Trying to buy an SSD for my Asus

I'm trying to buy an SSD for my Asus and can't decide on the best one. What are the main factors I should look at? Max Seq. R/W? Max Random R/W? Read/write speed? TBH I don't even know what these things mean. Are they worth studying up on? I'm trying to compare Transcend SSDs to Crucial SSDs but don't really know where to start. I'd appreciate it if someone could help me out. Also, will switching from an HDD to an SSD significantly cool my computer when it runs? Right now it gets pretty hot. Thanks a lot.

 

Is there a beginner's thread in this forum? I'm reading around here and nothing makes any sense to me. Thanks.

 

First and foremost, you'd want to look at the reliability of the drive more than anything. Personally, I'd avoid Sandforce-based SSDs (the controller) and as far as brands go, I'd say Intel, Samsung, and Crucial are pretty safe.

That said, if you're just an Average Joe user and never used a SSD before, pretty much all SSDs will feel stupid-fast compared to your old HDD. However, if you must pay attention to the details, probably the most important would be random access times (which are single-digit milliseconds for all drives now).

 

The single most important aspect of an SSD is consistency. Consistency over time.

The SanDisk Extreme Pro's 480GB and larger are the only drives worth considering in early 2016 (still).

While every other 'score' is important on its own or in a 'lab' setting; that sustained consistency is what makes these drives winners.

What good is buying a supposed sports car (on stated specs) but can only redline it in September during a cool breeze for a few brief seconds before it shuts itself down to HDD levels to protect itself?

I'd rather have a true Ferrari that is built to do the speeds it is advertised to do, day in and day out.

Anything else is just wishful thinking at this point.

Unless your platform can use 4 lanes of an PCIe SSD and has the chassis, design and fans to cool them properly, these 2.5" SSD's regularly outpace almost every other SSD in almost any workload (light/normal/heavy) I have tried them in.

See:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/8170/sandisk-extreme-pro-240gb-480gb-960gb-review


The title in the link above says it all...

 

Hmm, yeah consistency is important to have. I just assumed that was known and didn't explicitly name it.

Forgot about the Extreme Pro as well.