Good SSD for new laptop

Hello,

I am getting a NP8130, and am going to put the 500gb it comes with into a hd caddy and get a SSD for the main drive. What would be a better option considering my uses are - gaming, WoW/SWTor, but also need to do data analysis for my master work (Mining Engineering) consisting of large files (100's to 1000's + mb size) in matlab, stuff like that.

What I need advice on is should I go for a Sata III 128gb. Crucial M4 seems to be the 'good overall' ssd or is there a Sata II 240gb which would be just as sufficient for my uses?

another words do smaller Sata III, or bigger Sata II?

Looking to spend 350ish Canadian, give or take if its something worth it

 

There isn't a huge price difference between the SATA 2 and SATA 3 if that is what you are looking at. Any type of SSD will perform way better than a hard drive in terms of responsiveness and such.

The Intel 320 is a good SATA 2 drive to consider, it and the Samsung 470 are probably the top SATA 2 drives on the market. Both decently-priced too as SSDs go...

For SATA 3, you already found the best overall drive in the M4. It is a great drive, as was it's predecessor the C300. But the M4 is usually a fair bit cheaper than the C300 anyway, and it is faster.

If you found a good sale, you MIGHT be able to get a 256 GB M4 at 350 CD. I got a 10% coupon from Newegg for any SSD when I ordered my M4, and caught it on one of those 2-day price reductions such that I paid around $370 US (not sure if Canada charges more in general though, I see the exchange rate is practically 1:1 atm). I've since seen the drive priced even cheaper at times. 350 is tough to get a 240-256GB SSD, but not impossible. Just don't get anything Sandforce (particularly no OCZ).

The 320 does have a 160GB size, which I find to actually be a good size. Runs around the $300 mark. While it doesn't have the sequential transfer speeds of a SATA 3 drive, it is still pretty decent in random 4k performance, which is usually the most important. And it has an Intel 5-year warranty.

 

If you want a SATA3 drive, i would say a M4 or Intel 510. The 320 is also a good buy. The M4 256GB is priced at around 400CAD at both newegg.ca and NCIX. I would check both of those sites for deals, you should be able to land one at 350.

What i like about NCIX is that they can ship Express post which i find way better than Purolator who aren't even smart enough to figure the buzzer code for my apartment (there's my last name right beside the code in building the entrance and on the package as well) or too stupid to use it when i provide it.

I've been using a M4 for two weeks in the new desktop now and so far it's performing quite nicely. There is no temperature sensor on it which i find annoying but it's something that's annoying to monitoring OCDs like me.

 

Given your laptop has Sandy Bridge, you are best off looking at a SATA 3 SSD to make use of SATA 3 ports. Crucial M4, Intel 510 series are the recommended ones. SandForce is not recommended due to SandForce's track record. Games will not have higher FPS due to the SSD, but will load faster.

 

If can wait till october, Samsung PM830(SATA 6GB/s) will be arriving on the market, Samsung SSD have the fewest problems, I have one a 470(SATA 3GB/s) no problems.

Samsung's Blazing Fast SATA 3.0 512GB SSD Lands in October | PCWorld

Cheers
3Fees