Best SSD for M17X?

I want to do my first upgrade, but I have no idea which SSD performs the best long term.

I was thinking about getting the OCZ summit series 250gb for $680.

OCZ DRIVE

What do you guys think?

 

If you go to Newegg.com and look at the read/write speeds of the SSD's the best is Intel then OCZ, both are much faster then the Samsungs that Dellienware puts in their systems.

 

Mandrake suggested the Intel x25-m to me. I did some research and it looks excellent long term. I will get via FedEx tomorrow at 10:00am.

 

The Samsung PB22-J will hold it's own as far as overall speed is concerned and none of the retail SSD are much faster than that drive and in certain tests the Samsung is faster. The Intel is the slowest for sequential writes and if you run an app that sequential writes are important than the Intel drive is the wrong choice. The Samsung lose out because they are not user flash-able and Dell is distributing them with the older firmware which lacks a maintenance routine.

The OCZ you linked is a Samsung drive and it is a very good drive as long as it has the latest firmware. Maintenance is very simple with that drive since it only requires some idle time for clean up.

 

I know we talked about it but I don't think I suggested anything.

 

Liar. You held a virtual gun to my head and forced me to enter my Amex number. I still wake up at night crying.

 

lol! nice. Let me know what firmware you get when the drive gets in.

 

There are actually two different firmwares on the Samsung drives also. One has a cleanup routine similar to trim and one doesn't. Until my system arrives, I won't know which one I have. I would assume it would be the newer one, but no telling with the parts channels.

 

if you get the newer one it will be a first. although it seems they are running out so maybe its a new batch. lets us know when you get it.

 

Subscribing - I'm thinking this computer is just meant to have at least one SSD

 

I really like the ocz agility ex (slc)...the single level cell part is very interesting even If i havent fully understood the meaning behind it. The only problem is its only in 64 gigabyte models that I know of at the moment, its sata 2 of course...the vertex is also a nice brand by ocz and I know there have been others puting vertexs in there alienware laptops, plus of course you can get them with the hypersonic laptops since ocz took them over, cept there site has become some what lackluster since looking at it recently. The intels are nice also, but I did read something In one of the reviews that some one else mentioned about one of the features being better for some users then others with the intels...o yes the sequential debate...the sumit series sounds great, you could also look at the colossel series by ocz....another option is you could get a smaller set of ssds, like the one i mentioned, the agility one, that is slc, and use an external for your applications or games, this becomes an issue with me, as theres no way i can fit everything on one 80gb drive that came with my alienware lappy. I have a 500gb external and I have ran out of space in just that after a few months of files, and games...I use it frequently. Im just saying that going for 256 gigabytes dosnt have to be the ending factor with your ssd. If i had the money, though, that would sound alot better then geting a 64 gb one, or even a 120gb one, or even 160...Summit is probubly your best bet.

 

The OCZ Agility EX is not a very cost effective solution at over $6 per GB. Ideally you'd want to keep it under $3 per GB.

 

They gave the value of it 9/10 here

 

What would hold me back from it to go with the Intel is the size. Even with secondary backup drives crap just collects on the primary over time. 60gb is too small for me nowadays. I loves my pr0n too much = /

 

I wonder how games would run playing them on a second drive , compared to playing them on the primary if the primary was an ssd and the second drive was a standard 7200rpm drive.

 

Then I'd have to disagree with them.

The bump in sequential write (not important to me) is minimal and every other test is comparable yet the price is double. I don't know how they rate the value 9/10. I'm guessing they are either incompetent or being paid by OCZ for the review.

A 60GB OCZ summit for under $150 would be a much better "value" choice.

 

So how is the SSD that Alienware installs? I was looking and the cheapest 256 GB on newegg is $595, but the upgrade from alienware is only $400. Is the alienware 256 not that great? Will I benifit more from getting an SSD else then from dell with the install? I'm contemplating what to get in my M17X, 500GB 7200RPM or 256 SSD? going to install a 640 GB 5400 RPM in the second bay.

 

So far they have been installing the Samsung PB22-J with the older firmware. Meaning the performance is great but there is no maintenance routine to keep them great. If anyone received one within the last week maybe they can verify which firmware they have. It's right on the disk or it can be pulled up from device manager.

Until Dell start shipping them with the latest firmware (one that supports trim would be even better) I would advise to stay away from the OEM SSDs.

 

so whats the serial number for the latest firmware? i just bought this new samsung ssd and its great.. (MMCQE28G8MUP-OVA) 128GHZ FOR 150 ON CRAIGLIST please give me it specs cuz i tried to search on google but cant find it...
thanks

 

I went with OCZ in mine as they already had TRIM Support out at the time.

 

What exactly is trim support? Is it anything like a defragging tool? I'd like a way to maintain my drives for sure. I'd also like to go with the OCZ, but not sure if I can justify the extra $$$

 

Get the hardware ID from device manager. I have no idea what that is.

Of course it depends which OCZ. The indilinx based OCZ should be up to date.

When you delete something on a SSD it never truly gets deleted. The next time you need to write to a block the SSD will have to erase it before using it again. That will obviously slow down performance. TRIM will erase the blocks when you actually delete something, hence the better performance.

 

Ahh, that makes sense, Not sure why they never took care of the issue from the get go...

 

Because TRIM is an OS level operation, and until recently with Win7 it wasnt available. On the other hand there are a few other programs that do the same thing as trim but you have to manually preform the process (takes about 1-2 minutes)

The upside is some of these programs work in RAID arrays, unlike TRIM which wont

 

The manual garbage collection doesn't work with RAID. You would need to turn it off first. The automatic garbage collection that Samsung uses does.

