this is a good drive or not perhaps there is something better I am open to suggestions. Please help

 

Any of the 2.5" SATA SSDs should work.

Tom's Hardware has a comprehensive set of performance charts.

John

 

I would suggest you look into OCZ's Vertex or Agility lines. Prices very with flash prices and availability of the drives, but can be around your target price.

Both have firmware that supports Trim which is new to Windows 7 and helps keep the drive performance from decreasing with time. OCZ is one of the few manufacturers that currently support the feature. OCZ has an excellent support forum and I woud recommend you check it out before buying any drive.

I have 2 120GB Vertex in Raid 0 on a desktop and a single 120 GB Turbo in my M6400. Performance is stellar.

 

Any 2.5" SATA drive should work, but you should not get the PE128GS25SSDR. It's a first-gen MLC drive with a JMicron controller and quite frankly those suck. Look for an Intel or Indilinx drive (though these days Intel seems to be having a fair bit of problems with firmware and stuff); the OCZ Vertex and Agility lines are Indilinx-based and indeed solid choices.

 

I have a 60GB agility in my E6400 and have been very pleased with the performance so far. Right now I'm still on vista waiting for my W7 disks so I'm still using the old firmware, but everything is running well and quite fast.

 

Honestly, I'd go for the OCZ if given the choice right now. Intel drives are in short supply, and will probably stay in short supply while Intel RMAs the thousands of drives they have bricked in the last week, and Intel drives are the ones having firmware issues and they have had at least two major screw ups before. It is kind of difficult to have faith in an Intel drive right now.

 

If you prefer more space, check out the 256GB Samsund from Dell.com for $480. IMO probably the best deal around for those will the cash. I was going to order the Studio XPS 16 last week because the SSD upgrade from 500GB 7200RPM to the 256GB Samsung was only $200. Now, it's $450 to upgrade

 

Thanks for the advice do you know if this drive supports the trim funciton your talking about? and is it a second gen drive How can this be determined

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/...etail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&sku=341-8981

 

This drive has more or less been confirmed to be the PB22-J. It does not support TRIM at the moment, but should in the future. Whether or not drives that shipped without TRIM will be able to support TRIM (say, via a firmware flash or something) is, less than certain. They should do it though. I hope.

 

From everything I have been hearing, Samsung is quite unfriendly to consumers regarding SSD firmware updates. OCZ has been pressing Samsung for quite some time to provide TRIM firmware for the OCZ Summit (which uses a Samsung controller) and Samsung doesn't care.

Given current retail prices, the OCZ Vertex or Agility is a better buy than an Intel drive. I'm shopping for an SSD right now, and if I do get an Intel drive I can assure you I am not paying retail price for it under the circumstances.