256gb Crucial M225 or 128gb Vertex 2 SSD - Which Should I Keep?

Update: I listed the Crucial SSD for sale at the Marketplace. http://forum.notebookreview.com/com...al-m225-ssd-refurb-320gb-2-5-7200rpm-hdd.html

Please help me out with this decision.

This past week I bought a 128gb Vertex 2 for $218 and a 256gb Crucial M225 for $290.

I'm trying to decide which to keep and which to return/sell off.

I realize that the Vertex 2 has a sandforce controller which benchmarks faster, but in day to day use, would anyone actually notice a performance difference between the crucial and the vertex 2?

The crucial is so fast that I doubt the Vertex 2 vs M225 performance would make a difference that is noticable in daily use.

Key points for me.

1.) This is for a laptop with only one hdd slot.

2.) This laptop is my only computer.

3.) Most importantly, I like having a big hdd and not having to worry about constantly moving my music or uninstalling games.

I think I would be better off keeping the 256gb crucial and returning the 128gb vertex 2. I don't think I would notice much performance difference between the 2? What do you think?

Thank you for your advice.

 

With your point number 3, I was looking for a third poll option: Seagate Momentus XT Hybrid 500GB.

Being weeks/months away from an Intel G3 introduction (with all the associated/anticipated price drops) I have to ask: do you really need an SSD now?

Sticking with the choices you list, the easy choice is the bigger SSD - good price for that capacity - although it is using an already 'surpassed' controller inside.


Summary: The 256GB Crucial offers a so/so size (compared to fast mech. HD's), good price (compared to faster SSD's). Performance depends on your specific usage and how full (%-wise) you expect to run the SSD normally.

Good luck.

 

Thanks for your advice. Can a few others chime in as well.

If I keep the 256gb, I plan to fill up around 180gb of the hdd with the OS, software, all my music and my games. And obviously, trim will be enabled. If I keep the 128gb, I'll probably fill up a 100gbs of it with OS, software, music and games. Does that help you with your recommendation.

The rumor is that the Intel G3 won't be out until Feb 2011, which is five months away. And it's not going to be cheap either. I would rather just get the ssd now than wait five months.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...s/519118-intel-g3-ssds-coming-feb-2011-a.html

I looked at the Momentus XT but...

it still eats up battery life

it still uses moving parts

256gbs is plenty of space

apparently, it's still no where near as good as a true blue ssd in terms of performance.

 

I voted M225 IF it's a fully healthy drive and you got full warranty.

I've heard about some reliability problems of the M225.

If it's healthy you will not notice any perfomance difference.

PS. Intel G3 is expected in February 2011.

 

The Vertex 2 is brand new. The M225 is a refurb with only a 30 day warranty.

But once I confirm that it works well out of the box, I'm planning to pay an extra $20-30 to get a squaretrade warranty for it.

That should take care of any warranty concerns right? It's not the end of the world if I end up needing to get it replaced.

I got both drives from slickdeals.net

 

Well, for the 256GB (effective 238GB actual capacity) your percentage is just over 75% filled, whereas with your 128GB (effective 119GB actual capacity) your percentage is just under 84% - and, your storage needs will likely grow...

To the XT still eating up battery life; so do the SSD's.

As to the performance compared to an XT - you still haven't mentioned your usage scenario.

 

SSDs use up a lot less battery than the XT right?

The only truly intensive task I'll be using it for is gaming, and I guess photoshop. The laptop has a great gaming gpu (ATI 4650).

I have steam and close to a 100gbs worth of games I would like installed on the hdd.

I torrent a lot as well. I hope that won't mess up the ssd.

Thanks again for all your help.

 

I notice that he's using a Mac, and thus doesn't have trim support.

Could that be why he gets so much performance degradation?

 

Gaming? I'm out of my depths here... (Sorry).

I do know (read) that fast storage will make a difference in some games - while loading different levels - but again, depending on the game in question, it (an SSD) might make a minimal difference.

