Questions About SDD For New Sager

Hi,
I am buying a Sager NP8150 from XoticPC. Right now I am most likely getting it with a 120GB Intel 510 Series Solid State Drive (SSD2 Serial-ATA III).

I do everything from heavy gaming, to photoshop, to web browsing, to school work, and a bit of programming here and there, maybe more if I major in CS in college. Basically, I do plenty of multitasking and have heard an SSD is extremely worth it for my usage.

A few questions:

- Should I buy my SSD aftermarket, or is it fine just buying installed in my Sager?
- I have heard that the life of an SSD is relatively short (2-3 years) because it is flash memory. I have also heard that issue has been fixed, and SSDs now have the same life span as a regular HDD. Which is true?
- Should I go with the Intel 510? I am looking for about a 120gig. 160gig would be even nicer. Looking for a good brand, good reliability. Ideally, the fastest/best on the market that isn't a crazy price compared to the rest. Xotic only offers the 510, so I would have to buy aftermarket if I switch to something else.


Thank you very much

 

I do everything from heavy gaming, to photo editing, to schoolwork. I am looking for an overall reliable and fast (A good balance between the two) SSD.

I am buying a NP8150 which is what the SDD will be for. I was originally going with the 120gig Intel 510, but is it worth waiting for the Crucial C400 or maybe just go with the Crucial C300?

I think I am just going to get a basic HD with my laptop, put it an enclosure and make it an external. I will probably just end up waiting till the laptop is close to coming to make the purchase from NewEgg, but I have some time.

For my uses, which would you guys recommend?

 

Crucial C300 and C400 are supposed to be good with heavy multitasking. But Intel X25-M 160GB is a good contender as well. Should be cheaper and still hot performance overall.

Personally, I'm not liking what I see in the new Intel's for the price at least. If you go Intel best bang for the buck at the moment is the X25-M 120GB.

 

An aftermarket is usually cheaper than a pre-installed SSD. It's quite easy to install the SSD on a NP8150. I can suggest you not to consider the Corsair Force series; had connector problems with my NP8150. Am getting a C300 myself, and had quite positive feedback.

 

Once you get into the ssd's, the actual performance difference you're going to see will probably very minimal. Especially if this will be your first ssd

 

Not true at all.

The new Vertex 3 120GB models are pretty shabby (even Anand doesn't recommend them).

The Intel 510 being offered is the one I would consider (but definitely only the 250GB model). How much is the 'upgrade' to this SSD from Sager? If it is less than ~$600, then I would buy it from them.

 

The 120gig is $255 upgrade from a 500gig 7200rpm. On NewEgg it is like ~$270. Might as well buy it aftermarket and get a a 500gig for only $25.

 

Like I mentioned, I would only consider the 250GB model - however, if the price is similar for the bigger version, I would still order it from Sager.

Having a complete system from a single vendor is worth losing a $25, 500GB HDD 'deal', if/when you need an issue solved in the future.

Consider it 'compatibility' insurance.

 

Agreed. Real life performance differences are hard to notice.

He doesn't recommend it is because the 120GB is slower than the 240GB just like the Intel 510 120GB is slower than the 250GB.

Slower meaning it's slower in Anand's simulated work load benchmarks. Differences in real life during normal notebook usage are a completely different story.

 

Phil,

Link to back up your 'completely different story' claim?

He doesn't recommend them because they perform worse than his 'next generation performance threshold'. He also doesn't claim to know how much of a hit different controllers have with smaller capacity drives.

Anand:

Anand:

See:
The OCZ Vertex 3 Review (120GB) - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News

 

I disagree with Anand, I would not recommend any Sandforce drive (even 240GB) for people that work a lot with compressible data.

About the 'completely different story', it comes from reading a lot of reviews that compare smaller versions of SSDs like X25m (80GB vs. 160GB) and C300 (128GB vs. 256GB) with their larger brothers. I don't have links at hand. Meaningful differences show up in file copies and simulated workload benchmarks (which rely rather heavily on multi tasking).

Just because Anand's Storagebench shows a big difference between the 120GB and 240GB doesn't mean that the difference will be there in real world notebook usage.

 

Did you mean "incompressible" data?

 

Yes I meant incompressible.

On a sidenote, applications and Windows are very well compressible. So it would have to be very large volumes of incompressible data.

 

why's it always Phil and tillerofthearth that argue about ssd stuff? lol. every thread i've taken the time to read on here have you two commenting against each other..

either way, the OP obviously has a budget/size in mind so the 120-128gb ones are what he's looking at. based on those sizes, i dont think you can go wrong with any of the options you've listed. tiller posted a good comment about the fact that if you buy it through xotic, it'll be covered under the system. maybe it'll be easier/quicker for you to get a replacement if something goes wrong

if you decide you dont like the ssd options that xotic provides and you want it covered through your reseller, maybe look at mythlogic. they have many more ssd options, and if they dont have one you want, they'll get it so it'll be covered

 

On the other hand, an Intel OEM SSD bought through a system builder may only have one year warranty. If you buy through Amazon or Newegg I believe you get three years warranty.

 

it should still be covered under the length of your parts warranty. for instance i have 2 year parts, 4 years labor.. i'll probably extend the parts coverage another year at a later date, and labor is useless to me honestly, i'd rather just do it myself. but all the parts they put in should be covered for 2 years under their warranty

 

I would like to know more about this as well please

I'm seriously considering the 128GB C300 for my boot drive...but I'm waiting a couple of months to see whether or not the new SSDs are worth the wait. In either case, I need a decent SATA3 SSD that is not too far behind the times (future-proofing; I know, it's pointless, but I don't want to walk around with outdated hardware).

Mr. Mysterious