Is SandForce still as unreliable as it used to be an year ago?

So, I haven't really been keeping up with SSD issues the past year, but the last time i did my research I remember that SandForce was a strict no no. I was wondering if things have changed by now? If not what are some of the most common issues that SandForce based drives have?

 

Are they as prone to the F4 BSODs as they were? No they aren't, but they aren't problem free either. That being said, i took the risk and got a Mushkin Chronos deluxe 240GB for 270CAD and it's been performing pretty well so far. I'd still recommend Intel, Samsung and Crucial over most SF drives though.

 

Intel is actually using Sandforce for the 520 and offering quite a large warranty with it.

I agree though, I'm a fan of the Samsung drives.

 

Look at the 520 ratings at Newegg. BSODs is still a recurring problem. Not nearly as much as the dreaded OCZ Vertex series though. Guess they fixed a lot of the problems with firmware.

About 10% of all ratings is complaining about BSODs.

Newegg.com - Intel 520 Series Cherryville SSDSC2CW120A3K5 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

 

Hmm, interesting. Any other sources?

I still wouldn't mind taking it for a spin for performance, but in my opinion, the Samsung PM830 is the way to go.

 

Intel 520 Series 120G SSD random BSOD's - please help

Some reports of issues on the Intel board as well. I had a 320 series 300 GB SSD as my OS drive, then the 8mb bug came back, even after firmware update, so I purchased a 256 GB Samsung 830 drive for OS and major programs and moved the 320 to my D drive for other programs and games. I feel quite confident that the Samsung move was right. They are great drives and FAST!

 

As has been said, a lot of the problems were finally fixed late last year, when Sandforce FINALLY admitted there was a problem and they released some updates...that said, the problems are not completely gone, there are still too many people having BSOD issues for my tastes. Even the vaunted company that is Intel couldn't resolve the issues down to a tiny fraction of users.

The Samsung 830 seems to have become the king among those in the know now. I haven't used one personally, and am very happy with my Crucial M4 still. That said, I would be more than willing to get a Samsung were I in the market for a new drive.

There are a few other drives using the Marvell controller that the Intel 510 (what's with the numbering schemes Intel!) and Crucial M4 use, among those is the Plextor M3. That controller and the Samsung ones are by far the most solid ones on the market right now (excepting maybe the Intel 320, but there is still that 8MB bug lurking for some-seems to have gotten rarer at least).

 

Yeah, the numbers of issues with the 320 series seem to be mounting as well.

Anyone else had a repeat 8mb brick on 320 ssd AFTER firmware update.

That's why I put the drive as D: Didn't want to use it for OS and critical apps...if I lose games...can always reinstall. Reinstalling OS or restoring is a pain...

 

Take a read of the AnandTech article, and see if you draw the same conclusions I had here that the SF 2281 may still encounter blue screen o' death issues - http://forum.notebookreview.com/sol...sd-520-includes-sandforce-23.html#post8299579

 

Imo, any one with some SSD knowledge should automatically rule out 520 cause of the unjustified price premium.

 

It seems like SandForce reliability is still a bit iffy for my taste. I was just thinking of grabbing a cheap Mushkin Chronos, but since it was sandforce i was skeptical. Think I'll stick with my M4 for now.
Thanks guys.

 

Nothing wrong with an M4!

 

This is why i was tempted to grab that Mushkin - www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226236
Too tempting, less than 1$/gb

 

Hawk, you can't be wrong with the Samsung. It may not be as fast as the Sandforce ones, but it is much more reliable... And to put the icing on the cake, it is cheaper too. Or was, until 2 weeks ago, now I don't know.

 

Why are SAMSUNG's drives so expensive? Their 128GB drive is priced similarly to the 256GB M4. A couple were even on par with Kingston's HyperX SSDs. And speaking of, are those also no-no due to their use of SandForce? I actually was under the impression that they were using a new controller that was supposed to be pretty good. It's late now, but I'm going to go through the newegg reviews and count how many complain about BSOD, it looked like a few...

 

The funny part about this is one of my friends recently posted a pic on FB an OCZ (couldn't tell what model it was, until now) Agility 3 in his netbook. I chimed in about how I would really be wary of drives from smaller vendors like OCZ, Mushkin, etc. since they likely have far fewer resources to do proper validation.

He agreed that "reviews are mixed all around. i figure it will always be a chance on hardware".

Anyhow, what's funny is a bunch of fans (?) of Sandforce/OCZ chimed in w/some comments, which I find a bit doubtful like "I've been rocking ocz for years on my pc, works fine. ... Go sandforce or go home" or "my netbook has a OCZ for the last 2 yrs and no issues. OCZ has one of the best reliability." (!??!!?)

I pointed the last guy to some of the well known Sandforce BSOD problems and his reply was "then I must be lucky. 3 OCZ Vertex drives, no problems " Sigh....

I guess people have different standards or they've hit BSODs and blamed them on other things.

 

The main thing is that anecdotal evidence is really lacking. Sure, I may get three working Sandforce drives and get a DOA Intel drive. But based on that alone, I can't say that OCZ is more reliable than Intel.

My take on it is that for a piece of hardware that stores all my data, I'm only willing to go with the drives that have proven reliability, even if I have to give up a bit of performance.

As for Samsung drives, wait for the sales. They don't come as often, but it does bring the price down significantly.

 

Newegg has dropped Samsung prices this week. 256GB drive (bare) is $289

Newegg.com - PCs & Laptops, Laptop Accessories, Internal SSD, SAMSUNG, SATA III

 

the 128g is still on sale. $169 - 15% promo.

both avg. $1.12 per gig.

 

samsung drives are more expensive because they are using their own controller instead of sandfarce. kind of like asking why intel (except for the 520) is more expensive. even intel can't get sandforce 100% and they are using custom firmware.

 

The 240GB version is $330. Chepaer than the Vortex and patriot wildfire? Didnt compare other versions though

 

Been rocking an old OCZ Vertex 30GB drive since it came out with no issues on my Fujitsu T2010. I forget which series it is but it advertises 200/160 read/write speeds.

That being said, if I were buying a new drive today it would be a 128 or 256GB Samsung 830 series.

 

In therms of pricing, you can't really beat the chronos deluxe as far as Sandforce + 32nm toshiba Toggle NAND are concerned. If you're going Sandforce, the chronos deluxe gets my vote for bang for the buck. Intel stand behind their products though and they have additional software that comes with it as well.

I would get the 830 over any of those though.