For power usage it, again, depends (specifically) on which SSD we're talking about.

For myself in my systems, I have not seen a HD/SSD make a substantial difference in battery run time (less than 10 minutes either way).

PS can be quite demanding on a storage subsystem if the images are using a much larger space than the physical RAM available - for it's Scratch Disks.

So, how big/complex is your PS editing?

 

Ok, I'll change my vote to the Vertex 2.

30 day warranty looks like Crucial has very little faith in these drives.

 

I'll be getting a squaretrade warranty on the crucial ssd for $20 or so.

That should cover me for 2-3 years.

 

Yes, but SSD make a significant difference in boot times of everything. Windows, games, everything loads much faster on a SSD. That's the performance upgrade I care about. That and the longer battery life. My PS editing is not complex at all, just basic touchups and what not.

Is that not a good enough reason to get an SSD? Is an SSD only worthwhile if you're doing hardcore video editing on it or something? I thought most people get SSDs for the vast improvement in boot times.

Also, won't an SSD help me with torrenting?

I'm not expecting the graphics of my games to improve or anything.

 

What's your laptop?

Here's the impact of SSD battery life on a HP DM3:

 

Thank you for all your help Phil.

Squaretrade cancels out the concerns you have about the low warranty right?

My laptop is a Sony Vaio VGN-FW.

I don't see the Crucial M225 in the graph you posted.

Currently I get about a 2-3 hr battery life (2hrs when torrenting)

 

So you value a few seconds on each boot, or do you boot/reboot continously?

In my systems, I have not seen an overall 'win' for SSD's, but that doesn't mean you won't see it in yours.

As to your 'good enough' reasons? I can't comment for you.

 

Wikoogle any faster SSD will outperform the Seagate Momentus XT in ANY situation. Here's a review with examples:
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=5818&review=ssd+vs+hard+drive

If you have confidence in the Square trade warranty the Crucial M225 will be a fast SSD.

The battery life impact will be minimal, since you have a large laptop with a full voltage CPU. The battery life difference between M225 and Seagate XT will be 10-15 minutes max.

 

get the 256GB M225... it should be awesome if u have proper warranty.

 

I too am more interested in performance over time with my workstation class usage.

I do not doubt that individually/selectively, that an SSD shows as superior.

The question that I ask though: Is the cost worth the perceived performance increase? In my real world use, it is still questionable if it is (worth it).

 

Thank you guys. I feel better about my decision.

You realize that's the main reason anyone gets an ssd right?

The bulk of people get an 32gb or 64gb SSD to load nothing on except for the OS and maybe some other common software.

They don't use the ssd for much other than to startup windows and software much faster, and it's well worth the upgrade for them.

If faster boot times and start up times for software is not a good enough reason to get an ssd, I doubt many people here would get one.

 

The latest firmware 1916 (released 13 days after that article was last updated) has Garbage Collection. I don't think the previous firmware had GC, but not sure.

 

Yes the main reason I get an SSD is to boot fast (~ 12 seconds) and launch all apps very fast.

Other than that the low power consumption, lack of noise, better shock resistance are nice too.

 

That is not my main reasons - I want to see a tangible decrease in time of doing the same amount of work between an SSD vs. a mech. HD.

Either way, Good luck and...

I would be very interested in your observations before/after you buy and install your new SSD. I'll be looking forward to it.

 

My computer sometimes chugs when playing 720p video stored on the hdd, despite an awesome graphics card, 4 gigs of ram and a core 2 duo cpu. Would that stop with an SSD?

Wouldn't an SSD also improve the speed of torrenting, the speed of starting up video, and the speed of moving around large files?

My computer sometimes chugs when playing 720p video, despite an awesome graphics card. I blame the hdd and expect that to go away with an ssd.

Is that a poor assumption? Thank you again.

 

Depends on what the reason is. If it happens during heavy multi tasking an SSD might solve it.

