Where to buy samsung SSD in Canada

I'm interested in the new Samsung 830 256 Gb. Just like the old 470 it doesn't seem to available from any of the online retailers or the brick and mortar stores in Canada. Amazon.com has it listed as only available for shipping in the US. Amazon Canada is useless unless I want to buy a coffee pot or other crap.

So where do my fellow Canucks buy Samsung SSD's ????

 

i looked at all my usual hardware haunts like Ncix, tiger, newegg.ca, canadacomputers, infonec etc...and not one has the 830. Its too new

The only place i can suggest is ebay, but i don't like those prices

samsung 830 ssd | eBay

 

Thanks for the link. I've bought tons of stuff off ebay but not an SSD and not at those prices.
Last year I was looking for a 470 and it seemed none of the big etailers carried any Samsung SSD's on a regular basis

 

Where to buy Samsung SSD's?

From Intel (510 Series 250GB model).

When using an SSD for 20 minutes and it slows it down to far below 1994 4200 RPM HDD levels, it has no right to be called an 'SSD'.

(Above quote from the Performance Over Time and TRIM page).


See:
AnandTech - The Samsung SSD 830 Review


An M4 is a much better choice, imo.

 

I would say get the M4 as well. If you're lucky, NCIX will again have their crazy deal where they sell the 128GB M4 at $170, they had ~50 units at the price about three weeks ago, they were gone in less than an hour, so you have to be quick about it if you see the deal.

Honestly, Canada sometimes get the middle finger as far as hardware goes even though we are so close to the US. YES, I'm looking at you Dell with the m17x-R3 without a 6970m option for about 6 months on the canadian site...

Sorry, had to get that off my chest.

 

ya...You have to be logged into Ncix and ready to buy on the wednesday night. Its crazy how fast the M4's go

however, tigerdirect had them for $179 as a regular non-sale price. I walked into canadacomputers and they did a price match for me.

 

Order from here:

See:
Crucial M4 2.5in SATA III Solid State Drive, 256GB at Memory Express Computers


and they'll beat the lowest price you can find (in stock) in Canada by 25% of the difference.

See:
Uber Price Beat Guarantee in Canada at Memory Express


Search with:
CT256M4SSD2 - Google Search

 

tilleroftheearth, what are You talking about?
Can You tell from where did You quote underlined sentence?

And If You are so smart, then (pretty please with a cherry on top!) explain to all of us why read speeds didn't drop on Samsung 830 and did on Intel 510 and Crucial M4.




And for the record, here are results after: "first writing to all user addressable LBAs sequentially then performing a 4KB random write test at a queue depth of 32 across the entire drive for 20 minutes".
Source (2nd and 3rd row after first screenshot)



Samsung 830:

Soruce



Almighty Intel 510:

Source



Crucial M4:

Source

I hope that anybody can see that Samsung 830 did best compared to Intel 510 and Crucial M4.



BTW: now if You go to link that I put in a source for Samsung 830 You could see that Samsung 830 gave better results after 60 minutes torture test then Intel 510 and Crucial M4 after 20 minutes.

 

@ Heddok: Samsung 830 isn't available jet.
It is listed on Amazon.com but with note: "Temporarily out of stock. Order now and we'll deliver when available."

 

Tomy B., what are you reading/quoting?

You have to read what I wrote (not the selective text you are replying to): everything is accurate that I stated.

I never said I quoted the underlined text you present - that is simply my observation of 20MB/s write speeds.

If, instead of just looking at the graphs, you also read the text of the articles you link, it is not the 830 that is the best all around performer.

From the last page (Final Words) of the Anand 830 review:

I always strive for the fastest (continuous and ongoing) performance possible. This is what really makes a fast drive/system in the long run - not benchmark scores that show a snapshot of a drive's operation (which is what you provided).

In Anand's Intel 510 Series review: he states that with additional overprovisioning, it will make the drive much more suitable for enterprise-like usage - just like I am always recommending when I state that I am using 100GB of a 250GB SSD (the Intel 510, of course).

