Best large SSD for Sata II not Sata III

Im looking at all sorts of drives...trying to compare the best of my ability but keep getting stumped with lack of Sata II figures for drives like the C300 etc.

I know manufacturers will want to advertise their peak performance but why o why they cant include figs for those of us who intend to use these drives on Sata II.

I would be grateful of any suggestions.

Basically, looking for 240+ gb as a primary/OS/few apps drive...may look at 2 drives (raided or not depending on GC abilities and how much that may mitigate lack of TRIM in Raid.

Also, im loking for drives that dont lose too much space in formatting as it may be the case that IF i raid x2 ssd's, I would probably look to over-provision slightly and wouldnt want to lose masses of valuable gb's.

Any info much appreciated.

 

With those sizes are pretty much looking at a SandForce based SSD or a Crucial SSD. I don't believe Intel has anything out in that size until the G3 come out in a few weeks.

 

Crucial's C300 SSDs are the best regardless of interface.

 

I'm actually buying myself an OCZ Vertex 2 today. I thought it was the best price/performance compared to the Crucial and just about everything else on Sata II.

Newegg.com - OCZ Vertex 2 OCZSSD3-2VTX120G 3.5" 120GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

key specs: 2,000,000 MTBF | 250MB sequential read/write

Newegg.com - Crucial RealSSD C300 CTFDDAC128MAG-1G1 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

key specs: 1,200,000 MTBF | 265MB read/140MB write

Mileage varies depending on your hardware and installation of course, but this is a basic reference to go by. Here is a good source to back up what I'm saying: http://www.computerpoweruser.com/Images/SmartComputing/DigitalIssues/CP____1101__/pageflip.html
Go to pages 54-55. Vertex 2 takes top spot, C300 runner up.

 

While the Vertex 2 has better price/performance, the company has some pretty crappy support. I'm sure if you do a search, you'll see how many complaints OCZ has gotten with their current line. Also, the new Vertex 2 has lower performance AND less capacity than their first generation Vertex 2 due to switching to the lower 25nm manufacturing process.

 

Thanks for the replies guys....

I have kinda narrowed it down to a selection of drives that I think are good. They include the c300 256gb Marvell controller, Corsair Force240 which I believe is Sandforce and OCZ Vertex II 240gb.

If any one knows of others that I should consider, let me know!

I too heard bad things about OCZ warranty/support but also have heard bad things about Crucial Firmware and people using the latest 006 firmware reporting stuttering....and without a new firmware for that fix, I wonder just how good the C300 is.

Obvioulsy, I have the option to wait for what I have been waiting for....Intel G3 X25-m. I believe that Intel is to release the 34nm 510 Series before this drive now....dont know why or how this 510 stacks up against G3.....

Also, like Intel, theres more new kids on the block ..... C400 and OCZ Vertex III....the latter sporting a Sandforce 2200 controller (ok performance for that wont be as advertised as im on Sata II)

So, you can see, its a bit of a melting pot at the moment.

I just really need good sound advice on which would be the best.

At the moment, im torn between buying C300 or waiting....I was thinking of G2 X25-m but they dont really stack up performance wise against the C300 (but then, they are Intel drives and reliability is a plus point)

God, talk about minefield!

Keep the advice comin' people!

 

If you can wait, wait. Newer/better/cheaper things will always come. Buy it when you need to use it.

 

Good advice.

Although, being in the UK, we are often stung with prices. ATM, I *could* get a c300 256 for £285...so about $460usd ... which is pretty damn good for us across the pond.

I am sorely tempted lol

 

It depends on the deal you can get... I just got a C300 256GB from NewEgg for $420 shipped with the migration kit. Honestly I don't think the new drives will drive prices down any more than that, and I really don't think the new drives will come out that cheap.

 

If you want, I can post up some benches for the C300/256GB on SATAII (whatever that comes with the GM45 chipset).

Want anything in particular besides CrystalDiskMark?

 

Anything that can show how the C300 performs on Sata II would be great....can I find figures from Crucial for this? - NO!

ATTO, HD Tune anything really...

Appreciate your efforts, thanks!

I guess im just looking for the best performing , most reliable large ssd for Sata II........

 

C300 256GB on Intel(R) ICH9M-E/M SATA AHCI Controller.

CDM: http://img843.imageshack.us/img843/2098/19228509.png

ATTO: http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/9846/atto.png

AS SSD: http://img541.imageshack.us/img541/1315/asssd.png

Copy benchmark: http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/9346/copyz.png

 

Sgogeta4 is right on this, the latest OCZ Vertex 2 switched to the 25nm process that consequently yields lower performance and less write cycles than the original 32nm version [see article here]. The fact OCZ hasn't exactly made it easy to distinguish the two despite using the same packaging, same marketing material, same model numbers and virtually no price difference caused quite an uproar with some of their customers who recently bought one.

If you bought a OCZ Vertex II recently then most likely you're getting a raw deal, for this reason I would not recommend getting the OCZ Vertex II anymore. I would recommend the Intel or the Crucial SSD's instead.

 

Yeah, I recall reading about the architecture reduction and how OCZ "slipped" some rather drastic changes in under the hood without telling buyers....that in itself kind of puts me off buying anything OCZ related....until that point, I admit, they were probably top of my list.....not any more.

