Which SSD for my new m14x?

Looking to put an SSD in my new m14x. I've never bought an SSD and am a little overwhelmed about the tech differences of each one. Price is an issue BUT I am not sure about updating my laptop with old tech (sata 3 vs sata 6) to just to save a few bucks either. I just want an SSD to improve the overall speed of opening Windows, starting programs, ect. So I guess my priorities would be:
1) Speed
2) Reliability
3) Price

I'm looking at these:
1) OCZ Vertex 2 $180
2) OCZ Vertex 3 $348
3) Crucial C300 $238
4) Intel 510 $270


Any help would be great. Thanks.

 

Forgot to mention I'm looking at 120 gb SSDs to save cash, of course I'm sure you could tell that by the prices I listed above.

 

i am also in the same position.... could anyone recommend a 250gb one please

 

depends on what you want to spend i am really looking into it as well.... checking slick deals everyday for a ssd deal...

im leaning towards a 256gb the read/write speeds of 250mbps or higher...

been heavily eyeing the vertex 3.... but thats alot of $$$ for a drive.... im going to wait on the prices

 

Vertex 3 Max IOPS Edition

 

I'm looking at the 160GB Intel 320 series SSD...mostly because it ranks high in reliability. All SSDs are going to be smoking fast. Worrying about the differences in speed isn't that important to me as long as they're similar.

 

I'm in the same boat you are. Everyone keeps recommending the Vertex 3, however I am concenred about the reliability of the OCZ drives as of late. Looking through Newegg reviews you just see countless reviews of their drives failing in a very short time period. I may bite the bullet and wait it out until more long term reviews are out or just buy a SATA II SSD from Mushkin and save some money Newegg.com - Mushkin Enhanced Callisto Deluxe MKNSSDCL120GB-DX 2.5" 120GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

 

that mushkin looks good...
i can't decide either..
1) Intel x25-m 120gb
2) Intel 320 120gb
3) Crucial C300 128gb
4) that Mushkin 120gb

I am leaning towards the intel 320 120gb.. ..

 

I thought alot about what SSD to get and ended up buying this today Newegg.com - Intel 320 Series SSDSA2CW160G3K5 2.5" 160GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

Intel 320 160GB, The SATA III is too expensive right now and none of them have had time to be tested for reliability. Went with Intel because they will give me better battery life and be more reliable. The new Intel 520 series was tempting but it has 3rd party parts in it not made by Intel so there goes the Intel famous SSD reliability.

 

How does the stock ssd stack up to these ssds ?

 

Be sure to let us know how the install goes.

 

Which is best out of these, and why ?

240GB OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 2.5-inch SATA SSD £370.54

240GB OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 2.5-inch SATA SSD: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics

OCZ Vertex 3 Series SATA III 2.5-inch Solid State Drive 240GB £490.00

OCZ Vertex 3 Series SATA III 2.5-inch Solid State Drive 240GB: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

 

I think I've narrowed it down to these 2 so which one should I go for:

Intel 510 120gb for $250 - SATA 3, faster and cheaper but less room
Intel 320 160gb for $316 - SATA 2, slower more expensive but more room

I'll only be storing the OS, Steam, a few games, maybe some documents, misc programs, ect...I think all of that would only come to about 55 gb of space, does that sound right. I think I'm leaning toward the 510 unless my numbers are way off and I need more room (GBs)

 

The 510 has 3rd party parts so it most likely will not be as reliable. Also, if you look at the random read/writes the 320 isn't really behind from the benchmarks I've seen. The 510 will show it's performance advantages in long reads/writes. Day to day stuff and games you won't notice alot of difference.

 

I thought there is a substantial difference between sata 2 and sata 3 or is that all just advertising hoopla?

 

I don't think the M14x supports Sata III

 

It would be a bit idiotic to buy the £490 Vertex 3 off amazon marketplace. Ebuyer was selling it for £377 before easter.

 

ok thanks for that but i wasnt going to buy it from there, i just wanted to know which one was best

 

There is, but not for general use. At least if your looking at Intel SSD's. The Vertex 3 is a different story. The OCZ also is known for being less reliable and consume more power. A Samsung/Intel SSD can get you another 30min of battery life.

 

Pretty sure it does. Multiple people have said it does. It says SATA III in the online M14x owners manual.

 

revdiesel what ssd do u have ?

 

New version of the Intel X25-M. Intel 320 160GB

 

I can add a bit on your view about OCZ. The company is known for scamming customers!

Google for news, they put Sandforce ES chips in Vertex 3 retail product. They print white boxes on top of ES on purpose so you cannot tell.
ES= engineering sample
It sounds like a joke to me.

 

there's a $20 difference between intel x25-m 120gb and intel 320 120gb.. arg.. which one should I get.. arg..

 

The 320 is the new version of it. It has twice the write speed.

 

intel 510 sata III

 

That's what I'm thinking....cheaper, faster (sata 3) and all I give up is 40gb of space...120gb should be enough right? I would just use it for OS, couple of games, few docs and some standard programs.

 

sata3 is supported on m14x right?

 

should i wait till Q4 for the 520, or just get the 510?

 

wait if you can. 510 is a marvell controller inside with an intel badge on the package. That is the main reason I kept my X25-M G2 160GB

 

So the intel 320 and intel 520 are both generation 3 drives right? I'm a crucial guy myself you can get the 128GB crucial M4 SATA III for 245 or the 256GB one for 445. Crucuial makes its own NAND flash chips so they can specifically design them to run fast and reliably in their own ssd's since they control the products going into it. I'm pretty sure intel outsources the nand flash chips they dont make thier own.

