OCZ Vertex 2 or Crucial RealSSD C300?

I am trying to decide between buying the OCZ Vertex 2 OCZSSD2-2VTXE120G and the Crucial RealSSD C300 CTFDDAC128MAG-1G1. I will be running the SSD in a Portege R700-S1312 laptop with Windows 7 pro and a SATA II controller. (So I won’t be able to take advantage of the RealSSD’s 6 GB/s speed.)

According to Anandtech's comparison of these drives, the Vertex 2 seems to perform a bit better and to be a bit more resilient over time (but since the drive will be TRIMed on Windows 7, resiliency might not be an important factor?). But according to the Vertex 2 reviews on Newegg (and elsewhere), the Vertex 2 seems to arrive DOA or to brick much more often than the RealSSD. (For what it’s worth, the Vertex 2 gets an 83.4% average user rating on Newegg whereas the RealSSD C300 gets a 92.4% rating.) I will be backing up my files, of course, but I don’t want to go through the headache of swapping out a failed drive in a month’s time.

I am not ultimately concerned about the price differential between the two drives, nor am I concerned about the 8GB difference in capacity. Basically I’m wondering if you think I should sacrifice a bit of performance to gain some reliability by choosing the RealSSD C300 over the Vertex 2. Or perhaps another way of stating my question is this: Do you think the RealSSD C300 is in fact more reliable (i.e., less likely to fail in a month’s time) than the Vertex 2, as the Newegg reviews seem to indicate?

What advice would you give me? Thank you for your thoughts.

 

I would not touch a Sandforce until I no longer see the constant support question of 'my Vertex 2 worked fine for a month or so but suddenly disappeared this morning' on OCZ forum.

It is getting much less but there is still new ones.

 

You honestly would not be able to tell the difference between either drive in real-world usage once you put them in your machine. I personally would not worry too much about buying one brand/model over another.

As for the DOA issues - every single hardware component sold has reports of people experiencing DOA or "it died after one month." You will not find any mechanical hard drive, SSD, motherboard, video card, etc where someone doesn't have these kinds of problems and posts on internet forums about it. The problem is that it is all anecdotal, and there is no guarantee that the unit YOU buy will be DOA or absolutely flawless.

DOA's happen. In the unfortunate (and unlikely) event that it does happen, , you RMA the item, and get a replacement.

 

There is absolutely nothing wrong with SF based SSDs. I have owned my Agility 2 for 4-5 months no, absolutely no issues in my Vostro 1500.

Again, people on support forums and Newegg generally don't know what they are talking about and couldn't tell you the difference between a chicken and a gorilla. DOA stuff happens. Worst comes to worse you return/RMA it.

 

I'd go with the C300. Its performance, is on par with or better than the Vertex 2's. And with the 0006 firmware, TRIM is much more aggressive. So, I notice no drops in performance over time, or while multitasking.

But I may be a bit biased.

 

Both Corsair and OCZ acknowledge that there is a sleep/resume issue with certain model/driver combination. Their newer firmware reduced the hit surface but there are still new reported cases.

Also, I can't see why newegg cannot be used as a gauge as there is no reason that people buying OCZ on newegg are more stupid than people buying Intel or other brands on newegg.

To buy or not to buy a brand/model is a personal decision, I just want to provide what I know so it is more likely for people to make informed decision.

To me the risk/reward ratio doesn't tilt towards Sandforce.

To get a sense of what I am talking about, you may like to read this

Support Question Vertex 2 120GB - Suddenly "No bootable devices" error

and if you want to know more, read the whole forum and decide whether they know or not know they are talking about then make the decision.

 

Tomshardware review shows the C300 is very power hungry at max loading. My vote then goes to the SF1200-based Vertex 2.

 

Of course its power hungry under load lol! Its a SATA III SSD although it runs on SATA II.. I have a C300 and its quite good! I certainly recommend it!

Panther214

 

If these two specific brands of SSD are your only options, I would take the Crucial over the OCZ. The latter's tech support is pretty awful in my experience. They will try to blame any issue you have with their products on something else. If you're open to trying other brands, look at G.Skill or Mushkin. I've had very good experiences with the former's tech support (they replaced a nearly 5-year-old stick of RAM, no questions asked), and the latter's is rated very highly as well. I actually have a Mushkin Callisto Deluxe en route thanks to an unexpected Christmas bonus from work. Last time I checked, the prices for most Sandforce drives are pretty close. Even if non-OCZ drives cost a bit more, I would pay the difference just for the peace of mind from G.Skill or Mushkin.