SSD what to buy

I'm in need of some advice.

I've been reading a bit and browsing several shops, since i would like to have an SSD drive in my m17x.
I currently run a raid0 setup with 2x320gbWD Caviar blacks, which perform quite nicely.

I however need 2 hard drives for 2 of my 'older' alienwares (A51 m15x), so i figured this would be a great excuse to take the 2 out, and replace them with an SSD and a big 2nd ata drive.

My requirements would be +-256Gb of space on the SSD (and i will add a 500Gb normal hard drive to store my stuff in), and i'd like for it to perform swiftly ^^
I would like to be able to add a 2nd SSD drive in the future replacing the 2nd normal drive and run it in raid0.

I've been looking at the Crucial C300 series (though i suddenly saw the C600 series, is this actually of any use on the m17x speed technically), the Samsung 470 series and the OCZ Vertex 2 series.

What would be my best choice (why would i choose one over the other)?
Are there any other brands/versions i should consider?

 

OCZ seem to be doing some questionable things lately like changing the design process of the controller resulting in lower speeds so I'd stay clear of them for now. The Samsung is a beast of a drive but is a bit slower than the Corsair. I would say the C300 is the best of the ones you've listed, the C600 if I remember correctly is SATA III which won't do much if any better due to the M17xR2 only having SATA II connections

 

And also remember that a 'slow' SSD is still many times faster than a 'fast' HDD. Compared to your RAID0 setup, just about any SSD on the market will be very impressive. I had 2 640GB Samsungs in RAID0, and they still booted 12 seconds slower than my Phoenix Pro. The Samsungs were a fresh OS install too.

 

Buy from newegg.com .... 20% off ssd's (up to 100)

BTEKHHJ26

Promo Code i got in an email today ^^^

 

newegg promo codes were specific to email address it was mailed to, so I do not think they would work for someone else. Good deal none the less and you should take advantage of it if you want to get an SSD for yourself.

 

To further the above comments in regards to OCZ,

OCZ's sandforce based SSDs also currently do not work, at all, with the intel 6 series express chipset (laptop sandy bridge) when combined with Intel's Rapid Storage Technology & a 2nd HDD.

For a less expensive ssd solution, I'd try Corsair or G.Skill

 

My Patriot Inferno (SF-1200) worked fine as primary drive with a Momentus XT as 2nd HD. However, I DID NOT install the Rapid Storage Technology driver. Since I wasn't RAIDing them, I saw no need to install the drivers. In BIOS, I left the setting as RAID whereas some others had better luck with AHCI.

 

edit: nevermind, just re-read the above post.
I totally read it backwards the first time.

 

Corsair and G.skill use Sandforce controllers and i believe A-data in microcenter and Patriot as well. So do your research and along with that all OCZ Vertex 2 SSD below 180gb have the newer 25nm chips which have slower transfer rates and has less space. I think i might end up picking up the OCZ 240gb SSD at $1.33per gb after rebate but need to do more research if that specific drive is affected or not.

Newegg.com - OCZ Vertex 2 OCZSSD2-2VTXE240G 2.5" 240GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

The OCZ Vertex 2 Conspiracy: Lost Space, Lost Speed? : Is There A Problem Here, Sir?

 

I'd personally wait to see what the new Intels have in store if I were buying an SSD at this current juncture.

 

I look at size of the drive as my main factor in deciding which drive to get, since all SSD drives are fast compared to a standard drive, Better to have more GB storage than a few more mbits transfer speed.

You will find that a small SSD drive fills up real quick.

 

im getting an R2 soon, and i wanted to upgrade to SSD later on, what would be the best bet for an SSD since the r2 is SATA II? maybe i should refrase and ask which company has the fastest and most reliable drive?

 

I would do what Dave-p said. Decide how much money you want to spend and get the largest SSD capacity for that amount of money. It's nice to say you've got a bla bla bla brand SSD, but in the end, no one cares. If it's got a lot of 5 egg scores on Newegg, you can probably trust that the drive is reliable.

Any SSD is faster than a hard drive.

 

I got an Apacer A7 Pro and i think it's lovely (though it performed better in my desktop with P45 chipset) , yes I did the SSD tweak

 

I'm very happy with my OCZ Vertex2. There were the initial setup difficulties because it doesn't work with the Intel drivers, and because I needed to update the firmware and could only do it through the Linux tool discussed on the OCZ forums, but once the firmware was done, it's been smooth sailing.

Lightning-fast boots, shutdowns, installs, app launches, level loads, etc.

 

I'll bite, what's the SSD tweak?

 

I'm hearing good things about the Samsung 470 256gb drive. The boot times are supposed to be the lowest in the market.

 

There is a thread here somewhere about how to tweak windows settings to get the maximum peformance out of your SSD

Shortly after a utility came out that more or less did the same thing.

 

Nono, the Mobile pm55 chipset which the R2 uses has a performance problem with SSD, you need to apply a registry tweak to get it up to full speed. there used to be a tread here which explains it, but it moved to another website