Noob here: what's the best SSD brand?

My next laptop is probably going to be a Toshiba Satellite A660. Unfortunately, it doesn't come with an SSD option. So I wanted to put one in myself.

But I've never done this before. I've heard that it can be very easy using data transfer software (I'm not out to do a clean install or anything).

What's the best SSD to get? I'm looking for 256 GB or at least more than 200 preferably (it can be less if that's all I can get). I'm willing to pay up to $600 (maybe more). I've heard Intel? Crucial? Samsung? What's the best one?

 

It will depend on what kind of drive you're looking for. The "best" general purpose drives right now over 200 GB would probably be the Crucial C300 and the Samsung 470. The Intel 510 is nice if you have a SATA III (6 Gbps) interface and need large sequential numbers, but it has rather poor 4K numbers, which make it less desirable as a general purpose OS drive. A Sandforce drive has somewhat variable performance, but is usually one of the best for OS purposes, and is often priced very competitively (although you'll probably want to avoid OCZ). That's just for what's out now.

In the next few months, the C400 will be released, as well as drives based on the next generation of Sandforce (The OCZ version is the Vertex 3, not sure what the other manufacturers will call theirs), as well as the Intel G3s. It's obviously difficult to advise you about drives that haven't been released yet.

 

Yup to the above. Intel are generally the most reliable, SandForce drives usually offer good value and good read/write speeds, Samsung drives are a bit pricey but good reviews. I would wait as G3 are coming out soon and newest SandForce drives a little bit down the road..

 

I don't want to sound stupid, but I've been waiting for a new laptop for over 6 months, so I'm not really cool with waiting anymore. I'm wondering what is the best option out of the ones that are currently available.

I was looking at the Crucial C300, but people were saying the Intel 510 was better. Either way, I'd be looking for a general purpose/OS drive.

 

The Intel drives are generally considered the most reliable, with very complaints of any issues with them. A Intel G2 SSD (does not support SATAII, and is probably not the fastest drive on the market anymore, but works very well) 80GB can be found for as low as $130 on eBay. A 120GB can sometimes be found for around $170.

I just bought a Samsung 470 64GB drive, so I don't yet have personal experience with it, but that line is generally quite well-regarded.

The C300 has good speeds and reviews, but I've seen multiple reviews that say it's a power hog.

 

Does the Samsung come with data transfer software? Because I know the C300 and the Intel 510 do...

 

Since you plan to use it as an OS drive, I think the Intel 510 series is worse than the C300 or Samsung, apart from possible reliability issues (which I have heard about the C300, but not about the Samsung). Hm. And more to the point, now that I've looked at the A660, I'd say go for the Samsung. The A660, since it's listed as using 1st generation core-i processors, will be almost certainly limited to SATA II (3 Gbps). This means you won't see most of the advantages of the C300 or Intel 510 (which do their best work on SATA III (6 Gbps) interfaces). I'd recommend a G2, but the largest G2 is 160 GB, and you specifically asked for 200 GB or larger.

 

For an OS drive, the Samsung has worse 4k performance than the C300 or Intel G2 even. The Intel G3 will have improved 4k over the G2, which is usually most important for a system drive. I wouldn't worry about sequential speeds to be honest unless you plan on doing a lot of big file reads or writes on a regular basis. To me it's a worthless number.

 

It has lower 4K aligned scores than the Intel G2, certainly, but in "real world" scenarios, it beats them out (Storagereview's review here, for HTPC, Productivity, and Gaming (although the C300 does beat it out in gaming) ). You'll also notice that in all of those real world scenarios, though, the Sandforce drive comes out on top.

Agreed on the sequential numbers, though, which is why I'm largely discounting the 510. I think in the end, though, we're just arguing about details. Any of the drives would be really good, truthfully.

 

No, the A660 I want is using Sandy Bridge. It was updated on March 11th.

And I probably will end up getting the C300 since it seems to be in the middle of all of this, it comes with data transfer software, it's cheaper than the Intel, and it was the first one I considered getting. But that won't be for a few weeks or so.

 

Alright, sounds good, then. Hope all of our wrangling helped.

 

Don't get the crucial RealSSD C300, I thought as you before buying this. But once test on my Envy 14, with firmware 06, after a clean install of W7, it has really annoying random freeze. Each freeze lasts 30-50 seconds. And you could click on nothing during this. So that really sucks for such as price SSD. People say that by disableing TRIM or intel Rapid Storage, it could solve the problem. But nothing works for me. Latency problem is still there.

In term of performance, I compared it to OCZ vertex 2, and I must say that OCZ vertex 2 beat it for large. The crucial one seems to be laggy when I open Firefox or some applications. It has always 1-2 sec of freeze before the openning of the application. I can notice this especially when surfing on mozilla. Also, when I transfer files, Crucial one has about 15MB/s, whereas OCZ has 39MB/s. Test with the same file(4,6GB folder). Just return that crap to the seller. Also if you don't have SATA III on your laptop, don't consider something using SATA III. that is a waste.

Now I have 0 issue with OCZ vertex 2. Everything is fluid. instant openning of application. But system booting time seem to be a little longer than curial C300. But I still will return it because of the intel X25-M G3. Yes , intel make the most reliable, not the fatest, but the most stable and best real life usage SSD.

 

That's why I opted for the Intel again instead of C300. I read a lot about freezes and pauses with the C300. I bypassed the Samsung because it had a destructive firmware update, not to mention slower 4k performance than the Intel.

With all the riff-raff going on with the OCZ drives, Intel made the most sense. I do like the OCZ Vertex 2 in my desktop, and would like one in my laptop, but didn't want the crap that they threw out with their latest die shrink.

 

Wow, I didn't know this was so complicated. Thanks, guys. Like I said, it will be a few weeks before I get one, if I do. Sounds like I should go with the Intel now, I guess? I mean, would I really find it "slow" in comparison with the C300? It'll still be way faster than a standard HDD...

 

Intel

French Retailer Data Offers SSD Failure Rates | News | The Mac Observer

 

Unless you were doing LOTS of large file transfers would you really notice it. It's nearly splitting hairs when you compare its performance against a traditional HDD.

 

Does anyone have info if their way of research is statistically valid?

It seems strange that Samsung and Toshiba were not included. I expect Samsung and Toshiba to be at least as reliable as Intel. This may be the reason Apple and Sony use their SSDs.

 

I posted about this against Dave back in the main thread, as I recall. I think it's statistically valid considering the source, which are returns to a French retailer. As a result, many OEM drives like Samsung and Toshiba wouldn't make the list, since until the 470, Samsung drives weren't really sold retail, and Toshiba has never really sold drives retail at all. Also, given the time period, most or all of the Kingston failures would actually be Intel failures, given that Kingston was using rebranded Intel drives at the time. It's also worth asking how many drives might have been returned directly to the manufacturer, as opposed to the retailer, which could also further skew the numbers, but that's much too hard to judge.

 

Research based on one french "unspecified retailer" without info on total number of returns... I'm a bit wary of these numbers.

I do believe Intel is one of the more reliable brands though.

 

I would go with the samsung 470 but the decision is up to you.

 

I think Apple and Sony use Toshiba/Samsung SSD cause of the price factor. If everything had Intel their prices would explode as their costs would be much higher. Plus Toshiba/Samsung are huge OEM supplier of drives/RAM.