 

If you have a Samsung drive now (the factory SSDs and want to check to see if your drive has the firmware with the background cleanup (not TRIM, but performs the same function in a different way).

Open your drive in device manager
click the 'Details' tab
The top line will end in 1801Q or 18C1Q

The 18C18 has the background cleanup. There is no way to flash them as an end user.
There may be a few other firmwares, but those are the only two I have seen. 3rd party vendors are a little wise and usually sell the newer one, but the older versions get dumped on the OEMS, so it may come down to waiting for the supply chain to dry up.

TRIM isn't working on RAID configurations, so theoretically, the Samsung method may be better in that enviornment. I don't know if anyone has them to test. Bad news is, the odds of actually getting the new firmware is probably pretty low from the factory. I am also wondering what would happen if you had a RAID with one new firmware and one old firmware.

 

Can you tell the firmware version on the outside of the drives at all? I've got it and my new ram in hand, but no system to put it into.

It does say "Version #: E64509-308" on the outside.

Drake - it is firmware version 02G9

 

I am checking Intel's page and the toolbox to update the drive from 02G9 to 02HA is gone off the website. Any ideas Drake?

 

That's why I was hoping if it came directly from Intel it would come with the latest firmware. Mine still hasn't even been shipped. If they are still shipping the old firmware then we get to play the waiting game.

On a side note I received my replacement SSD from my original M17x and it does have the latest firmware so at least it has the background garbage collection. So here's hoping they are done distributing the old firmware SSD and not just lucky. I also already have a possible buyer of the drive since I won't be needing it.

 

I just canceled my order. I wasn't going to wait forever and my replacement system is coming tomorrow. On top of that my replacement Samsung PB22-J is now shipped out to it's new owner. Back on the market for a new SSD. Maybe I'll wait until next week for black Friday.

 

New egg has a pretty good tweeter deal on the 160gb intel with the newest firmware (250/100 speeds) if you check the SSD thread. Even though i have a great drive already i'm tempted to pick one up myself

 

How do you know it will come with the latest firmware?

 

Because if not then newegg has some serious false advertisement issues going on and have been falsely filling their reviews with lies

heres the deal link
http://twitter.com/NeweggHotDeals

 

That didn't say anything at all about the installed firmware.

 

Link to SSD thread?

Mandrake, I'm in a similar boat - I might end up picking one up if the price is right.

 

Its the speeds mate. The old G2 had speeds maxing out at 90 while the latest and greatest firmware increases that to 100MB/s

On the upside the codes do work and its 415 for the drive... not a bad deal, but i'm still sticking with the Ultradrive until a reasonable larger capacity (250-320) comes out i suppose

 

The firmware we are talking about is to support TRIM commands. It got pulled on that drive because it ruining the drives after being flashed. They are looking for the drive with the firmware to support TRIM to be pre installed.

TRIM has more of a long term effect. You won't see any benefit from it at all for maybe the first few months. But 3 months from now when the drives aren't performing the way they used to, you will know what we are talking about.

 

Dont get me wrong TRIM is nice, but its not "that" needed on the intel drives. They are pretty stable as is.

I've been using my ultra drive for about 9 months now and with no trim and i've yet to degrade on it, and i've installed and reinstalled vista/win7/win7/vista/ubuntu/win7/vista on it with all the apps i use in each and even after all of that i have yet to notice a preformance hit worth writing home about

So if my indilinix controller can handle the load i'm sure the intel one can

 

$414 for that Intel 160GB SSD has my attention. Anyone else biting?

 

$2.59 per GB is not too bad.

 

Honestly if i knew i could sell my Ultradrive in the next day or two i would get it, the extra little bit of capacity would be nice to have and the intel drives are really good buys in the SSD market. And the price point is bloody amazing

Unfortunatly with wanting a 60in TV this black friday my wife would more than likely kill me if i also go and blow another 400 on "something so small, that doesnt do anything really"

 

OK I got it. Paid for over-night shipping also.

 

I'm right behind you Mandrake. Man I hope it's worth the money.

 

I bit also. Just ordered it.

 

As I research HD solutions I remain in learning mode, so please bear with me...

If I wind up going with SSD in the M17x, I'll most likely buy an OCZ Vertex which has built-in GC. The latest M17x's are shipping with Win7, which offers TRIM. In a non-raid environment, which is better to use, the drive's native GC routine or TRIM? I'm assuming using both is at best unnecessary and maybe sub-optimal or even harmful? Thx.

 

I've read before that the Indilinx based drives don't benefit from trim as much as the Samsung or Intel drives would. With that said unless you have that latest firmware Intel pulled from their website only the Indilinx drives offer trim support. Which you want to use is up to you. To take advantage of trim you need to make sure you are using the Win 7 controller driver with the latest firmware. If you want to take advantage of GC (someone correct me if I'm wrong here) for the Indilinx based SSDs it's a manual process of running the wiper program Indilinx provided.

 

hi some one can explain me how to check my ssd firmware ?

 

It's printed on your drive or look here...

 

Hey Mandrake what will I need to do with this drive to keep it in good shape until the TRIM firmware comes out? How do I do the manual GC proccess?

I have 0 experience with SSD.

Thanks for any info.

 

Thanks, Mandrake.

KC0r8y - If your drive will have no TRIM or GC ability until you get new firmware for it, you might check out this procedure. I haven't tried it personally, but others in that discussion have said that it works for them.

For those want a giggle, check out this side-by-side comparison of two Dell laptops booting up on Windows 7, one with a standard HD, the other with SSD. With apologies to the old Risky Business movie, "SSD: there is no substitute".