But it's far more likely you have a problem with settings, drivers and/or codecs.

What's the video file? youtube / mkv or?

no, yes, yes.

 

When playing 720p video - is that on the system or is that streaming?

If streaming it's your internet/wireless connection.

If on the system; do you have Norton/McAfee/etc. installed?

Try MSE instead.

 

The video is on the system's hard drive and it usually only chugs when I'm multitasking (torrenting in the background) while browsing simulatanously.

I use the latest Kazaa Codecs and VLC for playback.

The video is usually divx files that I torrented (tv shows mostly).

Lol, no I don't use Norton, I use MSE.

So my guess would be that the slow down is due to the hdd.

 

Try MPC HC instead, maybe that solves the problem.

 

Thank you for the suggestion. I'll try that.

 

Better yet, just stop downloading while playing the video and see if anything changes. If something does, it means that the hard drive can't keep up with both reading the video, and writing the downloads.

 

Yes correct, that's the quickest way to find it out.

 

Thank you. Yes I'm aware that the problem goes away if I stop torrenting. That's one reason I'm updating to an ssd.

 

Yup! HD is my guess too (5400 or 7200 RPM?).

To be sure:

Change your torrenting options to 'allocate file space immediately'.

Uncheck the 'Allow file contents to be indexed in addition to file properties' when you right-click and select properties on each drive in your system (in Windows explorer).

Disable System Restore.


And download a trial of PD 11 and set the system like this:

See:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/6736256-post787.html


and:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/6736339-post792.html


I'm sure your 'stuttering' should be cured - if it's really the HD - with the above steps.

And if it is still chugging - have you short stroked your O/S partition?

 

All fantastic tips. I already did all of that back when I first install Windows 7, except for short stoking my O/S (not sure what the means) or installing PD 11 (not sure what that does).

I'll try those out.

 

If there really is a reliability difference between the SSDs, I'd go for the more reliable one. However, no SSD has me completely comfortable, and with that said I'd keep the bigger one and make frequent external backups. If it fails, it's great that spending a mere ~$20 can get you a new drive, but getting all the data back is a much bigger pain.

 

Great!

How big is your drive and how big is your O/S (C: ) partition?

Curious to know if PD11 affects this side of mech. HD performance too.

 

i aslo run into the same problem when im watching a 1080p video and im torrenting 7 or more files on my xt.
although not a major issue for me, i would like to know if the ssd helped you with this regard.

 

Yes, I definately experience slow down with 1080p video. It's actually only occasionally that I have slowdown with 720p video.

Odd, I wouldn't expect that to happen on a XT.

It says you have a core i7, 4 gigs of ram and a 280m gtx. I don't see what could possibly be causing the slow down.

I'll be sure to provide an update when I get the SSD and install it (sometime in the next 10 days).

 

I don't have multiple partitions. I have a 320gb (actual is 297 gb) 7200rpm drive and all of it is my C: partition. And I have about 47gbs of free space on it.

 

To short stroke your HD (not the O/S), you simply make it smaller than the full size of the HD you're using.

So, if you have your O/S and apps taking (let's say) 50GB, you would shrink your C: partition to 60-70GB's (we're leaving 10 to 20GB 'free' for the O/S to use).

The rest of the space you would create another partition and put all your data on it.

What this accomplishes is that the O/S is 'confined' to the fastest part of the platters (the outside edges) and gives a noticeable increase in responsiveness to the system.

Combined with PD11 Professional (a defragmenting tool), this performance increase is maintained and even enhanced by limiting further fragmenting of the files as you continue to use the computer day to day.

Let me know if you want more details on how to do a 'short stroke'.

 

That's very helpful. Thank you.

Do you think short stoking helps with an ssd drive as well?

How do you get your My Documents and Desktop folders onto the 2nd partition rather than the first partition?

Also, is there a particular software you recommend using to do it, or do you just do it during the Windows installation?

