Which 200+GB SSD? Best price/performance ratio?

Hey all,

I'm planning on getting an SSD for my Alienware M14x. I'm not going to install 2 hard drives so I'll only be using the 500GB drive that comes with the system for external storage.

I want to install all my programs and games on the system and leave photos, videos etc. on the 500GB external drive.

Hence, what are some good SATA 2 drives with 200GB+ storage? (I'd rather have more capacity over speed for similar price so I don't want SATA 3 just yet).

I've looked at the Crucial C300 drive (240GB) and it comes to over $400 (on newegg) which is a bit steep. The OCZ drives seem to garner poor reviews.


Thanks for helping out!

 

At that size, they will typically cost over or around $400. The best one at $400 is the Samsung 470. I believe the other good SSDs over 200 GB are more than $400 (Intel and Crucial).

 

Crucial M4 is better than the C300 in speeds, and is a fair bit cheaper. The 256GB just dropped to $415 on Newegg recently, a very nice price for such an awesome drive (I have one myself!) as SSD pricing goes. While the M4/C300 are both SATA 3 drives (though the C300 benefits a bit less than the M4 from it, sure), they are both very good drives. The C300 lists closer to $500 on Newegg, the M4 is cheaper despite being newer owing to the smaller NAND size.

Whatever you do, do NOT get a Sandforce-based drive. They have had so many issues in both last year's and this year's variations that Sandforce has yet to fix. OCZ is the primary Sandforce user, but Corsair Force uses it as well as numerous other brands.

The only 3 brands I would consider are Intel, Crucial, and Samsung. I've had great experiences with both Intel and Crucial, never used Samsung but I hear little but good things about the 470-series drive.

I usually suggest looking at the Intel 320 for SATA 2. I have one at work, it runs great. There is a small, VERY RARE bug relating to sudden power loss with the 320 that is yet to be fixed, but knowing Intel it will be fixed soon. There isn't a 240-ish GB version though, just 160GB and 300GB. The 160GB is nicely priced around $200 though.

Best reliability: Intel, Crucial right behind them. Samsung is solid too.
Best performance: Crucial (ignoring the glitched and flaky Sandforce drives) easily over both Intel and Samsung, even the new Intel 510 except in a few odd cases.

Me, I'd go with an M4, gives you some future-proofing and a very solid drive. But I might be a bit biased

 

I agree Crucial M4 and Samsung 470 are good choices.

Kingston V+ 100 256GB isn't bad either if it's significantly cheaper.

 

I just bought a new 256gb M4 on eBay for $350 shipped. The $415 one at newegg is a good deal if you don't want to risk eBay.

 

Having bought recently a number of things from Newegg, I received a "loyalty" set of coupons Monday, one of which was a 15% off coupon on Crucial SSDs. $415 less 15% was too good to pass up.

 

WOW, nice. I got mine with such a loyalty thing, but it was only 10%, but on ANY SSD. Combined that with a combo deal for W7 Home -> Pro that had a discount of $13 MORE than the upgrade key alone was worth...the drive ran more then though, it's come down in the last month...But your deal is awesomeness!

You will like the M4 methinks.