SSD Question

I have recently ordered a M17x R3 from Dell with 2*750GB 7200RPM Hard Drive
However, after I have been searching for all those benefits that SSD got, I am planning to buy a SSD from Amazon.
I am not really a gaming person, perhaps I may play around 3 online games.
I am wondering whether I should get a 256GB or 512GB SSD for my M17x.
Since 512GB price is double of 256GB, I am confusing whether I will need that or just a 256GB.
Please help, I need some advise on that before I order a SSD.
Oh..1 more question, is 512 GB faster than 256GB ?? or just more capacity?
For your information, I am getting "Crucial 256 GB m4 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive SATA 6Gb/s CT256M4SSD2"
Amazon.com: Crucial 256 GB m4 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive SATA 6Gb/s CT256M4SSD2: Electronics

Thanks for the help.....

 

if your buying the same brand & model drive there will be no speed increase between 256 & 512. one is 256GB capacity and the other is 512GB capacity. there are different manufacturers that make different models of Drives that will vary in read/write speed. needless to say the difference between your Platter drive and any SSD will be huge either way.

 

Thanks,
but do you think 256GB SSD + 750GB HDD
will be enough for just playing 3,4 online games?

 

yea that should be overkill really. I have just a 128gb SSD + 320gb HD with a few games, windows 8, windows 7 and plenty of room to spare.

 

oh..thanks that's the reassurance I need to make sure I wont regret not getting a 512GB SSD

 

well, there is some difference in speeds (higher size higher speed) but negligible..

 

Dont install your games on the ssd....put the OS and a few programs like office and things that you use a lot and want to load fast....put all of your games on the large drive....i have dozens of games on my 750 drive as well as all of my movies and music.

 

what are some examples?, would be news to me.

 

You could buy a cache SSD like I did. Ok it's not as outrightly fast but what it does us cache across the whole drive. Hot data stays on the SSD so anything you start using regulary is fast to load. Plus my boot time is about 20-25 secs now

 

I've looked up some examples for you here.

Corsair
Corsair Force GT 120GB: Max Sequential Read/Write (using ATTO Disk Benchmark) 555 MB/s sequential read — 515 MB/s sequential write
V.S.
Corsair Force GT 480GB: Max Sequential Read/Write (using ATTO Disk Benchmark) 555 MB/s sequential read — 525 MB/s sequential write

Corsiar Performance Pro 128GB: Max Sequential Read/Write (using ATTO Disk Benchmark) Up to 500 MB/s sequential read — 340 MB/s sequential write
V.S.
Corsiar Performance Pro 256GB: Max Sequential Read/Write (using ATTO Disk Benchmark) Up to 515 MB/s sequential read — 440 MB/s sequential write

Crucial
Crucial M4 64GB: Sustained Sequential Read: Up to 500 MB/s (SATA 6Gb/s) - Sustained Sequential Write: Up to 95 MB/s (SATA 6Gb/s) (4KB Random Read: Up to 45,000 IOPS 4KB Random Write: Up to 20,000 IOPS )
V.S.
Crucial M4 256GB: Sustained Sequential Read: Up to 500 MB/s(SATA 6Gb/s) Sustained Sequential Write: Up to 260 MB/s(SATA 6Gb/s) (4KB Random Read: Up to 45,000 IOPS 4KB Random Write: Up to 50,000 IOPS)

OCZ
Agility 3:

60GB Max Performance
Max Read: up to 525MB/s
Max Write: up to 475MB/s
Random Write 4KB: 50,000 IOPS
Maximum 4K Random Write: 80,000 IOPS

V.S.

240GB Max Performance
Max Read: up to 525MB/s
Max Write: up to 500MB/s
Random Write 4KB: 45,000 IOPS
Maximum 4K Random Write: 85,000 IOPS

Vertex 3:

60GB Max Performance
Max Read: up to 535MB/s
Max Write: up to 480MB/s
Random Write 4KB: 60,000 IOPS
Maximum 4K Random Write: 80,000 IOPS

V.S.

240GB Max Performance
Max Read: up to 550MB/s
Max Write: up to 520MB/s
Random Write 4KB: 60,000 IOPS
Maximum 4K Random Write: 85,000 IOPS

Octane:

128GB Max Performance
Max Read: up to 470MB/s
Max Write: up to 210MB/s
Random Write 4KB: 18,000 IOPS
Random Read 4KB: 35,000 IOPS

V.S.

512GB Max Performance
Max Read: up to 480MB/s
Max Write: up to 330MB/s
Random Write 4KB: 26,000 IOPS
Random Read 4KB: 35,000 IOPS

-----------------------------

As you can see although the difference is pretty much negligible as gratz'zt mentioned, there is a difference.

 

Sorry to hijack the thread but I'm having issues with a clean OS install on a Samsung 830 SSD. The install has gone smoothly but the Intel RST is reporting it as running at 3gb/s.

I have the original WD 320gb HDD on port 0 and the SSD on port 1 due to instability issue with port 0 accordining to past reports. I've not heard of anyone having this issue on port 1. Is there anything in the BIOS or Win 7 that I need to adjust to enable SATA 6 gb/s?

 

If you have the A09 bios, you need to downgrade to A08.

 

good work here, i stand corrected.

 

I will give that a try. Anything special about going back on the bios version? Do I just reflash with A08 the same as if i were going to upgrade it?

 

Yep 10char

 

Thanks. Dropped back to A08 and all is well for now.

 

If you just have one SSD you should install it in Port 1 instead of Port 0. Port 1 is the one that is more toward the middle of your laptop. Even with A08 some people report that Port 0 will drop back to SATA II speeds sometimes. Port 1 doesn't have that issue for some reason. I have my SSD in Port 1 and my regular HDD in Port 1. You just have to go into BIOS and edit the boot order so that the second hard drive is at the top of the list.

 

Thanks Jody, I have the SSD on Port 1 that's why I couldn't figure out what was wrong. Rolling back to A08 fixed it and it's running well. I did install it in RAID mode rather than ACHI because I want to add a second one when Intel releases the new RST drivers with TRIM support under a RAID 0 config.

 

Remember it's not gonna be as simple as put the second SSD in an boom you are ready. Raiding 2 drives will require a reformat. The easiest way is to probably clone your installation to an image on an external, put the second SSD in, format everything and restore the image.