If this helps SSDs too. I might reserve 100gbs of my SSD to windows, games (steam) and other software, and leave another 100gbs just for data (by placing the my documents, my downloads, and my desktop folders on the second partition).

I always uses windows to defragment, and once I switch to an SSD, defragmenting is completely unneccesary right?

 

Just curious to know how many months you're using this setup?

Would be curious to see how fragmented the PD 'Analyze' screen shows and how much % performance drop the HD is affected by the (I assume) well used HD.

The easiest way for you to 'shrink' the partition is to remove all your data files off the HD for a while. Once you had shrunk it enough and created the D: partition, you could put your data back on it.

 

Is there a way to tell windows to automatically put the My Documents, Desktop, My Downloads, and My Music folder onto the second partition rather than the primary partition.

I've been using this set up for less than two months. The drive was defragmented recently and still had slow down during 720p and especially 1080p video playback while torrenting large files in the background.

Thanks. I will definately try playing back 1080p videos while torrenting large files and let you know if there's any slowdown.

I only have a core 2 duo and an ati 4650 gpu but I think they're more than sufficent for torrenting and video playback.

Just PM me in a week or two if I forget.

 

I haven't had an SSD big enough to partition yet (I currently use an 80GB partition for my C: drive) so I don't know if it will be beneficial. But, all data points to the fact that SSD's don't/won't benefit at all from this strategy (from what I've read).

Creating the partition while initially installing Windows is best (imo), you can still do it on a 'running' Win 7 or Vista installation too.

Simply right click on Computer, select Manage, select Disk Management and right click on the C: partition you want to shrink and select 'Shrink volume'.

You will need PD to shrink the partition as fully as possible (even if you remove all your data and uninstall all your programs) as it will let you do an offline defrag which will move the normally unmoveable files during a reboot of your system.

Also, you will use PD to 'Consolidate Free Space' to move the files as close to the outer edges of the disk as possible - two or three online/offline runs like this and you should be at the size you want for your C: drive partition.

When you're happy with 'shrinking' you've done. Defrag once more offline (during rebooting), defrag online with the 'smart placement' option instead of the Consolidate Free space option and finally, go back into Disk Management and right click on the unpartitioned space to create a new volume/partition for your data.

Sounds like a lot of work (but it's not), and I humbly submit it is worth it for the sustained performance gains reaped.


To move your User folders to a new drive/partition:

See:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...-hitachi-7k500-benchmark-setup-specifics.html


And look for the heading ' Thankfully, all we need to do in Win 7 (and Vista) to automatically save to our D: drive is:'


Hope this helps.

 

Thank you. That is very useful advice.

I probably won't bother though since I'll be swapping in a SSD in a week or so anyways. Seems like too much work to gain performance gains for a week.

But if I ever go back to a normal hdd, I'll keep your post bookmarked for reference.

 

In a 'week or so' you could do this easily!

And, you'll know first hand if an SSD is really superior to a HD (in your particular case/issue) and so too will we.

Good luck.

 

Well, what laptop do you have? You can always substitute your ODD for an HDD caddy and use both an SSD and HDD. This is what I ended up doing.

 

is there some new firmware for C300? I currently got the 0.02 version.

 

Naw, I have a blu ray burner.

I'm not swapping that out to put in an extra hdd. I think the 256gb SSD will more than suffice for my storage needs. Videos and such, I can always stored on my external hdd.

 

Not that I know off. 0.02 runs well. Very well.

 

I would love to keep it, but am having a tough time justifying spending $300+ (after taxes and the cost of squaretrade warranty) on a hdd for a $680 laptop.

Especially if the $110 Hybrid XT packs a similar performance punch.

I haven't bought the squaretrade warranty yet. I was planning to once I decide to keep it since it doesn't kick in until the OEM warranty expires in 30 days anyways.

I see the drive going for quite a bit more on ebay so I'm not sure yet.