 

Crucial is really the retail arm of micron. Micron and Intel make the same flash in the same foundry, a joint company called IMFT (Intel Micron Flash Technologies). Youre' getting the exact same flash from Micron as Crucial as Intel

 

oh well micron owns 51% and intel 49% of IMFT so micron calls the shots

 

I decided to order an Intel 510 SSD (120 GB) from buy.com...$250 shipped for a retail boxed version...not bad. From the reviews on Anandtech it looks like a good balance of performance and reliability (and no issues were found with the third-party Marvell controller - even though there was initial worry). With all of that said, of course it's a brand new drive so time will tell...

The 160GB Intel 320 was tempting but at $35 more (OEM at NewEgg) and last-gen performance I didn't want to make the investment. I am going to remove my optical drive so my 500GB 7200RPM WD Black will store my games just fine...so that negated the extra space being needed.

I could have waited for the 520 - but frankly I pretty much need SSD now that I am used to it from my MBP. It's one of those things - you don't know what you're missing until you experience it...then you never want to go back. It's easy to forget just how slow laptop HDDs are!

 

thats what i am going to do as well, small ssd and store all my games + videos on a 1 TB hard drive. I just have to find a 1 TB hard drive thats 9.5 mm

 

Good luck with that. There aren't any. Not yet anyway.

 

Anandtech mentioned 320 have better reliability then 510.. I ended getting 320..

 

they made a single platter 7.2mm 500gb hdd so a 2 platter 9.5mm 1tb shouldnt be that far around the corner

 

how do these compare to the SSD in the m14x?

 

What size hard drive do you you need for the main hard drive compartment ?

I know the optical drive hard drive needs to be 9.5mm so its to small to put a 1TB in. But could i put a 1TB hard drive in the main hard drive spot and a ssd in the optical bay ? and could i get windows to boot up from the ssd in the optical bay at the normal ssd speed ?

 

15TB NAS is my solution to storage.

 

Intel 320 Series solid state hard drive boasts a SATA II interface to support transfer speeds as fast as 270 MB/sec (read) and 205 MB/sec (write)

OCZ 240GB Vertex 3 SSD 2.5" SATA-III 6Gb/s Read 550MB/s Write 525MB/s 60k IOPS

Is the Vertex 3 like twice the speed ?

 

-------SRY FOR REPOST I DON'T KNOW WHICH THREAD WAS MORE APPROPRIATE FOR THIS QUESTION-------

Ok i am thinking of buying this hard drive, can anyone advise me on anything before i purchase it ?

OCZ Vertex 3 Series SATA III 2.5-inch Solid State Drive 120GB: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

OCZ Vertex 3 Series SATA III 2.5-inch Solid State Drive 120GB

What i intend to do is put the Vertex 3 120GB SSD as the main hard drive and then put the 500GB hard drive that i got with my laptop in the optical bay.

I will use the SSD to run my video converter/ripper software on and i will place the games that i am playing at the current time on there, and of course i will boot up windows on the SSD. i think 120GB will be plenty for that, all other games i have installed but not played for a while will go on the 500GB hard drive.

Can you just confirm that the main hard drive bay is SATA 3 and it will make use of all the speed Vertex 3 SSD has to offer ?

 

Vertex 3 120GB is significantly worse than 240GB. That is all I can suggest
The OCZ Vertex 3 Review (120GB) - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News

 

6TB NAS is mine. But SSD is a must on a laptop.

 

Thanks for that, that is very important info i must consider..... How annoying is that ! as soon as i have a plan of action theres always something thats a problem.

I've checked the link that you sent me, are we talking like a second of a difference between random data loading times or something more significant ?

it seems faster than the 240GB hard drive on non random data read/write

 

In general, the smaller-sized versions of SSDs are slower than the larger ones. So if you want Vertex 3 and don't want to pay $500 for the 240GB then you are pretty much "stuck" with the 120GB. I wouldn't worry about the performance difference as long as you are happy with OCZ and Vertex 3 as your choice.

 

@ Sk3tch

Did you already receive your intel 510 SSD? Did your M14x detect it? I have a post on the main m14x discussion about the issue I am having.

let me know! Would be nice to compare and see what the heck mine is doing.

Thanks

 

I would double check before buying a sata III SSD, look at other threads on the m14x forum. I've read that its backwards compatible with sata III but only runs at sata II speeds.
here's the link
http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...parison-bios-enabled-disabled-discussion.html

 

I just bought the Intel 160GB also got an usb key 16GB USB3
(SSDSA2MH160G2C1 Intel X25 M SATA II SSD 160GB 9 5MM 2 5IN MLC HIGH)

By the way they just sold me the SSD with no drivers and no screws or cable!
Do i need to buy some other things before proceeding?

1/My concerns now that i have all that including my M14x is how to proceed, I will like to keep the DVD drive,r so I guess the 750 GB hard disk that came with I will have to use it some were else, as it seems there is no way to keep the 3 drivers Right?

2/where can i find a guide how create an usb system startup ? Or a step by step in how to proceed.

3/ I should align the drive, and when installing windows 7 make sure its in AHCI mode as it gets quite a nice speed advantage over the standard IDE mode(What is AHCI and how i tell windows to do so?)

As i have mentioned some were else my system came in Chinese, so when i will redo a clean install it will be very difficult at the beginning, ones i get into Windows I will be able to upgrade to Ultimate and switch to English