Upgrade from Intel X25-M 160gb?

Ordered a new Dell E6420 that has SATA III/Sandy Bridge. I currently have an Intel X25-M 160GB drive. I would love to get up to 250/256GB and something SATA III. I'm seduced by the Vertex 3 but I don't want to roll the dice with OCZs reliability. Taking the Vertex 3 out of the mix, what should I be looking at? I'm not a gamer and don't routinely transfer large files for the sake of transferring large files. I'm a normal business level user and looking for an SSD that will take me to the next level beyond what I currently have. Price is not a major concern for me.

 

Not an easy choice that. Lot of people who are in the same boat as you
Crucial C400 (SATA 3), OCZ Vertex 3 (SATA 3), Intel 510 (SATA 3), Intel G3 (SATA 2), Samsung 470 (SATA 2). Take your pick

 

That is about where I am as well. Going blind looking at reviews. The C400 seems to have mixed reviews and in some cases is not as fast as the C300. I guess if you get lucky enough to get a good Vertex 3 you're golden. It's pretty good bang for the buck.

 

Yeah that was a bit of a shocker. The C400 is using a different controller than C300 and i thought it would get better results.
The way i see it is that Vertex 3 is the fastest, with Intel 510 a bit behind, and C300/C400 right under it with slightly slower speed, and G3 last. How much faster it is than G2 we will have to wait until the end of this month where i expect anandtech etc to have a review up
Question is: Would you buy a OCZ SSD after all what has happend?

 

C300 and c400 use the same controller.

C400/m4 has it's ups and downs, I'm thinking it'll improve over the c300 by just a tad after some firmware improvements but idk. That's why I'm going wih intel 510.

510 seems to have steady performance whereas the c400 and vertex 3 are choppy. Not huge IOPS or sequential, but hopefully reliable. Still a huge jump over a platter drive! If it tanks, then I'll go for a c400 or a vertex 3

OCZ is a bit shady IMO, but it seems that once you get a good drive though, you should be set. Also seems they're pretty easy about swapping defective drives for new ones which is good. Just comes down to whether or not your willing to go through the process of losing data/time if you get a defective drive/drives, until you get a good one

ps: what're you doing with your old drive?

 

-> You know, ask yourself if you can gain anything.
What you will notice the most is small file transfers, 4K, maybe 512K too - but a lot of those .dll files are rather small.
As far as I am aware NO SSD today maxes out Sata 2 on small files.

You gain nothing from 6GBit/s on large file transfers in everyday usage - yes, when you have the odd sequential read/write operation you will notice it, but not for everyday small file usage.
Hence buying a Sata 3 SSD just for the sake of that is rather pointless.

Another plus for the Intel is longevity of the flash - I'm so far well within Intel's 20GB a day... but I found a potential SSD killer, virtual machines, every time you suspend them, you write to the SSD -> that adds up, Intel's 34nm Nand is good to have in that case.

 

good point.

 

The Intel 510 is 4 seconds slower in real world testing (874 vs. 870 seconds) than the highly marketed V3 (which I agree you shouldn't even consider) and faster than what you currently have.


Check list:

Intel? Check!

$$ Available? Check!

Want more performance? Check!

Available now (and SATA3)? Check!



So, why don't you have this already?

 

What review do those numbers come from? Could you link it?

Also, the C300 uses Micron 34nm nand. Would that be any different to "Intel's 34nm Nand"?

 

You are right. It is the same controller but a different revision. C300 with Marvell 88SS9174-BJP2 and C400 with Marvell 88SS9174-BKK2.
Im going to sell my G2 along with my laptop once i have figured out which laptop and SSD i am going to buy

 

Two reviews actually:

See:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/7280905-post58.html


The nand itself may be identical, however, what each controller expects/demand of the nand is specific to the manufacturer of the controller in question.

Hope this helps.

 

The 874 seconds vs. 870 is in single tasks. In multi tasking the Vertex 3 beats Intel 510 pretty clear (see Techreport, Storagereview, Anandtech).

SSDs based on the latest Sandforce controller are the fastest consumer SSDs available.

Intel 510 makes sense for people who do a lot of file copies with incompressible files.

 

I haven't seen any real world multi-tasking tests for any current SSD.

Any links?

The Intel 510 makes sense for people who produce (a lot) of multi-media content - the SandForce controller is the fastest benchmark king (yawn).

 

I guess I'm leaning towards the C300 or the Intel 510. At a cost of nearly 50% more....is the Intel 50% better? hmmm

This is interesting here
Intel 510 Series 250GB SSD Review - Crystal DiskMark

 

Will you even see any significant real life benefits moving from the Intel X25-M? I mean if price is not a consideration then sure go ahead and upgrade but from several users and personal experience, moving from a good SSD to another good SSD, the difference is only in benchmarks. It seems the M4/C400 (Marvell controller) and Sandforce G2 drives are pretty even overall. I don't think you'd go wrong with any of those drives, though the supplying company (ie. OCZ) should be scrutinized.

 

Different people buy SSD for different reasons. For some, the actual usage doesn't really matter. Using the car analogy, the 0 to 100km time for a new model(no matter how small the gain is) is enough to dumb last year's model for the new one. It is just a toy so what else can you do with a toy other than comparing these numbers ?

 

I guess I'm just looking for a significant jump in speed. I don't think I will see one. I'm a typical business user. I use Word, Excel, Outlook, Firefox, etc.

You're right chimpanzee...it is just a toy. Maybe I'll keep my X25-M around and take a shot with the Vertex 3. I'll just do a backup and keep the files that change in Dropbox.

 

For that kind of usage, I doubt you'll notice anything from the upgrade.

 

I think I am going to get the C300. I want some more space and it looks to be a good bang for the buck.

 

C300 is a good choice..Used to be the "fastest" drive before these new SATA 3 drives came out as it was one of the first SATA 3 drives that really showed significant difference..Although like the experts above say, it'll probably be a few seconds faster at most (maybe 3-4 secs?) unless you do a lot of copy-pasting large files..This is probably the only case where you can feel the "upgrade" from the x25-m G2..

Cheers

 

well some people said upgrade from SSD to SSD , you won't feel much difference .
probably its just an impulse from benchmarks and reviews

 

I guess it's more a psychological "feeling" that you have a newer SSD..The psychological "feel good" of purchasing a new product and having a "faster" and newer drive even though in reality, you wouldn't really notice all that much..Well lucky for me I'm about to get my 1st SSD from HDD..So I'll get to experience that "HDD-SSD" feeling.. Which is also why I'm probably going for an "obsolete" X25-M G2 lol

 

You are coming from XT that means the most likely scenario of feeling the 'wow'(boot up) has already been taken care off. Save your money for something else, i would say. Unless you are after other things like no moving parts(if you run with your notebook active) or lower idle power(doesn't sound like it will help with you GPU).

 

Change of plans.....the Dell E6420 was a major disappointment so it is going back. I'll just stick to my E6410 and my Intel X25-M.

 

Aww man. Rich folks. I'm upgrading TO a 160GB X25-M.

 

More in it for the loading time gains in World of Warcraft, botting/shutting down real quick doesn't hurt though, as well as starting apps faster etc..World of Warcraft is one of the games that gains a lot from an SSD..=)

Hey, I'm upgrading TO A 120GB X25-M..lol

 

Stuck with the E6420. It's grown on me and I like the machine. I got a C300 256gb and it's fast fast fast. I was able to install Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 x64 from USB in <11 minutes. Everything else is pretty stinking fast.