He makes no such claims (essentially the opposite, in fact) of the Samsung 830 SSD - and don't forget he's reviewing the 512GB 'monster' vs. the relatively 'lightweight' 250/256GB versions of the other drives.

Also, in the Anand Heavy and the Light workloads - the Intel is still above the Samsung 830 too - not by a lot, but again, when you consider that the Samsung had at least 256GB more 'spare area' to do it's TRIM and garbage collection with - it is telling how ineffective the Samsung controller is in keeping the performance (aka; benchmarks) inline with actual real world use.

(And, I know, the traces that Anand is running are not run in real-time (they're allowed to run as fast as the drive could finish them) - but that is still the best, most consistent and directly comparable data we have to go on right now between these drives).

The Samsung products are very reliable - right up there with Intel or even above - but when reliability along with the fastest performance, sustained over time, is also a requirement, the Intel is still in a class by itself.

Hope this clarifies my viewpoint for you?

 

Tomy, the numbers you have posted here are based on that of sequential read/write, not the random read. Transfer numbers are great and all, but 80% of the time the random access numbers will matter more than the sequential read/write.

For instance opening web browsers and small random read/write access times are what make the difference. It's not everyday you'll be transferring multiple gigabytes of information back and forth, but if you are perhaps you are better suited with a larger-sized drive. For most people sacrificing some sequential transferring performance for better overall performance is why they would choose models such as Crucial M4 and the truth of the matter is, Crucial M4 may not be as fast as the Samsung 830 but it's Random Read/Write make-up for it.

If you don't mind SATA II speeds, I would recommend the Samsung 470 SSD, which is a really strong competitor with reasonable transfer speeds and exceptionally well random read/write transfers. It's actually close to/better than the Intel X-25M in several categories which is one of the reasons why it's compared to so often.

The one notable issue I've seen with the Samsung 830 is that there are a great deal of inconsistencies with the models. From all the reviews I've read it just seems like the drive was really just forced out because one review states that the power consumption is off the charts as opposed to another review that says otherwise and that applies to their random speeds.

To be quite honest, I think they rushed development with their controller and that's why we are seeing all of these inconsistencies. I could be wrong but I guess when people go out and buy this drive we'll see what the real issue is here. I was really surprised and excited that Samsung was releasing another model and they are a pretty reliable company, but after reading several reviews I would be wary of the 830 at least for the moment.

 

@ tilleroftheearth: my bad, yesterday the part which You quoted

didn't show up, so it looked like You were quoting this part:

I hope that it's obvious why I get mad.




I agree with booth of You, tilleroftheearth and Mihael Keehl, that Samsung isn't fastest drive out there, but if reliability is the same as for older models I will still recommend it. Reason is that I'm sure that 95% of users wouldn't notice any difference as long as sequential read/writes are above 150 MB/s, random writes QD=1 above 10 MB/s and random writes QD>4 above 20 MB/s.
Other 5% users, like tilleroftheearth, would know what they need and how to use their SSD.


@ Mihael Keehl: I noticed that inconsistency to, and indeed it looks strange.

 

Tomy B.,

We're good.

 

Heddok,

What did you end up buying? I am now hesitating between a 512mb Samsung 830 & a 480GB Intel 520, however Samsung 830 doesn't seem to be available from Canadian retailers. Samsung 830 is $200+ cheaper than the intel one.

For the folks that cited the drop in the performance, one of the things I noticed from the review is that the performance bounced back after TRIM.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4863/the-samsung-ssd-830-review/6

If you read the same section of the review for the Intel 520 (you referred to 510 but 520 is newer and supposedly better):

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5508/...cherryville-brings-reliability-to-sandforce/7

here is the conclusion:

I think this is a worse "worst" scenario.

 

The only place i know of so far to get a samsung 830 in canada is tigerdirect.