The one niggle that I have regarding the C300 is good Sata II figures to support performance. Oh, I meant two niggles. I read on the Crucial forums that LOTS of people with these drives that either had the latest firmware revision installed when shipped OR flashed to the latest revision and are consequently experiencing stuttering from it. This is Firmware revision 006 from Crucial. I would post the link to the thread but cant find it at the moment.

Edit. Found it: http://www.forum.crucial.com/t5/Sol...rmware-Version-006-Release/td-p/24093/page/64

 

don't forget the Samung 470! Speed is slightly less than the C300 but has less than half the power consumption, I have 2 of these and won't trade them for any other SSD, check out the reviews on them

 

to see how the C300 performs on SATA II, see pages 5-10 here: Samsung 470 Series 256GB SSD Review > Benchmarks: File Copy Test - TechSpot they compare it to the Samsung 470, the 470 wins on pretty much all the large-file tests, but the C300 slightly outperforms in the KB transfers

 

Thanks for the test results much appreciated +rep.

Yeah, I had looked at the 470 but its ALOT pricier here in the UK. Around an extra £100 at least. I looked at the link you gave and although the Sammy performs extremely well, it looks to me like it falls down on its random 4k read and writes quite drastically compared to the C300....quite a massive difference there.

Thanks for the Sata II figures for the C300 as a comparison. +rep.

 

Crucial C300 Real SSD 256GB Solid State Drive £329.99

Brought one from above ebay seller. Sealed box. Free delivery. Good deal.

 

What Firmware shipped preinstalled with yours if you dont mind me asking?....I really dont want an new sealed drive with 001 or 002 if i can help it as i dont want to start flashing firmware to update a "new" drive....heard bad luck stories on crucial forums where updates have left people with nice expensive paperweights!

 

Mine came with latest firmware 0006. BTW I Never had any issues with updating my GF's laptop with 0006 from 0002.

 

Cheers fella. It seems that the C300 is the best performing SSD on Sata II (from the figures ive seen) - someone feel free to point out a better alternative apart from Sammy 470 (which is too expensive really for what it is)

 

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

 

Ok, I was kind of waiting on G3 X25-m like many, but it has been overtaken by the release of the 510 Intel (basically as it seems, Intel couldnt get it *quite* right for the 3rd gen x25-m in time.

I have read this review by Anand The Intel SSD 510 Review - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News and whilst it shows that its maybe a good drive, being 6gb Sata 3, its performance for sata 2 seems to be easily beaten by the other drives tested.

What do you guys reckon?

Still wanting the best SSD for a sata II system and this doesnt seem to be it, does it?

 

Well, the G3 is supposedly slated for release in a month or two. Supposedly.

 

I am still wondering if Intel is quiting the SSD controller business. Their flash fab now becomes a join venture and they have seeded the market(or successfully created the SSD market with G1/G2).

 

Intel's been in joint venture flash with Micron since 2006. According to Anandtech, the use of third party controllers is not intended as part of their long term strategies. Strategies, of course, can change, though...

 

We shall see. Intel's business fortunately or unfortunately is still selling CPU and things around it.

I think after they have created the SSD market so overall system performance has been kicked up a notch(thus faster CPU would not be dragged by slow HDD), their mission is accomplished.

edit:
BTW, you may want to read their 10K to see if flash(or RAM) fits their strategy.

 

and this is why i trust intel more than people like ocz: they don't depend on it, so they can do every step that's needed to do it right, instead of doing it fast, making money as a primary goal.

 

making money is the primary goal of any business

Intel however is more focused on the bigger picture(and I still can't see why they bought Synmantics) unlike OCZ which just jump around chasing after the hottest thing(which usually die fast or becomes commodity fast).

 

Looking at their 2009 10-K I'm struck by 2 things. First, their industry statement, which contains the line "Our goal is to be the preeminent provider of semiconductor chips and platforms for the worldwide digital economy." Flash would fit right in, there. As well, under "Other Operating Segments", "NAND Solutions Group", they make the statement that their "NAND flash memory products are manufactured by IM Flash Technologies, LLC (IMFT)." This makes it mildly unclear how much of the actual SSD strategy is driven by Intel, or by IMFT. Prior to this, I had assumed that IMFT merely made the flash chips that went into Intel drives, but this brings that assumption into question. I think we're starting to go offtopic with this, though, so I'll just leave it at that. If we want to continue this, we should probably start a new topic.

 

It really is going off topic but try to read in more detail about the background of the join venture, the financial commitments and the sale of another memory company their acquired to Micron. My guess is, by 2016, we are not going to see any flash related stuff from Intel.

 

it's not their shortterm focus as they don't need to survive the next month (they do so anyways). that's what i mean. by not having that pressure, their products can be better tested, more verified, and better balanced.

 

Does anyone think it would be worthwhile holding out on buying a C300 256gb SSD until the C400 or M4 is released? - I ask only because the platform it will be used on/in is only Sata II ready (PM55).....

Obviously, these newer drives will have outrageously fast "advertised" speeds but they WILL be based upon Sata III without a shadow of a doubt....seems that manufacturers have forgotten all about people who want to know of Sata II performance figures when choosing to buy a SSD.

So, anyone? - what d'ya reckon?

 

I would wait for intel G3, since its a P55 you have only sata II, G3 is suppose to be Sata II, with good random read/write, and since you want big capacity, probably the 300gb might play good for what you want.